Gladiator (2000)

Oliver Reed: Proximo

Photos 

Quotes 

• Proximo : Those giraffes you sold me, they won't mate. They just walk around, eating, and not mating. You sold me... queer giraffes. I want my money back.

• Maximus : Are you in danger of becoming a good man, Proximo?

  Proximo : Ha!

• Proximo : Listen to me. Learn from me. I was not the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.

• Proximo : He knows too well how to manipulate the mob.

  Maximus : Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome, Proximo. That is not it. That is not it!

  Proximo : Marcus Aurelius is dead, Maximus. We mortals are but shadows and dust. Shadows and dust, Maximus!

• Proximo : Congratulations, you have very persuasive friends.

  Lucilla : My brother's had Gracchus arrested. We daren't wait any longer. We must leave tonight. Proximo will be here t midnight and take you to the gate. Your servant, Cicero will be waiting there with horses.

  [Maximus nods] 

  Maximus : You have done all this?

  Lucilla : Yes.

  Maximus : [sighs]  You risk too much.

  Lucilla : I have much to pay for.

  [Maximus shakes his head] 

  Maximus : You have nothing to pay for. You love your son, you are strong for him.

  Lucilla : I am tired of being strong.(sighs) My brother hates all the world and you most of all.

  Maximus : Because your father chose me.

  Lucilla : No because my father loved you... and because I loved you.

  Maximus : A long time ago.

  [kisses her hand] 

  Lucilla : [smiles]  Was I very different then?

  Maximus : (shakes his head, touches her face with his finger) You laughed more.

  Lucilla : I have felt alone all my life, except with you. I must go.

  Maximus : Yes.

  [kisses Lucilla one last time] 

• [just before he is stabbed by the guards] 

  Proximo : Shadows and dust.

• Proximo : Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how but, what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered, as men.

• Maximus : [laughing]  You knew Marcus Aurelius?

  Proximo : [very quickly and defensively]  I didn't say I knew him, I said he touched me on the shoulder once!

• Proximo : [addressing his new recruits]  I am Proximo! I shall be closer to you for the next few days, which will be the last of your miserable lives, than that bitch of a mother who first brought you screaming into this world! I did not pay good money for your company. I paid it so that I might profit from your death. And just as your mother was there at your beginning, I shall be there at your end. And when you die - and die you shall - your transition will be to the sound of...

  [claps his hands] 

  Proximo : Gladiators... I salute you.

• [Looking at some slaves] 

  Proximo : Can any of them fight? I've got a match coming up.

  Slave Trader : Some are good for fighting, others for dying. You need both, I think.

• Proximo : So Spaniard, we shall go to Rome together and have bloody adventures. And the great whore will suckle us until we are fat and happy and can suckle no more. And then, when enough men have died, perhaps you will have your freedom.

• Maximus : I am required to kill, so I kill. That is enough.

  Proximo : That's enough for the provinces, but not enough for Rome.

• Proximo : Some of you are thinking that you won't fight. Others, that you can't fight. They all say that, until they're out there

• Proximo : What do you want? Hmm? Girl? Boy?

  Maximus : You sent for me?

  Proximo : Yes, I did. You're good, Spaniard, but you're not that good. You could be magnificent.

  Maximus : I'm required to kill, so I kill. That is enough.

  Proximo : That's enough for the provinces, but not for Rome. The young emperor has arranged a series of spectacles to commemorate his father, Marcus Aurelius. I find that amusing since it Marcus Aurelius, the wise, the all-knowing Marcus Aurelius, that closed us down. So, finally after five years of scratching a living in flea-infested villages, we're finally going back to where we belong. The coliseum. Oh, you should see the coliseum, Spaniard. Fifty-thousand Romans. Watching every movement of your sword. Willing you to make that killer blow. The silence before you strike. And the noise afterwards. It rises. It rises up like - like the - like a storm. As if you were the Thundergod himself.

  Maximus : You were a gladiator?

  Proximo : Yes, I was.

  Maximus : And you won your freedom?

  Proximo : A long time ago, the emperor presented me with a rudis. It's just a... a wooden sword. A symbol of your freedom. He touched me on the shoulder and I was free.

  Maximus : [laughing]  You knew Marcus Aurelius?

  Proximo : [Angry]  I did not say I knew him! I said he touched me on the shoulder once!

  Maximus : You asked me what I want. I too want to stand in front of the emperor. As you did.

  Proximo : Then listen to me. Learn from me. I wasn't the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd and you'll win your freedom.

  Maximus : I will win the crowd. I will give them something they've never seen before.

  Proximo : [laughs]  So, Spaniard. We shall go to Rome together and have bloody adventures. And a great whore will suckle us until we are fat and happy and can suckle no more. And then, when enough men have died, perhaps you will have your freedom. Here, use this.

  [tosses a breastplate to Maximus] 

• Proximo : [holding up a sword]  Thrust this into another man's flesh, and they will applaud and love you for that. You may even begin to love them

  [thrusts] 

  Proximo : for that.

• Maximus : Do you remember what it was to have trust, Proximo?

  Proximo : [unfamiliarly]  Trust?

• Proximo : I know that you are a man of your word, General. I know that you would die for honor, for Rome, for the memory of your ancestors. But as for me? I'm an entertainer.

• Proximo : You're good, Spaniard, but you're not that good. You could be magnificent.