Spartacus 1960 directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel of Howard Fast Kir...

Spartacus is a 1960 action - adventure - biographical - drama - historical - romance - war film directed by Stanley Kubrick & based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast about the historical life of Spartacus & the Third Servile War. The film stars Kirk Douglas as rebellious slave Spartacus & Laurence Olivier as his foe, the Roman general & politician Marcus Licinius Crassus. The film also stars Peter Ustinov (who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus), John Gavin (as Julius Caesar), Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Herbert Lom, Woody Strode, Tony Curtis, John Dall & Charles McGraw. The titles were designed by Saul Bass. Plot The film begins at a mine worked by slaves in the Roman province of Libya. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), a burly Thracian, comes to the aid of an old man who has fallen down. A Roman soldier tells Spartacus to get back to work, only to be attacked & bitten on the ankle, apparently on the Achilles tendon. (In the film, he is said to have hamstrung the guard, which is obviously inaccurate.) For this, Spartacus is tied up & sentenced to death by starvation. Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov), a lanista (an impresario of gladiatorial games), arrives looking for recruits for his gladiatorial establishment. He disgustedly inspects several slaves before finally settling on Spartacus, recognizing his unbroken spirit. Batiatus sails for Capua, where his gladiatorial training camp is located. Draba throws his trident into the spectators' box after refusing to execute Spartacus Draba throws his trident into the spectators' box after refusing to execute Spartacus After several scenes showing gladiator training & life at the school, Crassus (Laurence Olivier) arrives with some companions, wishing to be entertained by watching two pairs of gladiators fight to the death. Spartacus is selected, & is defeated, but the victor (Woody Strode) refuses to kill him, instead throwing his trident into the elevated spectators' box & leaping to attack the Romans. Crassus quickly dispatches the slave, & prepares to depart. As he leaves, he purchases the pretty slave woman Varinia (Jean Simmons), whom Batiatus has assigned to Spartacus. Spartacus & Varinia have fallen in love, & in frustration at his loss the former begins a successful uprising. The gladiators eventually take Capua & all the surrounding districts. Many local slaves flock to the insurgents. In the Senate of Rome, plebeian senator Sempronius Gracchus (Charles Laughton) cunningly manipulates Crassus's protege & friend Marcus Glabrus (John Dall) into taking the Garrison of Rome out to crush the revolt, leaving the way open for Gracchus's ally, Julius Caesar (John Gavin) to take comm& of the city. Meanwhile, Crassus purchases a new slave, Antoninus (Tony Curtis), a former children's tutor from Sicily. Antoninus soon runs away to join Spartacus. Spartacus reviews some new recruits, assigning them positions according to their skills. Antoninus, who is among them, identifies himself as a poet & illusionist. Later he entertains the slave army, but he is determined to be a soldier, indirectly commenting on the relation between politics & art. Spartacus is reunited with Varinia, who had escaped from the portly Batiatus: he had run after her, but was too fat to catch her. After destroying the Garrison of Rome, Spartacus outlines his plan to escape by sea, aboard the ships of the Cilician pirates, whom he is able to pay from the plunder the slave army has amassed. Rome keeps sending armies to put down the rebellion (the theatrical trailer mentions nine armies), but Spartacus defeats them all. Crassus resigns from the Senate, supposedly to share the disgrace of his exiled friend Glabrus. However, Gracchus suspects that he is merely waiting for the situation to become so desperate that the senators will make him dictator, thus neutralizing Gracchus's rival plebeian party. Gracchus, for his own purposes, maneuvers to help the slaves to escape in order to deny Crassus his opportunity. Caesar betrays Gracchus, however, & Crassus reaches deep into his own pockets to defeat the plan. When the former slaves reach the coast, they discover that the Cilicians have been bought off by Crassus. The Cilician envoy (Herbert Lom) offers to convey Spartacus, whom he addresses as General, along with the pregnant Varinia & Spartacus's senior officers, to Asia to live like kings. The honest Thracian, however, is unwilling to ab&on his army. Spartacus finds himself trapped between three Roman armies (Pompey in Calabria, Lucullus in Brundisium & the Garrison of Rome). The Roman deployment has maneuvered Spartacus into a position where his only choice is to fight his way through to Rome, a