Stanley Kubrick's star-studded, historical epic concerns the
efforts of the slave-gladiator Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) to lead
the slaves of the Roman Empire in a rebellion against their
masters. The ranks quickly swell as the slave army makes its way
across Italy towards the coast. But the despotic Roman senator
Crassus (Laurence Olivier) determines to quell the revolt for his
own selfish ends, and the stage is thus set for a tremendous
battle.
From .co.uk
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Stanley Kubrick was only 31 years old when Kirk Douglas (
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(star of Kubrick's classic Paths of Glory) recruited the young
director to pilot this epic saga, in which the rebellious slave
Spartacus (played by Douglas) leads a freedom revolt against the
decadent Roman Empire. Kubrick would later disown the film
because it was not a personal project--he was merely a
director-for-hire--but Spartacus remains one of the best of
Hollywood's grand historical epics. With an intelligent
screenplay by then-blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo (from a novel
by Howard Fast), its message of moral integrity and courageous
conviction is still quite powerful, and the all-star cast
(including Charles Laughton in full toga) is full of entertaining
surprises. Fully restored in 1991 to include scenes deleted from
the original 1960 release, the full-length Spartacus is a
grand-scale cinematic marvel, offering some of the most awesome
battles ever filmed and a central performance by Douglas that's
as sensitively emotional as it is intensely heroic. Jean Simmons
plays the slave woman who becomes Spartacus's wife, and Peter
Ustinov steals the show with his frequently hilarious,
O-winning performance as a slave trader who shamelessly
curries favor with his Roman superiors. The restored version also
includes a formerly deleted bathhouse scene in which Laurence
Olivier plays a bisexual Roman senator (with restored dialogue
dubbed by Anthony Hopkins) who gets hot and bothered over a slave
servant played by Tony Curtis. These and other restored scenes
expand the film to just over three hours in length. Despite some
forgivable lulls, this is a rousing and substantial drama that
grabs and holds your attention. Breaking tradition with
sophisticated themes and a downbeat (yet eminently noble)
conclusion, Spartacus is a thinking person's epic, rising above
mere spectacle with a story as impressive as its widescreen
action and O-winning sets. --Jeff Shannon
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Synopsis
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Spartacus, based on Howard Fast's popular novel, is Stanley
Kubrick's glorious masterpiece about a slave uprising in Rome in
70 B.C. Kirk Douglas, who also served as executive producer,
stars as the title character, a man born of a slave woman and a
slave master who has known nothing but chains his entire life.
After being forced to put on a gladiator show--that almost leads
to his death--for wealthy Romans (including a marvellously
conniving Laurence Olivier as the power-hungry Crassus),
Spartacus leads a slave revolt across Italy that soon has
thousands marching on Rome. Meanwhile, he has fallen in love with
the beautiful Varinia (an effervescent Jean Simmons), pledging
his life to her. Douglas assembled a fabulous all-star cast for
the film; in addition to himself, Simmons, and Olivier, terrific
performances are turned in by Charles Laughton as the
curmudgeonly senator Gracchus, John Gavin as the young Julius
Caesar, Tony Curtis as Antoninus (a 'singer of songs', with all
lines delivered in a beautifully thick New York accent), and
especially Peter Ustinov, an O winner for his portrayal of
the businessman Batiatus, who always wants to know what's in it
for him. Blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo's melodramatic script
and Alex North's thrilling, soaring score add a majesty that
helps make Spartacus one of the finest costume epics to ever come
out of Hollywood.
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