Gladiator

Recently, I saw the movie Gladiator for the first time. I loved it. The movie had many amazing themes which were, of course, taken from the greatest story and hero ever. A perfect, strong man is betrayed by those who were close to him, and his friends are killed or disappear. He is tortured and mocked and treated as a slave, when one word while he was in his former state would have leveled all his enemies. Eventually through a series of trials, he faces his betrayer face to face. During that scene, these lines are delivered:

Commodus (evil man): Your fame is well deserved, Spaniard. I don't believe there's ever been a gladiator that matched you... Why doesn't the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name? (Maximus, the man, is silent) You do have a name?
Maximus: My name is Gladiator. (He turns and walks away.)
Commodus: How dare you show your back to me!?! Slave! You will remove your helmet and tell me your name.
Maximus: (The Man lifts his helmet and turns around to face his enemy.) My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius; Commander of the Armies of the North; General of the Felix Legions; loyal servant of the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius; father to a murdered son; husband to a murdered wife; and I will have vengeance, in this life or the next.

By coincidence, I was reading the book Wild at Heart today and the author referenced this scene. John Eldredge wrote:
"[Maximus'] answer builds like a mighty wave, swelling in size and strength before it crashes on the shore. Where does a man go to learn an answer like that--to learn his true name, a name that can never be taken from him?... You have to know where you've come from; you have to have faced a series of trials that test you; you have to have taken a journey; and you have to have faced your enemy." (101)

Where can a man find his name? From trials, yes, but ultimately from the person we must run to in those trials and the person whom Maximus reveals for us, Jesus Christ.