“Spartacus” stands at a divide between earlier epics, where the female characters tended to look like models for hairdressing salons, and later epics that placed more emphasis on historical accuracy. Some of the supporting performances now seem dated and the line readings stilted dialogue such as “How will I ever be able to thank you?,” delivered by a senator placed in charge of a legion, gets a bad laugh.Īll historical films share the danger that their costumes and hairstyles will age badly. The most entertaining performance in the movie, consistently funny, is by Ustinov, who upstages everybody when he is onscreen (he won an Oscar). Two things stand up best over the years: the power of the battle spectacles, and the strength of certain performances - especially Olivier’s fire, Douglas’ strength, and Laughton’s mild amusement at the foibles of humankind. I’ve seen “Spartacus” three times now - in 1960, 1967, and 1991. The direction is by the 31-year-old Stanley Kubrick, who realizes the ideas of Douglas, Fast and Trumbo but cannot be said to add much of his own distinctive style to the film. Kirk Douglas, who produced the film, effectively broke the blacklist by giving Trumbo screen credit instead of making him hide behind a pseudonym. The movie was inspired by a best seller by Howard Fast, and adapted to the screen by the blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. There are also sexual intrigues Gracchus is a womanizer, and Crassus a bisexual who is attracted to a handsome young slave ( Tony Curtis) but is also driven by the desire to win the love of the slave woman Varinia ( Jean Simmons), who is the wife of Spartacus.

Leading his men into battle against weak and badly led Roman legions, Spartacus stands on the brink of victory before his troops are finally caught between two armies and outnumbered.Īll of this takes place against a backdrop of Roman decadence, and we become familiar with the backstage power plays of the senate, where Crassus ( Laurence Olivier) hopes to become a dictator at the expense of the more permissive and gentler old man Gracchus ( Charles Laughton). The notion of being forced to fight for the entertainment of spoiled women enrages Spartacus, who leads a slave revolt that eventually spreads over half of Italy. The spoiled women ask to be entertained by the sight of two fights to the death, and Spartacus is matched with a skilled black gladiator ( Woody Strode), who spares him and is killed.

Spartacus is trained in the arts of combat at Batiatus’ gladiatorial academy, where one day two powerful men and their wives arrive from Rome.

The film tells the story of the Roman slave Spartacus ( Kirk Douglas), who toils for the Roman Empire while dreaming, the narrator assures us, “of the death of slavery - which would not come until 2,000 years later.” He is sentenced to death after biting a Roman guard, but spared by Peter Ustinov, as Batiatus, a broker of gladiators.

Kirk douglas i am spartacus