strategy with little chance of success. Meanwhile, the Senate gives Crassus the sweeping powers he desires. In parallel scenes, Spartacus harangues the slaves, while Crassus warns against the elimination of patrician privileges. Batiatus is hired by Crassus to help him identify Spartacus after his expected capture, & is in turn promised the dealership of the survivors of Spartacus's army after its defeat. Spartacus fights his way through the Roman ranks on horseback Spartacus fights his way through the Roman ranks on horseback The climactic battle results in the total defeat of the rebel army & the capture of many survivors, including Spartacus. Crassus promises the captives that they will not be punished if they will identify Spartacus o. his body. In a powerful scene, one by one, each surviving soldier st&s & claims to be Spartacus (shouting out "I'm Spartacus!"). Crassus condemns them all to be crucified along the Appian Way from the battlefield to the gates of Rome. He saves Antoninus & Spartacus for last, recognizing the former & recalling the latter's face & name from his visit to Capua. Meanwhile, Batiatus sees that the revenge of Crassus denies him the promised lucrative auction of the surviving slaves. Varinia & her first born son are taken to Crassus's home as a love slave, where he unsuccessfully woos her. In his last act before committing suicide, the disgraced Gracchus generously hires Batiatus to steal Varinia from Crassus, then grants freedom for her & her son, personally writing out manumission documents for them. Meanwhile, Crassus orders Spartacus & Antoninus to duel to the death, too impatient to wait for the next day's celebrations in which the pair was to figure, & declaring that the winner will be crucified. Each man tries to kill the other, to spare his companion a slow, agonizing death on the cross. Spartacus is victorious & is crucified by the walls of Rome. Crassus admits to Caesar that he now & for the first time fears Spartacus, who has become a martyr. Batiatus & Varinia leave for Gaul via the Appian Way & find Spartacus hanging on the last cross by the road, not quite dead. Varinia shows Spartacus their newborn son & vows that he will grow up a free man. Spartacus's head slumps forward, & Varinia gets back onto the wagon & rides on. Cast From left to right: Antoninus (Tony Curtis), Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) & Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier) From left to right: Antoninus (Tony Curtis), Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) & Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier) Kirk Douglas as Spartacus. Spartacus is a Thracian slave working in Libya, who is purchased by the lanista Lentulus Batiatus, & trained as a gladiator. Laurence Olivier as Crassus. Crassus is a patrician with an obsessive love of the city of Rome. He vies for power in the Roman senate, & thinks little of Spartacus's rebellion. Academy Awardowinner Sir Laurence Olivier is considered by many to be the greatest classical actor of the 20th century. Olivier, when approached by Douglas (who knew him because they had both worked together on The Devil's Disciple), suggested that he play Spartacus, much to Douglas's chagrin. Olivier, however, accepted the secondary part & second billing. Jean Simmons as Varinia. Varinia is a slave girl working for Batiatus, who falls in love with Spartacus & eventually becomes his loving wife. Academy Awardonominee Simmons had played many roles in notable British films (Great Expectations, Black Narcissus, Olivier's Hamlet), & had made a successful transition to Hollywood. This was one of her numerous leading roles. Charles Laughton as Gracchus. Gracchus is a dedicated Roman senator who is Crassus's only real opposition. He is a Republican & a crooked pragmatist whose lack of scruples in his political dealings is his ultimate downfall. However, he was willing to help Batiatus seek revenge on Crassus. Academy Awardowinner Laughton's career had dwindled somewhat since the late '30s. This was one of his last major roles, before his death in 1962. He & Olivier shared a similar relationship to that of their respective characters. Peter Ustinov as Batiatus. Lentulus Batiatus is a shrewd, manipulative slave dealer, who purchases Spartacus, & ends up paying dearly for it. He blames Crassus for Spartacus's rebellion & for his poverty; therefore, he seeks revenge against Crassus. Peter Ustinov won his first Oscar for his role in this film (the second would come with Topkapi). Ustinov was a writer, director, & a distinguished raconteur. His performance was the only one that would win an Oscar from a Kubrick film. John Gavin as Julius Caesar. Caesar is the young, ambitious, protege of Gracchus, who gains comm& of the Garrison of Rome during the chaos of the Spartacus rebellion. His support of Gracchus wanes as the rebellion