Spurtacus

Rating: 5/10 (11 September 2007)

It moves with spurts of candor and lapses into ennui. I originally saw this movie with my Latin teacher. She was as unimpressed with much of it as I am today. At the time, I thought it wasn't bad. But I knew there were a lot of factually incorrect parts of the plot and characters. That's a needless flaw. I just saw the longer version on cable tonight. Loved the gay sex scene (implied) between Olivier and Curtis. WAAAAy ahead of its time.... and didn't make it in 1960. Although the opening scenes up through the revolt are reasonably good along with the sets and the scenes of Rome pretty good, the movie then devolves into a sort of Roman Westward Ho. There are so many factual errors, not to mention the psychology of the characters being more 20th century than 1st BC. It's a grand spectacle, but unfortunately mostly filled with hot air. A great cast of course with Laughton, Olivier and even Douglas... plus the ever conniving Ustinov. Jean Simmons looks like she's just waiting for the 4:05 express bus to Burbank, most of the time. I did like it that a Jew wrote the book at a time when he was oppressed in America and another Jew played the main character who was being oppressed... a lot of symmetry there.