A bit too long, but still very good

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2003)

Kirk Douglas plays the slave Spartacus. He leads the slave revolt, probably known by many, against Rome in the time just before Julius Ceasar. It is an epic that still looks very good. The battle scene in the end and the scene where Crassus (played by Laurence Olivier) is seducing a slave Antoninus (Tony Curtis) when he is taking a baths are very great. The cinematography is beautiful and although director Stanley Kubrick did not really made the film his own with his wonderful style, he does a great job. Performances by Douglas, Olivier, Curtis, Jean Simmons (who plays Varinia, the wife of Spartacus) and especially Peter Ustinov (as Lentulus Batiatus, who bought Spartacus in the beginning) are amazing. The movie is a little too long but despite that it is a very good one.