Spartacus? You are he, aren't you?

Rating: 9/10 (16 April 2020)

It is very much part of Hollywood folklore that having dispensed with the services of Anthony Mann, producer and star Kirk Douglas brought in Stanley Kubrick to direct. This represented a daunting challenge and Kubrick passed with flying colours. The rest as they say is history although Douglas felt that Kubrick was not as grateful as he should have been! Nigh on impossible to assemble a cast of this quality now. There are some highly amusing interviews on You Tube with Peter Ustonov who picked up an Oscar for Best Supporting in which he describes the clash of egos between Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton. Although there was no love lost between them Olivier recognised Laughton's 'genius'. Olivier here is in his physical prime and is magnificent in the role of Crassus. He is ruthlessness incarnate but very tender in his scenes with the Lavinia of Jean Simmons. He had directed her in 'Hamlet' and their professional bond is palpable. There are scenes which are indelibly etched notably the gladiatorial combat between Douglas and Woody Strode and the scene where the slave army watches the legions of Crassus forming for battle which must surely have been inspired by Eisenstein's 'Alexander Nevsky'. The score by Alex North although harsh captures perfectly the brutality of the times whilst Russell Metty's cinematography is superb. Forget the others, this is the only gladiator film that really matters and it will never be surpassed.