Gladiator begins right in the middle of Maximises story when he already has a family, he is the commander of the army,Marcus Aurelius thinks him as a son and that follows Horaces theory of media res beginning in the middle of the story instead of starting with Maximises back story.We begin the movie with a prologue, A prologue is used to give readers extra information that advances the plot. It is included in the front matter and for a good reason! Authors use them for various purposes, including: Giving background information about the story.The information we receive is about the battle of Rome taking over Germany under the reign of Marcus Aurelius showing that the main protagonist(Maximus) is close to the emperor and high up in the heirachy. In the first opening scene we see flash backs to wheat fields and a fair showing that his homes a farm somewhere in the country not a big city.In his flashbacks we can see a wedding ring as well as in the present shots that he has a wedding ring on showing he is married.His costume shows that he is high up in society because he is wearing animal fur on his back showing hierarchy and his armour is made of gold and rich materials and His costume is different to the general soldiers (steel chest plate rather than leather, sword on his hip, makes him look bigger) .His horse has a costume (rich material), not everyone has one.There is a jump cut after see a shot go maximises face and armour to a Shot of the robe flying away from a. branch.This is the first use of animal imagery in the film.The Robin symbolises divine sacrifice possibly foreshadowing maximises future sacrificing himself for the good of Rome after commodoses reign.

I do not believe that the film gladiator adheres to Aristotles poetics or ideas around plot.Aristotle believed that a tragedy is an imitation of action that is complete and whole and of a certain magnitude.”a whole is that which has a beginning a middle and an end”.In gladiator we can see that the film more coincides with Horaces theory of beginning in media res, the middle of the story instead of seeing maximises life story and how he became a well respected man.We begin in the middle of battle with symbols and film techniques to show us important things about maximises past.