Draped in flowy silk capes and adorned with rattling, chunky gold, and silver rings, Denzel Washington embodies the flashiest villain and the colosseum’s bullpen organizer, Macrinus. In Gladiator 2, (Ridley Scott’s follow-up to his 2000 Gladiator epic blockbuster), Macrinus the murderer guns to topple ancient Rome by seizing full control. The character of Macrinus is the 69-year-old thespian’s first time playing a queer character. He possesses the mystical cinematic trope where LGBTQIA+ characters often transform into cunning killers with treacherous, evil spirits.
Washington’s tactical performance of Macrinus aims to swindle Paul Mescal as Maximus’s son and potential heir, Lucius Verus. Established early on that Lucius is Maximus’s blood, Mescal grapples with this fact as a pariah of a warrior who has suffered too much in the face of bloodthirsty war and violence, (including losing his wife in the first 15 minutes of the film under the military orders by Marcus Acacius (played by Pedro Pascal). Macrinus views Lucius as his gateway to totalitarian power. Macrinus goes after co-emperor twins, Caracalla and Geta, to manipulate their fragile sibling relationship. With their psychotic, brutally violent rule over Rome, Macrinus notices that the over-zealous Caracalla has a searing hatred and jealousy towards his brother. Macrinus makes it his mission to gain power and he weaponizes Caracalla’s unbridled emotions so much that he catalyzes Caracalla played by Fred Hechinger to decapitate Geta (played by Joseph Quinn).
Scott delivers the coup d’état of the century with Washington andHechinger; Mescal finds his victorious footing fueled by the bravery of his father and witnessing more familiar death much later in the cinematic spectacle that is Gladiator 2. 2007’s American Gangster was Washington’s last collaboration with Scott and now, they returned together as the award-winning filmmaker-actor duo with Washington playing his most despicable villain since Alonzo Harris in Training Day.
Gladiator 2 starts after Lucius’s mother (played by Connie Nielsen)Lucilla sends off her son to avoid inevitable danger after his father is killed. However, Lucius is brought back to the colosseum after being captured in North Africa. In the arena, Macrinus takes notice of Lucius’s animalistic, defensive nature to survive after he bites the flesh off of a rabid monkey.
During a past critic’s screening, while discussing his role of Macrinus, Washington stated that he was “putting this dress on, these rings, and [he was] going crazy.” This statement reigns boldly true as Macrinus appointed the heinous systemic devices that enslaved him under Marcus Aurelius (who was Lucilla’s father) against her son, Lucius, who seeks revenge.
Scott’s sequel to the original Gladiator is an epic betrayal on a gargantuan scale. Lucius discovers who his mother is and seeks to defend her when he realizes he is competing in the same Colosseum his fabled-fighting father, Maximus once experienced. The stakes continue to rise when Lucius is forced to fight-to-the-death with Lucilla’s husband, Marcus Acacius . Being a Roman General and close to Maximus, Acacius surrenders, and then his death is orchestrated by co-emperors, Caracalla and Geta who wholeheartedly believe he is attempting to take over their rule of Rome.
With his extensive background playing Shakespearean characters, Washington uses the same creative prowess and sincere dignity to command the audience’s attention and those seeking revolution towards Rome’s archaic political structure. Scott directs a lofty narrative where a once, slave, nears his way to becoming an emperor, himself. The moral of the story in Gladiator 2 is that war always equals death and a demise to human life which means that the only way to victory is destruction which is an oxymoron in itself.
Washington, as Macrinus, has a powerful grip over the psychoneurotic Caracalla’s decisions which allows him to feel the real force that a ruler has when he has power over a totalitarian regime. With Macrinus, Washington exemplifies the range he has as a performer with a passionately fiery spirit; whether he is playing a tyrannical villain or a man with a gleaming heart-of-gold.
