Nice Look Back On 1960s Technicolor Lushness

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2006)

Spartacus is a Roman epic with Laurence Olivier in one of the greatest performances I think I've ever seen. It's also an ambitious early vehicle for Stanley Kubrick. And, it's an important point in cinematic history because it was the first film to openly defy the black list by using the work of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and billing him. The most entertaining thing about it, aside from Olivier's fierce, intense, and successfully infuriating performance, is the dated look of the lavish and obviously fake sets, the bright and blown out Technicolor cinematography, the opening slave revolt and the costumes and weapons and firetruck red blood. It's a movie of the times. It also marks my confirmation that Laurence Olivier is a brilliant actor. He draws such an intimidating facade for his prideful and puerile militarist, hiding his weak fear for humiliation in his battle for power against the truly confident Gracchus. I have seen Olivier in Sleuth, in which he gave a wonderful performance, but he didn't shoot to the top of my list as he does here.