I Finally "Get it" After All These Years

Rating: 9/10 (8 May 2015)

I've watched this movie several times throughout my life but it was only extremely recently that I came to appreciate it for the triumph that it truly is. What is the difference? SUFFERING. Forget about the fact that as a smaller child I probably didn't comprehend the entire plot and what was happening, but it's when you start to understand what it means to truly suffer and what it takes to rise above it can you appreciate this film for all that it is. An entire lifetime of living in the "pit" of slavery is WAY beyond MY ability to understand. But I've watched several of my closest family members die in the past 3 years. Learned what it meant to not have a home or a friend. And to have sickness take away control over my own body. These elements are all found in this movie. They are all the true attributes of being a slave. Slavery: You own nothing; Not even yourself. Nobody to call your own. No home. Unable to even have a friend. As Spartacus says, "Death is the only freedom a slave knows". yet he ends that sentence with, " ... But that's why we'll win." Because a slave has no fear of death. And with that one spark of hope, the hope that there is something "better" than the life he's living. And that HOPE jumps to a flame when one life is given as a sacrifice. It's not actually Spartacus that starts the revolt. It's Draba! It's his life that is the catalyst for sudden and massive change. Back in the days when Rome was in control of the world and it had a god for everything (probably even a sneeze), Spartacus says, "I imagine a god for slaves ... and I pray. I pray for a son who will be born free". His hope isn't even for himself. And in my own "pit", my Christian hope burst forth and I finally understood why Jesus had to come as a meek and humble servant. So that we would know that there IS a God for slaves, because each of us is a slave to something. When Spartacus is "wooing" Varinia it is the simple touch of their hands and the first person to show concern for her ("Did they hurt you?") that breaks down the walls to her heart and allows her to give it to Spartacus. Would she have loved him as deeply if he wasn't a slave too? And so I watch Spartacus and comprehend it. Not just because I understand how it fits into history, but how it fits into ME. A God for slaves. Yes. A God who understands my slavery and woos me so I am free to love Him back. Not because He has power over me but because he understands what it means to be a slave BEFORE He came into power. Truly an epic that transcends all that is in the human heart. At last I "get it". Watch it again and glean your own hope knowing that someday the darkness will end and hope will reign. That is what makes this story an epic. transcendence. And know that there is most definitely a God for slaves and so ... you are understood. Sincerely, Laura-Lee