Gladiator II, the follow-up to Ridley Scott’s Academy Award-winning 2000 movie, has audiences as soon as once more returning to the Colosseum of Historic Rome to witness the glory and spectacle of gladiatorial fight. The swing of the sword mesmerizes the crowds as Caesar sits in judgment; the thrilling leisure that occurred hundreds of years in the past is as soon as once more depicted. There’s one thing that we, as fashionable audiences, can actually relate to.
The necessity for escapism and spectacle and our penchant for sensational leisure has remained unchanged within the centuries which have handed because the days of Caesar. One may even make the comparability that sitting in entrance of our tv screens and telephones bears a hanging similarity to the attendants of the video games within the Colosseum and Circus Maximus.
The idea of there being little distinction between the gladiatorial contests of Historic Rome and tv reveals offering sensational content material to an keen viewers is not one which’s too far-fetched. In reality, it is the primary premise of the 1987 movie The Working Man. Loosely primarily based on the quick story of the identical identify by Stephen King, which itself was revealed beneath the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Working Man stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson and takes place in a dystopian future the place tv performs a key function in sustaining management over the inhabitants.
State Violence and State Management
- Launch Date
- November 13, 1987
- Runtime
- 101 minutes
The Working Man, with its dystopian setting and a tv community dictating state-sponsored management as a way to distract the populace from poverty and merciless subjugation, can greatest be described as a world the place “Rome by no means fell.” This idea was first launched to American audiences in a Star Trek episode entitled “Bread and Circuses.” In reality, the 2 are similar to each other. The episode takes place in fashionable Rome, the place gladiator fights are broadcast on tv for the inhabitants to get pleasure from, and an underground community of rebels search refuge from the mighty dominion of Rome.
The time period “bread and circuses,” which was first coined by the Roman poet Juvenal, refers back to the pacification of the populace. Juvenal’s citation of “Two issues the folks anxiously require — bread and circuses” was a standard follow applied by the Roman Emperors to maintain them content material and entertained and never overly involved with societal hierarchies and political issues pertaining to these in energy. Each Gladiator movies, The Working Man, and the Star Trek episode of the identical identify all thrive on this concept. In The Working Man, bread and circuses are delivered to the general public by tv.
The tv community that exerts management over the dystopian world of The Working Man, ICS, is headed by Damon Killian (Richard Dawson), the affordable facsimile of Caesar sitting in judgment over the spectacle of the video games. The facility-hungry tv host trying to find sensational content material and scores is performed all too completely by Dawson, who’s greatest identified to American audiences as the unique host of the favored sport present Household Feud. In The Working Man, Killian hosts a well-liked tv present of the identical identify, the place criminals are given an opportunity at freedom by eluding adversaries generally known as “stalkers” whereas being tracked and filmed to entertain crowds hungry for violence and sensational content material.
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One In opposition to All Odds
In fight sports activities, there is a pure propensity to root for the underdog with insurmountable odds stacked towards them. In each Gladiator movies and The Working Man, that is depicted by the primary protagonist. Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a disgraced police officer and the alleged “butcher of Bakersfield,” is the newest contestant on the extremely sensational program. Richards is tasked with “beating the chances” and besting a bunch of stalkers despatched to hunt him down. Richards fairly actually has the chances stacked towards him, as a seedy betting parlor is proven repeatedly all through the sport present, depicting gamblers inserting their bets on the doubtless final result.
The scenario that Richards finds himself in, as did Maximus (Russell Crowe) in Gladiator, is dire and, by all accounts, appears unattainable to beat. A notable distinction between the 2 movies is tone and presentation. Ridley Scott’s grandiose battles with champions and groups of veteran combatants are a far cry from the tongue-in-cheek and fast-paced motion sequences that happen in The Working Man.
Ben Richards’ foes are a comical and boisterous group, equivalent to a Sumo hockey participant named Sub Zero (Toru Tanaka), and an opera singer who’s adept at throwing bolts of lightning named Dynamo (Erland Van Lidth), and a chainsaw-wielding maniac named Buzzsaw (Gus Rethwisch). These are much less the gladiatorial champions of antiquity and nearer to comedian e book villains come to life. Naturally, as The Working Man is a car for Schwarzenegger to steal the present, he simply disposes of his rivals whereas having a intelligent one-liner on the finish of every contest. “Right here is Sub-Sero…now plain zero!” being probably the most memorable.
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We are likely to affiliate propaganda and the suppression of knowledge with totalitarian regimes equivalent to these of Hitler or Stalin. The hyperlink between the dystopian world in The Working Man and that of Historic Rome goes far past bread and circuses, the domineering management of a regime, and gladiatorial fight. In its dystopian world, the place expertise manipulates data and subversion is surpassed by any means obligatory, The Working Man isn’t too far off from among the ways applied in Historic Rome.
Julius Caesar, undoubtedly one of the vital well-known figures to emerge from Rome and considered one of its most bold generals and politicians, understood the necessity to alter and restrict data to craft a public persona. Certainly one of Caesar’s most important moments in his profession, his conquest of Gaul, was way more than a profitable navy marketing campaign. Caesar relayed data to the senate and folks of Rome that solely spoke of his successes and bolstered his personal fame. This follow of solely informing others as to what the final wished them to know was later carried on by his successor, Octavian, extra generally generally known as Augustus Caesar. By means of cash, monuments, and public works, Roman Emperors had been capable of bolster their reputations and cement their rule and recognition among the many lots.
The manipulation of photos and information, the utilization of promoting and advertising and marketing to maintain the general public in line is a continuing theme of The Working Man. Within the movie’s third act, Killian even remarks that, by the community, the general public has been advised what to eat, what to put on, what to observe, and what to suppose. This facet of dystopia, seen in different movies equivalent to 1984 and They Stay, is one primarily based on historic precedent and is important for any regime to take care of order, be it Historic Rome or a extremely stylized future such because the one which The Working Man takes place in.
Two Worlds Working Parallel With One One other
The stylized depictions of Historic Rome from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator motion pictures and the dystopian world that exists in The Working Man appear far faraway from each other. Nonetheless, there exists a robust frequent floor that each share. Gladiator and The Working Man exist in a world the place the inhabitants is placated and pacified by technique of bread and circuses, and one particular person has the chances stacked towards them in a sequence of contests with combatants.
Each movies pressure the viewers to look at their very own needs to be entertained and simply how a lot the mediums we depend on for escapism have a profound affect on our day by day lives. Most of all, by analyzing each movies collectively, we’ve the chance to notice that historical past at all times has a manner of repeating itself, each in the true world and within the manufactured actuality that exists on movie. Stream The Working Man on Prime Video.