Death of Maximus's Family

This scene was one of the most powerful scenes from the film in my opinion. As the camera panned up to show the feet of Maximus's family I audibly gasped. The position of Maximus kneeling to the group beneath his hanging family shows his absolute loss of power and confidence as he loses everything he had left to live for. The angle of the camera looks down upon Maximus while also showing his family's feet, it makes the audience feel as though they are almost the one he is kneeling in front of. This gives the audience the impression of the main character not only being below his previous self but the audience as well, this sets him up to rise above his lowest point until the final scene when we look down upon him once again and he finally succumbs to death. It also shows the feet of his family to express to the audience that they are dead without being overly gory. Overall I found this scene to be powerful due to it's portrayal of the main character and the shock effect of seeing the feet of his dead family.