Spartacus (1960)
When Kirk Douglas did not get the lead part in Ben-Hur (1959) he decided to buy up the rights to the book this film is based on and star as Spartacus instead. There was a slightly troubled production history as David Lean turned down the chance to direct and Anthony Mann was fired as director only a week into production to be replaced by a young Stanley Kubrick. There was also a problem with the screen writer who was black listed by Hollywood for being a commie and crediting him under his real name caused some complaints.
This is a romanticised take on the tale of the leader of Spartacus a gladiator slave in Roman times who lead a revolt, there is also a sub plot of political manoeuvrings in Rome by senators in a battle of democracy and corruption verses dictatorship. The plot is decent but somewhat patchy and does diverge both from history and the main subject at times to deal with the aforementioned sub plot.
Largely well made the battle scene where the Roman legions meet the slave army is very impressive as it was made in the days when you could not cheat by using CGI to add twenty thousand men to fill out a scene. There is a great cast including Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov (in an Oscar winning performance) and a young Tony Curtis. Some portions of the film do drag and a three hour run time may be a little excessive but on the whole it is well paced.
4/5 a historical epic worth watching but not up there with Kubrick's best.
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