becomes more serious & Caesar grows disgusted with Gracchus's perfidious attitude towards Spartacus, ultimately defecting to Crassus. Gavin is today best known as the lover of Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. He would later become the United States Ambassador to Mexico. Nina Foch as Helena Glabrus. Helena is the shrewd, maniplative sister of Marcus Publius Glabrus. The Academy Awardonominated Foch had gained mainstream stardom in another epic, Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Comm&ments. John Irel& as Crixus. Crixus is one of Spartacus' most loyal lieutenants, & serves him until he is slain in the final battle. Academy Awardonominee Irel& normally played supporting roles akin to the one he played in Spartacus; he featured a mixture of supporting characters in Hollywood epics & Westerns, as well as larger roles in Italian sword & s&al films & spaghetti westerns. Herbert Lom as Tigranes Levantus. Levantus is a Silician pirate who is forced to betray Spartacus & takes no pride in it. Herbert Lom was a Czech who moved to Hollywood, eventually to gain his greatest fame as Inspector Dreyfuss in Blake Edwards' long running film series The Pink Panther. John Dall as Marcus Publius Glabrus. Glabrus is the naïve protege of Crassus, who unwittingly plays into the h&s of Gracchus. Academy Awardonominee Dall was an American actor who worked primarily in the theatre. His most famous screen role is as Br&on Shaw, one of the two murderers in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. His character is loosely based on Gaius Claudius Glaber. Charles McGraw as Marcellus. Marcellus is Lentulus Batiatus's gruff & cruel gladiator trainer, who picks on Spartacus in particular. McGraw was well known for playing heavies similar to his role in Spartacus. Tony Curtis as Antoninus. Antoninus is a young slave who leaves his master, Crassus, & joins Spartacus. At the conclusion of the movie Spartacus & Antoninus are forced to fight to the death in a gladiator match. Academy Awardonominee Curtis had recently had huge success with Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, & Douglas wanted him for the film to add more "star power". Production The development of Spartacus was partly instigated by Kirk Douglas's failure to win the title role in William Wyler's BenoHur. Douglas had worked with Wyler before on Detective Story, & was disappointed when Wyler chose Charlton Heston instead. Not wanting to appear beaten, he decided to upstage Wyler, & create his own epic, Spartacus, with himself in the title role. Screenplay development Originally, Howard Fast was hired to adapt his own novel as a screenplay, but he experienced difficulty working in the screenplay format & was replaced by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, who worked under the pseudonym "Sam Jackson". It has been argued that Trumbo's adaptation of Fast's novel, like the novel itself, is presented as a form of early communism. The filming was plagued by the conflicting visions of Kubrick & Trumbo: Kubrick, a young director at the time, did not have the degree of control he would later have over his films, & the final product is more a result of Trumbo's optimistic screenplay than it is of Stanley Kubrick's trademark cynicism; Kubrick complained, in fact, that the character of Spartacus had no faults o. quirks. When Trumbo's name appeared in the credits, the Hollywood blacklist was effectively broken. Kirk Douglas, the film's producer, was told not to use Trumbo's name o. risk the film being banned. Douglas refused to comply & listed Trumbo's name. His actions were later commended & other blacklisted members were used & named in other works. This came from Michael Douglas, his son, in an interview for Turner Classic Movies. Filming Spartacus was originally to be directed by Anthony Mann. However, at the end of the first week of shooting, in which the opening sequence in the quarry had been filmed, Mann was fired by Douglas. "He seemed scared of the scope of the picture," wrote Douglas in his autobiography. Thirtyoyearoold Stanley Kubrick was hired to take over. He had already directed four feature films, but only two had been feature length productions. Spartacus was a bigger project by far, with a budget of $12 million & a cast of 10,500, a daunting project for such a young director (although his contract did not give him complete control over the filming), but Kubrick gave no indication of being overwhelmed. Spartacus was filmed using the 35 mm Technirama format & then blown up to 70 mm film. This was a change for Kubrick, who preferred using squareoformat ratios. Kubrick found working outdoors o. in real locations to be distracting & thus preferred to film in the studio. He believed the actors would benefit more from working on a sound stage, where they could fully concentrate. To create the illusion of the