Not A Complete Kubrick Film, But His Traits Are All There

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2014)

The very modest Stanley Kubrick never gave himself full credit to the contributions in making "Spartacus", which makes sense because he was not in full creative control. The main individual behind most of the project is actor/producer Kirk Douglas (Douglas was also the man who was responsible for hiring Kubrick a week after the filming had begun). Still of the sequences, the themes and the characters have the feeling and symbolism that Kubrick possessed in the four decades he had as a director.
Based on a historical novel by Howard Fast, which was based on actual events, "Spartacus" tells the tale of a slave as he trains to become a gladiator who then emerges as a leader of an epical slave uprising in the Roman Republic. Spartacus (Douglas) is a brave and loyal individual who has strong admiration towards his people much like Christ, only the setting of this movie was before Christ was born. Sure not all the historical context is accurate, but the performances by the star studded cast will simply amaze you, and the epic historical period piece is reminiscent to the classic around the year it was filmed. But what might come as quite a shock was that the levels of violence are very graphic and quite brutal (especially for a 1960 film). It is also saturated with political and sexually explicit content added to the script by writer Dalton Trumbo (who was blacklisted by commie hunter Joseph McCarthy). The visual eye-candy is a treat for the eyes and has lot of Kubrick symbolism including the vibrant cinematography, the clever camera angles and the nuanced themes of alienation and the evils of dehumanization.
Kirk Douglas looks like he was carved out of stone gives a very powerful performance as Spartacus; however he may come across as bit over-the-top. But that's just my point of view. I last time only saw this movie was years ago, when I was a rowdy adolescent who's hobbies were cookies, comics and cartoons. But he's not alone in this as he's backed up by a plethora of powerful thespians like Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov and Jean Simmons who also share the spotlight and succeeds nicely here.
In the end I thought it was an amazing film, not the greeted film of all time, but nowhere close to being the worst film I've ever seen. To call it a minor Kubrick film is no exaggeration to say the least. The main flaw is that some scenes tend to drag on for too long and I think there are times when "Spartacus" tries too hard to be an epical war period piece (which it does no question about it), but it crams too many sequences in that some scenes were not all needed. But it's still intriguing, technically sublime and the fight scenes were very well choreographed. If you like historical war period pieces that will keep you enthralled, you'll likely enjoy "Spartacus".