(281) "Are you not entertained?"
At 21:12 on June 29th, 2015 I was flicking through a Youtube version of the 2000 film Gladiator - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbBiXPVKuTA
I reached the point just before a particular scene which I wanted to see.
Other available versions showed only certain excised scenes, but not the film in its entirety. It is where the gladiator portrayed by Russell Crowe talks with the slave owner played by the late Oliver Reed. The preceding scene, where Crowe takes on and slaughters a half dozen gladiators one by one, I had seen before as one of those excised.
I now saw Crowe, after his killing spree, lobbing his sword to hit a distant table and asking of the amphitheatre crowd, "Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?" He then spits into the dust and walks off as the crowd chant his name. And I had seen that finale before, too.
I reached the point just before a particular scene which I wanted to see.
Other available versions showed only certain excised scenes, but not the film in its entirety. It is where the gladiator portrayed by Russell Crowe talks with the slave owner played by the late Oliver Reed. The preceding scene, where Crowe takes on and slaughters a half dozen gladiators one by one, I had seen before as one of those excised.
I now saw Crowe, after his killing spree, lobbing his sword to hit a distant table and asking of the amphitheatre crowd, "Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?" He then spits into the dust and walks off as the crowd chant his name. And I had seen that finale before, too.
But the complete film here seemed to show a slightly different cut to that with which I was familiar. A missing bit was of Reed exhorting Crowe not just to kill but rather, in order to keep the crowd coming back, "to entertain". Then, a few moments after, when Crowe has arisen and is making his way into the arena, Reed shouts out to him"
Towards the bottom of the e mail were those very words and a still of Crowe in the scene which I had been watching when it arrived. Reed, who had been on the wagon when the shoot began, essentially responded to a boozing challenge and drank himself to death at a bar in Valletta, Malta, during the making of the film. (A further merging of the themes of killing and entertainment, perhaps!?)
"So entertain!" "Gladiator Fights Alone" In The Capua Arena - Gladiator 2000
At almost the precise moment when "Spaniard" (the soubriquet Crowe's character had acquired) was asking the crowd "Are you not entertained?" an e mail came in from London Real. It was headed "Are
you not entertained?" https://londonreal.tv/ and was about the forthcoming week ́s content on a series of interviews by Brian Rose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Rose_(podcaster)
Towards the bottom of the e mail were those very words and a still of Crowe in the scene which I had been watching when it arrived. Reed, who had been on the wagon when the shoot began, essentially responded to a boozing challenge and drank himself to death at a bar in Valletta, Malta, during the making of the film. (A further merging of the themes of killing and entertainment, perhaps!?)
And this Entry here could perhaps be regarded as not 100% removed from this Entry!? Living the Dream: A Coincidence Diary: (288) Writer Not A Fighter! Or Artist or Combatant!? Or Singer or S(e)argent!? (james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com )
Btw, just over a year afterwards, in October 2016, the newsletter of the Valencian chess federation ran a piece about me and it featured precisely the same still as in Brian Rose ́s e mail from London Real with the same heading!
The significance of dubbing my victory at the event in Concentaina as a "Vendetta" lay in what had happened some months earlier in a one day event. For there I had not contested my being told by security personnel, at the third round, that my appearance was so unkempt that they would not let me continue to play.
That despite me already asking the tournament director, Nestor - my personal friend - if he was happy with my outfit. After he had said he was not, I had already tried on two separate occasions to purchase a new T shirt at the shopping mall where the event was being held in Valencia City. There was only one girl serving and things moving so painfully slowly that I thought, "To heck with it!", and dashed off to my car where I had a suit and smart shoes But I couldn't find the car!
I ran helter skelter for about fifteen minutes until, unsure whether or not I could still return in time for the next game, I scampered back to, breathlessly, explain the situation to Nestor who told me it was okay with him if I just utilised the long lunch break after game four to spruce up, buy a new T shirt or, by far the most important, locate my car and so be able to don the smart suit and shoes!
But before that could happen I got told by security personnel that my appearance was so unkempt that they would not let me continue to play. Wimpishly, I did not stood my ground by making a strong protest. Instead I acquiesced.
And that despite my, in the seven or so months prior to that, playing some five tournaments in Spain where I was the only person wearing a suit!
A piece had subsequently appeared at the Valencian Chess Site featuring the image of a red card in its description of how I had been thrown out. So I sent in a good-natured letter - which they published - which began,
"It was all very funny..."
and went on to list how everything was okay with my friend the arbiter and how I had twice tried to buy a new T shirt and how I went to find my car - in which I had a suit and smart shoes - but had been unable to do so. And I concluded with the fact that I had been the only one to wear a suit at about five Spanish events of the previous seven months.
An official of the Federation later made it clear to me how my letter provided an entirely adequate and acceptable account of it all.
And, like the character Crowe played, neither was I any real ́Spaniard ́...
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