Spartacus

The sword and sandal epic that has everything.

Spartacus is the Thracian slave who refused to be a Roman plaything, breaking out of their clutches he led the slave revolt that panicked the Roman Rebublic in circa BC 73, this film is based on that period in history.

Spartacus got off to a troubled start, original director Anthony Mann was fired by leading man Kirk Douglas (Spartacus) after a falling out, some of Mann's work does remain in the final picture, though, notably some of the early scenes in the desert are thought to be at Mann's direction. In came then director for hire Stanley Kubrick, who along with Douglas crafted arguably the greatest sword and sandal epic to have ever been made. One that holds up today as the one any prospective new viewers to the genre should seek out. Adapted by Dalton Trumbo from Howard Fast's novel (whilst also tapping from Arthur Koestler's novel, The Gladiators), Spartacus is a stirring experience highlighting the power of unity when faced in opposition to a tyrannical force. It's also boasting a number of intelligent and firmly engaging strands that are a credit to the excellent writing from the once blacklisted Trumbo. Politics figure prominently, whilst the story has a pulsing romantic heart beating amongst the blood and power struggles that are unfolding. Brotherhood bonds within the slave army are firmly established, and the love story axis between Spartacus and Varinia is very fully formed. We are in short set up perfectly for when the film shifts the emphasis in the second half.

So many great sequences are in this picture, the gladiator training school as Spartacus and his fellow slaves find that they have dignity within themselves - forced through a tough regime designed to set them up for blood sport entertainment to the watching republic hierarchy. The break out itself is tremendous for its potency, but even that is playing second fiddle to the main battle sequence that Kubrick excellently puts together. The Ro...

This historical/epic drama was one of those 50-60's movies that lasted for 3 and a half hours. It isn't perfect despite the production have being great in some points.

The main issue is that it isn't historical based (and who knows the history to the full extend?), but it was based on a Roward Fast novel of 1951 with lots of romanticized and non historical events.

Some things are history: like the basis of the dispute of the senate member involved in the rebellion, like Crassus (the main opositor), Grassus (the roman senator that was more a patrician than a warrior) and young Julius Cesar.

Played by Kirk Douglas, Spartacus was a Thracian man enslaved to work on the sulfur mines of Etna (that seems to be the same place that Barravas was filmed). Due to his rough and tempestuous humor, the is set to die by starvation - but his fierceness attracts a roman busniness man that trains gladiators. He start and training, getting better and better at this.

Eventually he is introduced to the Britannia woman Varinia that the slavemaster gives to his gladiators' and starts to fell in love with her. After a visit of Crassus his wife (that just vanish from the movie after that) wants a dispute between 4 gladiators, just for entertainments - at the time they weren't cheap. They took years of training and investment, and historically they seldom fighted to the death, they usually were just killing machines for spectacles at the areas or killing of prisoners.

While his friend wins a fight and kills the opponent, spartacus fights bravely but loses to an Ethiopian gladiator named Draba that doesn't tries to kill after winning and jump for the spectators. This changes Spartacus views for everything.

He plans a scape with other slaves and just using kitchen tools they made a escape overriding the romans soldiers at the place and stealing their weapons, starting a slave revolt that rise moree and more though the villages and cities they pass by, till they camp at the si...

Kirk Douglas had the vision to back the previously black-listed Dalton Trumbo with his excellent screenplay for this epic tale of slavery and the struggle for freedom. He also led a cast with some of the best actors to ever grace the silver screen. Olivier, Laughton, Ustinov, Curtis and a wonderfully tender Jean Simmons who all lift this tale of a slave who rebelled against the tyrannical rule of his Roman masters and inspired thousands to follow him as they strove to escape, then defeat the armies of Rome. The cinematography, colour, costumes are all the stuff of artists and Alex North creates a score that carries the intimate and the grand scenes in equal measure. The principles of struggle against oppression and of brotherly loyalty ring true even now, and this film is so much more than a sword-and-sandals melodrama.