Review of Spartacus (1960) by Brandon S — 28 Dec 2011

Spartacus is a bit of an anomaly within the Kubrick canon. What may be so surprising to those familiar with his body of work is the straight forward nature of the film. This is classic swords and sandals filmmaking without the eccentricity, darkness and wonder of his previous efforts.

Spartacus stars Kirk Douglas in the title role, as a slave working in the mountains of Libya who is sold into a Roman Gladiator academy of sorts. This is a period within Roman history where the most popular form of entertainment was the fight to the death between two sword welding warriors. Even kin could be faced with the horror of a face to face battle. It suddenly occurs to one of these fighters that maybe it is better to direct the sword at the Rome establishment rather than each other.

This inspires Spartacus to start his own rebel gladiator army. He goes from village to village picking up new recruits as he goes along. The ultimate goal is simple: freedom and the death of human slavery.

Spartacus is one of the few dissapointments of Kubrick's career. This is not to say that it was incompently directed, since it only gives further evidence of Kubrick's growth as a film director. Never before had Stanley had to tackle a project of this magnitude, with only two features films under his belt. Yet, he does so with utmost skill and finesse.

No, what's missing is authorial vision that is vital to any Kubrick picture. Kubrick was not even the original director. Following the success of thier previous collaboration, Paths of Glory, Kirk hired Stanley to take over production from Anthony Mann. Rahter than give Kubrick control of the picture, it was clear that executive producer Douglas would be calling the shots. The results are then a safe and uninspired historical epic, Kubrick's one and only for hire job. It would take some much more controversial material in Lolita, for Kubrick to find his voice again.