Inaccurate noggin protection

[Ioannes]

It's probably safe to assume we all know how inaccurate the gear is in the opening scene of Gladiator, but I've heard that the helmets were actually a Roman design, just from a century earlier than when the movie takes place, except I've never seen a helmet like theirs. Is this true? Or is it just Hollywood? Just to clear it up, I'm talking about the legionary helmets at the beginning in the battle scene. Gratias vobis ago!

[Decebalus]

Just Hollywood (like the whole movie).
The helmets look rather like English Civil War Roundhead helmets.
I never saw a helmet with this design in a Roman context.
Perhaps they are the interpretation of helmet depictions on Roman monuments by the costume maker (without comparing them to real examples).

[Emil Petecki]

I may be wrong but I remember reading somewhere in a certain interview that the designers were often much more concerned with the looks of their gear and not the historical realism in order not to make the film a 'boring history lesson'. Therefore it may be safe to assume that the helmet might have been designed after something from a much later era.

[Carus Andiae]

The helmets look rather like English Civil War Roundhead helmets.

A quick google doesn't come up with anything, but I'd swear I read somewhere that the helmets were actually made from moulds for a Civil War movie which never got made.

And since we're talking about accuracy... :evil:
I assume by "Roundhead helmets" you're talking about the so-called English Pot (also known as the 'Lobster Pot' and variations, due to the segmented or mock-segmented neck guard). It was actually widely used by both sides (and, indeed, for long after the Restoration) and very similar helmets were used on the Continent.

Incidentally, having seen a set of Praetorian armour from the film close-up, it's curious how the segmentata is much more... well, accurate would perhaps be going too far, but certainly much closer to the real thing than that of the legionaries (for example, the armour laces up down the front (and possibly the back, too - it was hidden by the cloak).

[Crispvs]

Ahem - I am somewhat ashamed to say this, but I have actually worn a helmet and armour from the film, while making an advertisement for a well known brand of beer, along with a lot of other re-enactors, including quite a number from the English Civil War Society. The helmets are not exactly copied from anything, but they do resemble 17th century lobster pots more than anything else. The body armour consists of 'girdle plates' which are moulded as two identical plastic pieces worn front and back as a tabbard, both featuring five or six horizontal 'plates' which run continuously across front and back without anything to suggest pairs of plates joining at the front or a closure method; and combined chest and shoulder pieces which appear to have been informed by a picture of Robinson's interpretation of Newstead type lorica segmentata, although the main should plate has been moulded in one with the collar plate, mid collar plate and back plate in the same plastic as the girdle tabbard. I have a vague idea that the left and right pieces may have clipped together at front and back with plastic 'click' buckles. The shoulder armour had four reasonably accurately sized plates attached on each side by a pair of nylon straps they were riveted to. The appearance of the chest and shoulder pieces did actually look quite good from a distance, but not so the girdle plate tabbards.

Crispvs

[Crispianus]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought these looked like Lobster pots :grin:

[john m roberts]

Many years ago, when I first began studying armor in a serious fashion, I was struck by the many resemblances between the Roman galea and the lobster-tail burgonet, both English and Continental. Both gave maximum protection to head and neck while allowing good sight and hearing. Both had broad, hinged cheekplates. Both had a protruding peak to protect the face without affecting vision. In the galea the peak was an applied separate plate while on the burgonet it was usually, though not always, part of the helmet bowl. If a Roman legion were to receive a shipment of Reformation-era burgonets the troops would not think they were getting some new variety of helmet, just a slightly different-looking one.

[Alanus]

The most distinctive helmet in the movie was the one worn by Maximus as a gladiator. It was given to him by the same aliens who built the pyramids, very thick aluminum, thicker than most Roman aluminum, a material originally found on Uranus... or near Uranus.

[john m roberts]

He had to have that helmet to distinguish him from the entirely authentic 18th century Indo-Persian helmets worn by the other gladiators.