Spartacus

SPARTACUS (PG)

D: Stanley Kubrick (& Anthony Mann [uncredited])

United Artists/Bryna (Edward Lewis)

US 1960

196 mins

Historical

W: Dalton Trumbo [based on the novel by Howard Fast]

DP: Russell Metty (& Stanley Kubrick [uncredited])

Ed: Robert Lawrence

Mus: Alex North

PD: Alexander Golitzen

Cos: Bill Thomas & Valles

Kirk Douglas (Spartacus), Laurence Olivier (Crassus), Charles Laughton (Gracchus), Tony Curtis (Antoninus), Jean Simmons (Varinia), Peter Ustinov (Batiatus), John Gavin (Julius Caesar)

"I am Spartacus!"

Actually, it's Kirk Douglas who is Spartacus, a slave who leads a violent revolt against the Romans in this gladiatorial epic.

So Hollywood legend would have it, it was a production rife with complications, from its blacklisted screenwriter to its original director (Anthony Mann) being replaced halfway through the shoot by the meddlesome perfectionist Stanley Kubrick, who apparently made everyone's job difficult, especially cinematographer Russell Metty, who won an Oscar for his credit despite much of his work being reshot by Kubrick himself.

Many aspects of the film feel dated by current standards, and the running time is likely to put off many, but it remains a classic of its time.

Thanks to the beauty of cinematic restoration, modern audiences can enjoy a scene of sexual ambiguity between Tony Curtis & Laurence Olivier's characters, cut from the original theatrical release.

It's a slight mystery that the film won the Golden Globe award for Best Film of the year, but didn't even figure in the race for Best Picture nominees at the Oscars. It's an even bigger mystery over how much of the film is Stanley Kubrick's responsibility.

8/10