A powerful and moving testament to the eternal fight for freedom. (spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (19 June 2002)

Spartacus is one of the few movies to truly deserve the title of epic. The first time I saw it I thought it was a little too long and I actually got bored around the halfway mark before being drawn in once again by the powerful and dramatic ending. I recently saw it again, and this time I never got bored once, thanks to the magnificent storytelling and the excellent performances of the main cast. Kirk Douglas made a heroic Spartacus, and Laurence Olivier was at least as good; you could really get a sense of the coldness of Marcus Crassus. I'm not sure how close to the truth either depiction is, but they certainly work for the movie. Some other things about the movie aren't as good (the fight scenes generally aren't very impressive to today's audiences, although the part with the Roman legions moving into their positions was well done). Some other performances aren't as good and some dialogue gets a wooden reading (the "I don't know how i will ever be able to repay you" guy can't act)but these are minor elements and minor characters that don't really detract from the overall quality of the film. The film celebrates the spirit of freedom and revolt without beating the audience over the head with some hidden political message (with the possible exception of the bathtub scene with Olivier and Tony Curtis), and caps it all off with an ending which is simultaneously tragic and uplifting. The slave army is crushed and its leader killed, but as Douglas says near the end of the film, just thousands of slaves standing up and saying no was something, and those ideas will live on and still flourish when Marcus Crassus and the Roman Empire are ancient history.