you can tell that it wasn't Kubrick's idea

Rating: 7/10 (31 July 2005)

When you watch most of Stanley Kubrick's movies, you can identify the certain touch that he puts in them. "Spartacus" is the exception. Kubrick was in fact hired to direct it, and you can tell: it seems more like something that Cecil B. DeMille would have directed.
That said, it was actually pretty good. The true story of Thracian slave Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) who led a revolt against the Roman Empire never drags itself; on the contrary, you want it to continue. With a supporting cast of Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Tony Curtis, Charles Laughton and others, this is what sword-and-sandal movies are all about. Although I do wonder how it would have come out had Kubrick been in control of it.