Representation in Gladiator

In the opening ten minutes of Gladiators the first character is met Maximus played by Russel Crowe.  He is in my mind the General of a Roman army, this was shown in the way he was dressed, the way he spoke and from how the troops reacted when he walked past.  He wore a cape which looked like it had been made out of the fur of an animal and unlike the normal infantry his chest piece had a metal bear head on it and was different to the ones the infantry was wearing.  What made me think he was the General from how he spoke and how the troops reacted was that when walking past the normal infantry they where all bowing to him and how he was giving words of encouragement.

In the opening ten minutes of Gladiators binary opposites are shown from how each different unit of troops wore different things and from the difference in what they where wearing compared to the horde they were about to fight.  Each unit of infantry wore different costumes so the front line troops wore metal helmets and chest plates.  While as the archers had metal helmets and chain mail chest plates.  The differences in costume between the Roman army and the horde was that the Roman army wore metal and where shaved while as the horde wore animal fur and all had beards.  The costumes also counted of the weapons that all the people where holding.  So the Roman troops where holding spears and metal shields, the archers where holding bows and had quivers on their backs loaded with arrows and then the horde had wooden shields and what looked to me like wooden spears.

 The first ten minutes showed stereotypes by making the horde very brutish and angry. Then they also showed this with the Roman infantry and Maximus, because when I hear the word Roman I do think of a man in a metal helmet, metal chest plate and leather trousers.  Also because when I hear the words Roman General I think of a man who is wearing a cape probably red, and had a chest plate that is shinier then all the other Roman infantry.

If the sounds used in the opening ten minutes weren't there then those ten minutes would have just seemed less realistic and fake.  The sounds they had in the background of the ten minutes was the sound of people marching into position ready for a fight and also in the background behind that I could hear someone shouting what sounded like to me orders to the infantry.