Rome
...general who became a slave, a slave who became a gladiator, a gladiator who defied an emperor and an actor/director team who threw all the audience goodwill they'd earned on this away by releasing A Good Year six years later.
The Inaccuracies: Commodus, the hare-lipped Roman Emperor who lusted after his sister in the film, was in real life held in high esteem by the senate and ruled for a successful 13 years (rather than the ineffectual few months depicted in the film). Also, though the Emperor did, in fact, have an enthusiasm for gladiatorial combat (he did so incognito), he didn't get his ticket punched in the arena. He was killed in the bath by a wrestler named Narcissus to prevent him taking office as consul.
Why It Would Have Sucked Otherwise: No one wants to watch Russell Crowe take 13 years to murder an emperor, who is basically a decent guy, only to get beaten to the kill by a wrestler. We like our villains like we like our Books of Genesis: with implied incestuous relationships. Also, since any Roman unit that broke ranks when in combat against barbarians would have been mercilessly slaughtered, the movie would have ended within about 15 minutes.
Inaccuracies in Gladiator
In 1500 BCE, a tribe of Latins moved into Italy along the Tiber River, and eventually founded the city of Rome. Rome had a city-state government and, in 753 BC, was invaded by the Etruscans. The Etruscans built buildings, roads, and city walls; and thus transformed Rome into one of the most powerful cities in the Mediterranean. In general, Roman gladiators were condemned criminals, prisoners of war, or slaves bought for the purpose of gladiatorial combat. Professional gladiators were free men who volunteered to participate in the games. The movie “Gladiator,” directed by Ridley Scott in the year 2000, is a movie about classical Rome that is riddled with historical inaccuracies....
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