Gladiator Screenshot- Chase Banks

This screenshot is from the scene where the Gladiator they call Spaniard reveals himself as Maximus the former general that Commodus had ordered to be murdered earlier on in the movie. In this scene, the shadows on both Commodus' and Quintus' faces enhance their expression of shock and fear. The shadow on Commodus' face not only allows you to see the fear in his eyes but also the strip of light on the left side of his face allows you to see that his face has gone pale which shows us how disturbed he really is. The shadow on Quintus' face just shows how much disbelief he is in and this is really emphasized by his mouth being wide open when he realizes Maximus is still alive. Commodus is a very power hungry ruler that is driven by jealous anger and in this scene we can see that this only increases as Commodus clearly feels threatened by Maximus. Commodus feels as if not only was his own father on Maximus' side but now the Gods were on his side as well.