50 GREATEST FICTIONAL BADASSES

#16 – GENERAL MAXIMUS DECIMUS MERIDIUS from Gladiator.

A friend of mine summed it up best about him (and I’m paraphrasing, cause she sometimes yammers on): he is everything that sums up a man. 

Say what you want about Russell Crowe as a human being, but he sure knows how to pick really good scripts (the Mummy reboot is the exception to the rule). And Gladiator is a great, great script. 

I’ve had discussions before about the historical inaccuracies of Ridley Scott movies (including American Gangster, another adored film on my shelf), and I’m sorry for being blunt here, but the opposition just doesn’t get it. This isn’t the History Channel (well, the History Channel isn’t really the History Channel anymore. Since when does the trials and tribulations of fly fishermen count as history?). Gladiator is the tale of our lives, our secret selves that battle assholes like Commodus on a day to day basis. 

It’s about tearing down a system whose sole purpose is to fuck you over. Maximus isn’t real, but the way he shows us how to face that fraudulent emperor is: with unflinching resolve, with fire and wit, with a narrow eye that says “fuck you. I’m taking what’s mine.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYGkookmlj4

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”