VHS : Spartacus [1960]

Rating: - "I'm Spartacus!"
Spartacus is that genuine rarity, an epic that successfully combines the intellectual with the emotional, giving it an edge on almost all of its contemporaries - even Anthony Mann's superb Fall of the Roman Empire, which is never able to fully reconcile the two in its leading characters.

It was Mann who shot the striking opening sequences in the Libyan salt mines before being replaced by Kubrick, allegedly for losing his grip on the gladiator school sequences (though it seems everyone involved offers a different reason), and his trademark use of landscape to define character is very much in evidence. Spartacus begins the film as a virtual animal, mute, biting his guard, a creature of pure instinct. Yet through his fight for his freedom, he learns dignity and becomes more of a human being than his civilised masters.

Ironically, it is his doomed slave revolt that provides the spark to turn Rome into a totalitarian dictatorship, a development hinted at in his gladiatorial combat with Woody Strode, where their duel to the death is simply a background for the political backbiting of its noble Roman audience. Even after the rebellion is brutally crushed, the seeds for further change and disruption are sown in the shifting allegiance of a young Gaius Julius Caesar (Gavin), who moves from the side of Laughton's populist Plebian to Olivier's ruthless Patrician.

Despite this, Spartacus is an incredibly hopeful film. Its belief in the value of life and in people may be frowned upon as naive now, yet through its portrayal of the Romans' ignorance of the responsibilities of their civilisation in their endless manipulations and power plays remains painfully aware of reality. In hindsight, it seems impossible to separate it from the civil rights movement of the late fifties-sixties (JFK was a great admirer of the film), with Spartacus a Thracian composite of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The solidarity of the slaves in refusing to identify Spartacus to the victorious Romans and choosing crucifixion over their chains is an image at once universal myth and very much of its time.

Most unusual within the constraints of the genre is that it makes us feel its concerns rather than just think about them. The fight to the death between Spartacus and Antoninus (Curtis) is played as a personal scene rather than an action set piece, each trying to kill the other to Spain them the pain of crucifixion. And when he takes his place on the last of the crosses that pave the road to the gates of Rome, the final scene where his freed wife (Jean Simmons) shows him the son he has never seen for the first time and begs him to "Die, please die!", is one of the most intensely moving moments in cinema and carries an emotional charge that Kubrick's work never again attained or even attempted.

Despite his genuinely imaginative direction, Kubrick's erratic attitude towards the film is well documented (although Douglas claims the director originally wanted to take blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's screen credit, he subsequently vociferously disowned the film). Unfortunately, the 1990s cinema re-issue of this original restored version met with some of the worst reviews in recent memory: Douglas' reputation had faded while Kubrick's had soared, rendering it an act of critical blasphemy to disagree with him.

Nonetheless, the film endures even if its reputation has not. Trumbo's script is both intelligent and involving and filled with memorable and beautifully constructed scenes, the cast uniformly excellent, with Olivier giving one of his last great performances before he turned to intermittent silly voices and self-parody. Aside from the now infamous attempted bathtime seduction of Tony Curtis (far less explicit than the subsequent speech about `debasing yourself' before Rome), the extra footage in this restored version is largely violence - more crucifixions, the burial of a baby in the snow, gladiator Woody Strode's blood squirting onto Olivier's face as he slits his throat and a lot more of the climactic battle (itself shot as an afterthought after an unsatisfactory rough-cut).

Sadly, it is here that one of the film's most visually powerful moments, when the Roman Legion stops to a man in their advance on the slave army, just does not work even on the largest of small screens. Whereas in 70mm on the giant screen you could feel them approach foot by foot, here they barely seem to be moving, rendering the jolting shock and ominous dread of their sudden halt (actually achieved via freeze frame) barely noticeable. The prelude to the main battle does remain an incredible musical tour de force by North, however, predicting both the savagery and hollow victory of the coming carnage with brief, brutal crescendos on vicious sharp cuts. Even in a strong field that year, it is amazing that North did not win an Oscar for his contribution.

Of the various versions available, the Criterion NTSC disc is the best, though most of the extras are carried over for the PAL special edition - but avoid the standard film-only edition.

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Rating: - Undeniably Kubrick
Spartacus has come to be regarded as something of an unknown entity in the Kubrick canon. He was an auteur who always claimed a writing credit; so on the surface this Kirk Douglas-produced Roman epic might appear to be a simple vanity project for its star after his failure to land the part of Ben-Hur.

But Kubrick was clearly able to imprint his personality on the finished product: lengthy tracking shots and static long shots framed like classical paintings; meticulous lighting and chessboard floors. And not every director would pick up on screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's intelligent irony and subtext.

Peter Ustinov has spoken of the lack of a Christ figure, and I would say this is to the movie's advantage. How easy it would have been to present Spartacus, self-proclaimed leader of the common man, as a figure to be deified, and the fawning poor as his disciples. But that would have cheapened the message, and patronised his followers to the extent that they become effectively imprisoned once more by blind allegiance. Indeed, religion is rarely mentioned at all; if it had been then the already murky politics would be muddied further and we would be watching a 5-hour cut.

The cast is a colourful bunch. Douglas exudes a fierce and believable masculinity as the titular titan. Classical quality is provided by Laurence Olivier (Crassus), Charles Laughton (Gracchus) and the peerless Ustinov, whose Batiatus is the perfect rodent, sniveling somewhere between the stricken slave-world and the sinister senate. (A similar but arguably richer character than, say, Gladiator's Proximo.) The casting of Tony Curtis is less successful: his broad Bronx accent and dark heavy features aren't well suited to Antoninus' doe-eyed, silver-tongued minstrel.

Speaking of heavy, Alex North's bombastic score is deafening; triumphant or obnoxious depending on your ear drums. (North would later commission an unused score for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, before his work was replaced by memorable pieces from Strauss, Ligeti et al.) One could argue that Jean Simmons' Varinia is little more than a pretty plot device for much of the movie - a foil for Spartacus' rampant rage; proof that he is not merely D-Fens in a loincloth - but she comes alive in the final scenes, providing some much-needed hope in the devastating climactic meeting.

Intelligent, broad of scope, cynical, horrifying and beautiful: this is truly a Kubrick war movie.

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Rating: - Deep impact !
If I ever have a friend who says that he has not seen this movie...A masterpiece! The first film that was shot during McCarthy era depicting the leftist history. Shame on Elia Kazan and credit due to countless nameless heroes who stood up for the terror in the film industry in that time. Kirk Douglas is marvellous and ever will be a Spartacus in many people's memories.

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Rating: - Better then GLADIATOR!
There has been to many over-hyped reviews about films such as Gladiator, THIS is the original which all those movies copied from. The acting is great, directing is great, script is great, story is great...the only very minor niggle is it's abit long.

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Rating: - breaking the blacklist
Apart from being a visual treat, this is an important film in Hollywood history. Worth the money for the "Hollywood Ten" documentary alone.