h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My favourite line of all time - "unleash hell". (Apart from "who are those guys?")
Double meaning here? I assume that the dog's name was 'Hell'
By the way - what happened to the dog? What is his/her real name?
The dog was the best actor in the film.
cheers
TeePee
Inter-Galactic Animal Rescue

Was it a dog at all? Was it a metaphor for the Roman Wolf (who suckled Romulus and Remus)?

Other symbols and images from Gladiator to ponder:

* Birds - ravens, sparrows, vultures - allusion to Roman divination by analysing the flight of birds? fleeting souls leaving this world in avian form?

* A Colonial playing a Colonial - Russell was born in NZ, raised in Australia, former British colonies and still part of the Commonwealth to this day, Maximus was a Roman born in Spain, also a colony, and would have been sneered at by Rome-born Romans. Coincidence?

* The interwoven dream sequence throughout the movie? The content of the dream doesn't change at all during the movie, from the outset it looks as if Max's mind or soul isn't really centred on where or what his body is doing. This suggests that perhaps Maximus is dead already, and it just takes a while for his body realise it and give in.

Personally I thought the best actor was Spencer Treat Clark (he played Lucius I think, or the little boy to the rest of us)!

Speaking of actors and gladiators, there's a gladiator that can be seen standing behind Max in several Colliseum scenes, he has narrow set eyes and a goatee - I'm fairly certain that this guy is none other than UK Gladiator "Wolf"!

You're right! How odd, do you think it's deliberate?

Even if Wolfie-boy turned up of his own accord to auditions, one look at his resumé and Ridley or the casting director would've said "We *have* to have this guy!!!"

I'll find out at some point.

Do you think a Spanish general would have been sneered at in Marcus Aurelius' time? I don't think so. This was fairly late on. Most of the army would have been made up of foreign conscripts. Also, Hadrian and Trajan (earlier emperors) were Spanish. What mattered was that they were Roman citizens.

You're right, later Emperors were increasingly of foreign birth, but such folk were sneered at earlier on. And as parochialism still exists today (look at the fuss over Hillary Clinton running for NY senate), I think it'd be fair to say Roman-born would be inclined to regard a foreigner with some small degree of contempt.