Review of Spartacus (1960) by A.j. A — 30 Dec 2011

The film that set Kubrick on the path of ensuring total creative control over his future films. He didn't like Kirk Douglas butting in as the producer and who can blame either of them? Kubrick had his vision and Douglas was producing the movie and owned the production company.

It has some delightful Americana mixed into the story of a slave rising up against the government that condoned slavery. It also displays a corrupt republican government giving way to a tyrannical dictatorship. Interestingly enough the screenwriter was someone who was blacklisted during the insanity of the McCarthy Red scare. I am sure the story of the end of republicanism in this film has something to do with the corruption and terror the members of congress fell to during the 1950s.

This is a classic sword and sandal movie and is quite enjoyable. All the main actors do a good job and the story is compelling. Who doesn't want to hear a story about standing up against tyranny and slavery and having the guts to die free?

Laurence Olivier, as Crassus, also has a delightful conversation about eating oysters and snails and the morality of such actions with his slave Antoninus, played by Tony Curtis. Apparently the censors removed that bit from the film because Crassus was sharing his bisexuality with his manservant Antoninus on the silver screen and 1960 is no place to such a spectacle! Thankfully that scene has been restored once people learned to calm down. I get a kick out of the morality of sex comparing the eating of oysters compared to the eating of snails. :D.