Comparison Between Gladiator And Apollo 13.

        Stranded 205,000 miles from earth in a crippled space ship, astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert fight a desperate battle to survive. Mean while, at Mission Control, astronaut Ken Mattingly, and a heroic ground crew race against time and the odds, to bring them home.

        Either produce the state of the art graphics and special effects but Gladiator comes out best with the detail of scenic views containing Rome with the extravagant Coliseum and other roman buildings.

        Gladiator also comes out best with the music composed by Hans Zimmer who brings the right music at the right time especially the battles which he makes even more tense and makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

Both films integrate courage and bravery to save lives but in different ways. In Gladiator Maximus is fighting for his life against enemies (good versus evil) in the arena fighting with lethal weapons. He is also fighting for his vengeance against the Emperor Commodus. In Apollo 13 the crew onboard the space ship save their lives using ingenious methods by creating technologies to help them in their journey back to earth, after their ship has been crippled. However there are no enemies in Apollo 13 and no one dies everyone survives.

Apollo 13 is based on facts, as it is a true story. Gladiator is fiction but it has lots of factual things in it like the way people are treated, also the buildings and government with all its corruption.

Apollo 13 is a mainly a scientific film which shows the time it was set in. Whereas Gladiator has lots of religious beliefs involved and superstition foe example every time Maximus goes into battle he rubs the dirt from the ground into his hands.

Most of the gladiator film is set in the vast scenic areas of the Roman Empire whereas Apollo 13 mainly takes place in the claustrophobic environment of the spaceship surrounded by the endlessness of space.

Both the films are journeys. Apollo 13 is the journey of Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert the crew of the Apollo 13 to the moon. In Gladiator, the journey is taken on by Maximus who starts off as a general who becomes a slave, then he is a slave who becomes a gladiator, next he is the gladiator who defies an empire.

Maximus leaves his family to go and fight the battles in Germania, like Jim Lovell who also leaves his family for the mission to the moon. They both leave their family worrying for them. However Jim Lovell returns to his family with a celebration for his achievement. They are all relieved. However Maximus returns to his family murdered by the command of the Emperor Commodus. In the end though he does finally meet them in the afterlife.

Life is cheap in Gladiator where there are slaves treated badly and gladiators killed without care. The audience in the arena pay to watch death. They also decide who dies and who lives with a thumb up or a thumb down. In Apollo 13 the crew have millions spent on the ship to keep them alive plus save their lives after the explosion. The audience in Apollo 13, in the 70’s, watch the news hoping and preying for the crew to survive. When they did survive there was huge celebration.

Both the places the films are in are superpowers of their time. In Gladiator Rome is a superpower of the world with their coliseum and army to show for it. This is shown in the film. In Apollo 13 America is a superpower of the world with the missions to the moon showing this in the film.

In both films men are the main characters where in both they are the hero’s and villains. The women in both films seem weak characters and cry a lot. The women also play supporting roles, which reflects the roles of women in these times, in society.  

Both films appeal more to men than woman because of the action, adventure and space genre of the films.

Out of the two films I prefer Gladiator because it is more exciting it’s on a bigger scale with better graphics and excellent fight scenes. Whereas Apollo 13 is based on technical knowledge and puzzling out.