Much more than just "Kubrick's Hollywood movie"

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2007)

Though it is now recognized as a classic, Spartacus was notoriously disinherited by its director, the late, great Stanley Kubrick. His hatred for said picture derived from the fact that he wasn't involved with the project from the start (which is why his name is nowhere to be found in the screen writing credits), but hired only after original director Anthony Mann was fired (the only remains of the latter's work is the opening sequence). Given Kubrick always demanded total control over his pictures, it is understandable that he came to despise his only real "Hollywood movie". Nevertheless, Spartacus is a great picture, one that, alongside Ben-Hur, has defined the epic genre for years (and if the best they can make nowadays is Alexander, then its position remains unharmed).
The film stars Kirk Douglas, one of the few actors to have worked twice with the director (their previous collaboration was the anti-war masterpiece Paths of Glory), as the eponymous slave who finds himself in the middle of a political war between Roman senators such as Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier) and Sempronius Gracchus (Charles Laughton). Seeing the chaos that is rising throughout Italy, he decides to organize a rebellion, gathering a massive group of followers, including Crassus' former servant Antoninus (Tony Curtis). As the situation gets more preoccupying, the common people watch as Rome is threatened by thousands of "inferior" individuals, led by a charismatic man who believes in justice and freedom.
It is probably the aforementioned beliefs that upset Kubrick, famous as he was for almost celebrating misery and decadence in his films. In fact, despite the famous all-but-cheerful ending (brilliantly spoofed in Monty Python's Life of Brian), Spartacus is one of cinema's best representations of free will and courage prevailing over oppression. Much of this is due to Douglas' performance: playing it both ferociously determined (when Spartacus lectures his comrades and prepares for the imminent battle) and touchingly tender (when he meets his future wife, played by Jean Simmons), his performance transcends the character's mythical status and lends him a humanity that makes him instantly likable. Also remarkable are Peter Ustinov, playing slave merchant Batiatus (and winning an Oscar for it), and Olivier, particularly in the now infamous, audacious for the time, seduction scene with Curtis, where food is used as a metaphor for men and women (ironic, if you consider Olivier's part in that scene had to be re-recorded by Anthony Hopkins).
The best epics are those that blend the spectacular and the personal, and that is where Spartacus truly succeeds: like Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia, it never sacrifices characterization in favor of action, but lets the mesmerizing (and, as opposed to more recent genre films, bloodless) battle sequences be a part of the protagonists' development, bringing the movie closer to Asian "wuxia" movies such as Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon than Hollywood blockbusters like Troy.
So, in a time where the epic has lost most of its charm, movies like Spartacus are even more essential now than they were before. It may have been dismissed by Kubrick himself, but everyone seems to like it, and for a good reason: there is a heart beating beneath the eye-popping exterior.