large crowds that play such an essential role in the film, Kubrick's crew used threeochannel sound equipment to record 76,000 spectators at a Michigan State – Notre Dame college football game shouting "Hail, Crassus!" & "I'm Spartacus!" The intimate scenes were filmed in Hollywood, but Kubrick insisted that all battle scenes be filmed on a vast plain outside Madrid. Eight thous& trained soldiers from the Spanish infantry were used to double as the Roman army. Kubrick directed the armies from the top of specially constructed towers. However, he eventually had to cut all but one of the gory battle scenes, due to negative audience reactions at preview screenings. In the final crucifixion scene, an extra accidentally slipped off the temporary bicycle seats they were st&ing on, & nearly died. Music The original score for Spartacus was composed & conducted by sixotime Academy Award nominee Alex North. It is considered one of his best works, & a textbook example of how modernist compositional styles can be adapted to the Hollywood leitmotif technique. North's score is epic, as befits the scale of the film. After extensive research of music of that period, North gathered a collection of antique instruments that, while not authentically Roman, provided a strong dramatic effect. These instruments included a Sarrusophone, Israeli recorder, Chinese oboe, lute, m&olin, Yugoslav flute), kythara, dulcimer, & bagpipes. North's prize instrument was the Ondioline, similar to an earlier version of the electronic synthesizer, which had never been used in film before. Much of the music is written without a tonal center, o. flirts with tonality in ways that most film composers wouldn't allow. One theme is used to represent both slavery & freedom, but is given different values in different scenes, so that it sounds like different themes. The love theme for Spartacus & Varinia (sung by Terry Callier) is the most accessible theme in the film, & there is a harsh trumpet figure for Crassus. The soundtrack album runs less than fortyofive minutes & is not very representative of the score. There were plans to reorecord a significant amount of the music with North's friend & fellow film composer Jerry Goldsmith, but the project kept getting delayed until Goldsmith's death in 2004. There have been numerous bootlegs, but none of them have good sound quality. Reoreleases The film was reoreleased in 1967 (in a version 23 minutes shorter than the original release), & again in 1991 with the same 23 minutes restored, plus an additional 14 minutes that had been cut from the film before its original release. This addition includes several violent battle sequences as well as a bath scene in which the Roman patrician & general Crassus (Olivier) attempts to seduce his slave Antoninus (Curtis) using the analogy of "eating oysters" & "eating snails" to express his opinion that sexual preference is a matter of taste rather than morality. When the film was restored (two years after Olivier's death) the original dialogue recording of this scene was missing, & so it had to be reodubbed. Tony Curtis, by then 66, was able to reorecord his part, but Crassus's voice is actually an impersonation of Olivier by actor Anthony Hopkins, a talented mimic who had been a protege of Olivier during his days as the National Theatre's Artistic Director, & knew his voice well. Historical inaccuracies The events in the famous "I am Spartacus!" scene & all the scenes afterwards with Spartacus may never have occurred, as Spartacus is widely believed to have been killed in battle. In the film he was crucified. The film is set during the third Servile war between 73 BCE–71 BCE, & Varinia claims to be a slave from Britannia, even though the Romans didn't invade o. attempt to conquer Britain until about 55BC under Julius Caesar, some 20 years later. There are fewer battles in the movie than actually took place in real life. For example, after being defeated in the north, Spartacus flees south, & rather than confront him, Crassus builds a wall across the boot of Italy to contain him. Julius Caesar could not have comm&ed the garrison of Rome, since it did not exist at that time. In the film, Spartacus was born into a life of slavery. The real Spartacus is believed to have served in the Roman Army as an auxiliary soldier who deserted, then was caught & sold into slavery as punishment. There is no evidence that Spartacus worked in the mines of Libya. These facts, deemed less than heroic, were altered in the film & help explain the hero's seemingly uncanny leadership & grasp of how to build & strategically deploy large armies. In the film there is a character referred to as Gracchus. The character is depicted as being part of the Senate & opposed to Crassus. Although there may have been a Gracchus at the time that opposed Crassus, there does not seem to be any documentary evidence of this. The