This strikes me as a topic that has been covered tons of times but I scrolled through all the pages and didn't see it. So if it has been, let's reopen it.
Discuss.
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I did sixty in five minutes once...
Yea -
how many pale Spaniards you ever met?
exactly. but RC nailed the role.
'You're gonna need a bigger boat' - Jaws
I agree with that, he really did.
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I did sixty in five minutes once...
how many pale Spaniards you ever met?
Haven't you heard of Hollywood's poetic license?
How many ''blacked up'' 1950's actors played Indians? Don't you have a brown President speaking a 'white' language?
Sir Alec Guinness played an Arabic Prince [Faisal] in Lawrence of Arabia, etc etc etc...
Spaniards (you know, from Europe) are white in the first place. This is coming from a person with Spanish heritage.
How many ''blacked up'' 1950's actors played Indians?
Exactly, this film is set a thousand years before the Muslims invaded and did enough *beep* to dilute the bloodline. Not sayign any one race is superior or anything like that, but regardless, i could buy Crowe as a modern Spaniard easily, even more so as an ancient one.
It's terrifying how many people get confused between Hispanics and Spaniards.
"World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door."
In northern Spain no muslisms came to dilute any bloodline. In fact in the region where I live (Galicia) most of us are of celtic ancestors and blond people is common. And in Southern Spain Muslim conquerors were just a powerful minority in number who ruled over a vast majority of original population, so they hardly could "dilute" that much.
shareIndeed. Both the peoples of Northern (modern) Spain and northern (contemporary) Italy are primarily of Celtic/Germanic ethnicity. This is borne out by their food, language (Romansch, for instance) and Culture.
"Italy" did not exist prior to 1871. People considered themselves "Venetians" or "Sardinians" or "Calabreseian" or "Roman".
Of "Spain"; at the time the entire peninsula was "Hispania", a subjugated people, colonized by Rome, as was much of the rest of the European world. And people there would, again, consider themselves not Spanish but "Galician" or "Andalusian" or "Basque". Many still do.
Exactly, this film is set a thousand years before the Muslims invaded and did enough *beep* to dilute the bloodline. Not sayign any one race is superior or anything like that, but regardless, i could buy Crowe as a modern Spaniard easily, even more so as an ancient one.
It's terrifying how many people get confused between Hispanics and Spaniards.
"World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door."
I'll agree to an extent. Like Inigo Montoya being a Spaniard but not looking Spanish in The Princess Bride. He at least sounded the part. Russel Crowe didn't even try, looks or sounds.
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I did sixty in five minutes once...
I guess alot of that is down to Scott's direction and advice on set?
shareWell the fact they called him "Spaniard" is not even correct because Spain as it is didn't even exist yet, nor did they speak Spanish as they do now....so Russel Crowe didn't need to speak with a Spanish accent.....it would have been silly really. If they would have chosen Antonio Banderas it wouldn't have worked because he is obvious modern Spanish. I think Russel Crowe did a great job portraying a Roman originating from a Roman province that now is Spain. By the way...not all Spanish are dark haired Latin lovers....they actually are and probably were quite diverse and can range from the typical dark-haired type to blond haired and everything in between.
Um I dont see that much of a problem with it at all. This in my top 5 movies. Rc did a fantastic job. No flaw with this movie.
I think the Spanish you and many people are talking about on this thread were the people that interbred with the Moors after their conquest of Spain which began in the year 712AD. These dark skinned Spaniards didn't exist at the time Gladiator is set so I don't see a problem with RC playing a lighter skinned Spaniard.
That explains the skin tone. What about the accent?
And could they have just made Maximus something else?
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I did sixty in five minutes once...
To be honest with most of the characters in this movie having English accents I don't think Russle's mild Aussie twang was a problem. Lucilla and Juba seemed to have the most authentic accents out of everyone and do we even know what Spaniards sounded like in that period? Visigoths ruled before the Moors and before them it was Vandals and Suebi, all these bar the moors were Germanic tribes.
shareI think the accent doesn't realy matter in this case. He should have spoken Latin with the then common accent in Spain. If you speak English then an accent doesn't matter. And besides, Maximus talking like "You, señor Emperore, areh aaaa wizze man-e' would ruin it me thinks
shareAre you able to do Jean Claude Van-Damme as Maximus as well? LOL
shareDuring this time, as someone else has pointed out, the darker skinned Moors were several centuries away from invading, and the Romans had well established colonies in Hispania at the time Gladiator is set. The Emperor Hadrian famously came from one such colony in Spain and was ridiculed for his accent.
"Well she turned me in to a newt!... I got better."
That explains the skin tone. What about the accent?
And could they have just made Maximus something else?
Spanish people are white. They are Caucasians, as much as the French, British, etc.
shareSpanish people are white. They are Caucasians, as much as the French, British, etc.
The native Spanish are mix of Mediterranean and Nordic....Caucasian.
'"White" refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa."
US Census 2000
There are 4 basic races:
Caucasoid
Mongoloid
Negroid
Australoid
Read this......
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-human-races.html
"a malcontent who knows how to spell"
I'll never understand why people think people from Spain look like Mexicans or South Americans. The people from Central and South American are dark because the natives that the Europeans mated with were darker people. I've lived in Spain. They are white people...If you want to know what people of this time looked like take a look at people who live in Aragon, gasp! they are white
Also there is nobody on the planet that speaks Latin natively anymore so we have no idea about their accents.
I myself am Spanish and I am extremely pale, of course there are (mostly) white people in Spain, some more tanned than others but white nonetheless...
share[deleted]
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There is no existing accent that would be right.
shareI'm a European person who has lived with Spanish people and visited Spain a hundred times. It is a European city like any other and the native people are certainly white. Some are tanned and few in the South even have some Arab ancestry from a long time back - but Spaniards are definitely considered white. Some are tanned, but I can't believe the replies saying that they are not Caucasian. This is a joke, almost certainly not a European or anyone who has been to Europe who wrote that. They are European white people, not Mexicans. Latin Americans are generally 'dark' because they are generally more mixed - Spanish conquerers, native South Americans, some African blood etc. I know Spanish people way whiter than Russell Crowe.
Spanish people from Spain are often blonde, brown haired, black haired, pale, tanned, blue eyed, green eyed, brown eyed.
The accent wasn't right, but as English speakers they make an Archaic 'accent' as this fits our view of history. I think it was fine.
Spaniards Decended from the Iberians, who IIRC were probably offshoot tribes of Gauls (the modern french) the Italians/Romans came from Etruscian societies.
Julius Ceasar was from Spain also and a bull fighter even back then.