"An animal can fight, but to sing beautiful things"

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2006)

Spartacus is unique among Kubrick films in that he was never meant to direct it, and he had little influence over it once it reached post-production, something which did not suit Kubrick or his style. As such it's a slightly botched, uneven work.
Very little of Kubrick's style  which was actually still developing at the time  remains intact. It does often look like a typical studio job with the director being just a cog in the crew. You can still see Kubrick's sense of contrasting high and low with location. Just as he showed complete changes of tone between the trenches and palatial officer's quarters in Paths of Glory (1957), he here compares the ornate, spacious Roman palaces with the dingy, underground gladiator's cells. In fact, the films best moments come in the first hour set at the gladiatorial school.
Taking the few known facts about the real historical figures concerned, Dalton Trumbo has woven a good story, particularly with the complex rivalries and loyalties between the Romans. The dialogue however is pretty poor. Kubrick dismissed the script as being too full of stupid morality, and he was right. There are lots of impassioned speeches about dying free, much of which borders on cliché. While it's a welcome change from the piety of the religious epics of the 1950s, this deal with making such a big thing of the hero being perfectly noble and principled can be almost as bad.
In spite of the stellar acting line-up, there are only really three acting performances I really like  the trio of English Romans. Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton are both ideally suited to their roles as Crassus and Gracchus respectively. However best of all is my all time favourite actor  Peter Ustinov who, as usual steals the show as the gladiatorial school owner Batiatus. Apparently Ustinov wrote most of his own dialogue, which explains why he gets all the best lines. Or perhaps it's just his deadpan delivery which gives lines like "Most exciting. I tingle," such brilliance.
The musical score is instantly forgettable. In fact I even forget who composed it. Kubrick does make good use of it though, editing to the beat in two key scenes  when Spartacus and Draba are waiting to fight each other, and in the build up to the final battle  building up tension well.
There are quite a few moments of sloppiness in Spartacus. There are plot holes big enough to drive a convenient character arc through. There is a hideous backdrop which makes what was supposed to be quite a warm, poignant scene look silly. I'll also point out rather smugly that, if you watch closely in the scene of the gladiators rebelling at the school, Spartacus actually defeats no less than four fully armed Roman guards using nothing more than a wicker basket. Mind you, it's cinema. You can overlook these things, sit back and enjoy.
So, it's no small wonder that after Spartacus Kubrick moved to the UK and ensured he had complete control of all his pictures from thereon. You would never guess that it was the product of one of cinema's most stylised and meticulous directors. When there are moments of brilliance they are rarely a result of directorial style. It's not a bad film  it has just enough good elements to hold it all together. But on the flipside it has far too many bad elements to make it a classic.