Dwayne Johnson's Forgotten $244M Fantasy Gets Decent Score From Historian

Summary

• In 2014, a blockbuster starring Dwayne Johnson came out. 10 years later, few people remember it.
• The reason is the cold reviews of critics, despite the success at the box office.
• Nevertheless, in 2024, the crew's attempt at a portrayal of ancient military action had the approval of a professional historian.

Heracles, or Hercules in the Roman interpretation, is probably one of the most recognizable figures of ancient mythology. In fact, along with the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh, the stories associated with Hercules are among the oldest representatives of adventure fiction that still have a significant impact on pop culture.

But obviously, given the mythical nature of the life of the famous ancient Greek hero, many movies and shows about Heracles were set in the fantasy genre and therefore did not care too much about historicity. But is this really the case, or did some filmmakers still try to convey period-accurate aspects?

Renowned Dutch historian Dr. Roel Konijnendijk, who specializes in classical Greek warfare, has evaluated a number of battles in films about antiquity, and one of them was 2014's Hercules, in which Dwayne Johnson took on the titular role. The film was rather coldly received by critics, but Konijnendijk gave it a much warmer reception, praising ist sense of authenticity.

What Is This Movie?

Hercules became a commercial success, grossing $244.8 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $100 million. The film was written and directed by some recognizable names: the director was Brett Ratner, known for the Rush Hour franchise, and as executive producer of Prison Break; the screenplay was written by House of the Dragon co-creator Ryan Condal and Beauty and the Beast writer Evan Spiliotopoulos.

Unlike most Hercules movies and TV shows, the plot takes a more grounded turn, portraying the ancient Greek demigod as an ordinary, if incredibly powerful, mercenary. Over the course of the story, he and his companions, the king-turned-prophet Amphiaraus of Argos (Ian McShane), the rogue Autolycus of Sparta (Rufus Sewell), Tydeus of Thebes (Aksel Hennie), The Amazonian archer Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and the storyteller Iolaus of Athens (Reece Ritchie), are invited by the King of Thrace to train his army, but find themselves caught up in dangerous political intrigue.

The Film Has Been Evaluated by a Professional Historian

Despite the cold reception at the time of its release, Dr. Roel Konijnendijk had a completely different view of the film. A video with his participation was recently released by Invicta, in which the historian rated the accuracy of Hercules at 6 out of 10, studying the scene of the formation of an army trained by the protagonist.

'The way that they tried to portray that is that as it moves into combat, it is able to respond to certain commands, is able to act much more cohesively, and is able to form a very strong shield wall against the enemy.'

But even these moments weren't without creative liberties, including how the formation is arranged. The movie shows both flanks stretching to line up, but in real life this would have been long and difficult, if not impossible. Still, Konijnendijk appreciated the film's attempt to convey a sense of battle cohesion in ancient times.

'Some of the pieces of kit they're wearing are very authentic, others are made up, but the whole principle that they explain in the movie is that, as you work together as a formation using shields that you deploy in an interlinked, mutually supportive way, that you become stronger than men fighting individually. They've really tried to capture that and put that on display here with this marching column and so, to that extent, I think it's admirable for what it's trying to do.'

See the historian's full commentary below.

Source: Invicta.