More Titanic Than Any Story Ever Told

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 2015)

One of its tagline says, "More titanic than any story ever told!" which actually isn't very far from the truth & also notorious for being the only feature in the legendary film career of director Stanley Kubrick on which he didn't have complete artistic control, Spartacus is breathtaking in both scope of its ambition & scale of its production, and just like every other Kubrick film, is an influential example of its genre.
Based on Howard Fast's novel of the same name & set in 1st century BC, Spartacus tells the true life story of its titular character; a rebellious slave being trained at a gladiatorial school, who begins an uprising which soon spreads across the Italian Peninsula, resulting in the freedom of thousands of slaves but when his plan to flee the country is disrupted, he decides to challenge the might of Roman Empire.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the film has all the trademarks of this auteur yet feels remarkably different & unique compared to his previous works. The film is the first big-budget production of his career & yet the manner in which the then-young Kubrick handles its huge cast & epic scope is a testament to his skills as a filmmaker. Written by Dalton Trumbo, the screenplay isn't very accurate to its historical facts but it does make the story more relatable with current events.
The technical aspects are always gold-standard in Kubrick films & Spartacus is no exception. The set pieces are amazing to look at, locations are elegantly chosen, Cinematography makes fab use of its camera, the panoramic shots are spectacular, colour composition is vibrant & the level of detail is quite extensive. Despite running over 3 hours, it kept me deeply invested in its story & Alex North's majestic score provides an epic feel to its narrative.
Coming to the performances, Spartacus features a star-studded cast in Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, John Gavin, Tony Curtis & others. Douglas gives his all in the role of Spartacus & delivers a fantastic performance, Olivier plays Crassus with fine elegance, Laughton as Gracchus ends up stealing every scene he's in, Gavin doesn't do much as Julius Caesar, Curtis is brilliant as Antoninas & Jean Simmons does a good job as Varinia in a film dominated by men.
On an overall scale, to know that the screen being filled with thousands of people doesn't have one pixel of CGI in it, to know that each one of those extras was a real person indeed & to know that Kubrick managed to churn out an epic that more than lives up to its word are amongst a few things that makes me admire Spartacus all the more. Grandeur in scale, highly entertaining, very engaging, and covering love, betrayal, corruption, slavery, mutiny, civilization & leadership with finesse, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus comes strongly recommended.