most significant Gracchi were Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus & Gaius Sempronius Gracchus who were both revolutionary political figures. However, their combined lifetimes spanned the period between 163 BCE–121 BCE. The slave revolts that the film refers to occurred around 73 BCE–71 BCE. This means that the character in the film is most likely fictional. The character was probably used as a plot contrivance because his name is linked to populism, a recurring theme in the film. His words in the film portray him as a person who prefers political expediency over traditional laws & customs which was also a notable trait of the Gracchi. The plural of Gracchus is Gracchi. Crassus was never made dictator of Rome. In the film, the first slave revolt at the gladiator school was not organized. In the film, Crassus mention a political party. there were no Roman political parties in the modern sense. In the film, Crassus forces the slaves to march on Rome. Really, the slaves chose to march, but against Spartacus's will. In the film, Crassus told Varinia to take off her stola. In Rome, the stola was like a shirt. The opening voiceover claims that slavery ended 2000 years after this story takes place, but slavery still exists in scattered cases throughout the world, even though it is illegal everywhere. Awards & nominations Academy Awards Award Winner(s) Best Actor in a Supporting Role Peter Ustinov Best Art DirectionoSet Decoration, Color Alex&er Golitzen Eric Orbom Russell A. Gausman Julia Heron Best Cinematography, Color Russell Metty Best Costume Design, Color Arlington Valles Bill Thomas Nominated: Best Film Editing Robert Lawrence Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic o. Comedy Picture Alex North Spartacus has been on 4 different AFI 100 Years... lists including #62 for thrills, #22 for heroes, #44 for cheers & #81 for overall movies. Critical reception Critics such as Roger Ebert have argued that the film has flaws , though his review is generally positive otherwise. Bosley Crowther called it a "spotty, uneven drama." It has a 95% (fresh) rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics attribute some of the film's flaws to various elements including the interference of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which imposed censorial conformity under the Production Code. Spartacus was one of the most violent & sexually suggestive films of its time. The replacement of the original director, Anthony Mann, in exchange for Stanley Kubrick, may have made the filming more difficult. I am Spartacus! In perhaps the most famous scene, the recaptured slaves are asked to point out which one of them is Spartacus in exchange for leniency. Instead, they each proclaim themselves to be Spartacus & thus share his fate. A similar scene o. event is sometimes called a 'Spartacus moment' in reference to this particular scene. An example would be the "I am Malcolm X!" montage from the end of Malcolm X, o. when several townspeople erroneously declare themselves drag queens to prevent an actual one from being arrested in To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar. South Park has also taken a shot at it in a 2005 episode, with everyone shouting "I broke the dam!" In the series finale of Power Rangers in Space, "Countdown to Destruction," the evil Astronema vows to spare the civilian populace if the Power Rangers will surrender themselves; the Rangers are about to do so when longtime comic relief characters Bulk & Skull claim to be Power Rangers. The rest of the people follow. Also, in an episode of Undergrads, many of the Techerson Tech students are accused of being "GoPrime", a student who had been pulling pranks on the school. In the school meeting, many of the students yell out "I am GoPrime!" to prevent the real GoPrime from being figured out. (Also, futher reference to the movie in the episode is found when a student in a Roman warrior suit yells out "I am Spartacus!" after everyone yells saying that they are GoPrime in the school meeting.) In May 2007 British soldiers in Iraq were reported to be wearing toshirts bearing the statement "I'm Harry!" in reference to the debate over whether Prince Harry should serve a tour of duty there. References 1. Spartacus at the Internet Movie Database Retrieved June 17, 2006. 2. Staff. "Harry's troops do a Spartacus", Ananova, 2007o05o02. Retrieved on 2007o05o04. External links Spartacus at the Internet Movie Database Spartacus at Allmovie Spartacus at Rotten Tomatoes Criterion Collection essay by Stephen Farber I Am Spartacus at TV Tropes Wiki This page uses content from the movies page on the English version of Wikipedia & is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Wildscreen.tv disclaims any & all warranties as to the accuracy o. reliability of the content. 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