not your typical gladiator movie

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 2002)

A really great film...not at all like any other "gladiator" film. The film takes its power from the book by Howard Fast (who was an admitted communist) and the writer, Dalton Trumbo, (blacklisted for 15 years as a communist). This relationship must have given everyone on the set another context in which to conceive of the film, considering that this film broke the blacklist, and several blacklisted actors were used as well. The movie is really about humanity, the joy of freedom (however fleeting) and the tremendous hatred the slaves had for slavery.
A lot of the film is made in Spain...interesting considering that Spain was run by a fascist dictator (Franco) at the time. There are a strange bunch of extras used in the film...elderly twins, dwarves, really elderly women, etc. It was a good technique to give a feeling of reality....

The love scenes between Spartacus and Vorynia are just beautiful, and I love the music which accompanies them.
Kirk Douglas' finest film, bar none!