One man is not followed because he's strong, but he's strong because he's followed ...

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2012)

"This campaign is not alone to kill Spartacus. It is to kill the legend of Spartacus." states Crassus (Laurence Olivier) to his centurions before relieving them. There is a hint of pessimism in the way he delivers this quote, as if he was indeed aware that a figure like Spartacus would leave a great impact in the world even after his death. Crassus' fear was Spartacus' faith, that's the poetic beauty within the antagonism between the patrician tyrant and the leader of the slaves' rebellion.
Spartacus, immortalized by Kirk Douglas, has an unforgettable face; it seems like sculpted in a Greek semi-God's mask, so fitting for the Thracian gladiator. And between the man who defies Rome and the man who represents Rome, it's not just a battle of weapons, but of ideals. One worships the ideas of liberty, freedom and brotherhood, one the divine incarnation of Rome. For Crassus, "Rome in the eternal thought in the mind of God", a powerful quote. How many people fallaciously advocated God or Gods when it came to justify the cruelest actions in order to dominate the world? Crassus' vision was archaic precisely because it was the incarnation of a period where Rome's fate was sealed by paganism and slavery. Spartacus, on the other hand, embodies an ideal that could only be fulfilled two thousand years later. This is why he lost his war in his lifetime, but this is why he's remembered now. The legend is still alive, and much alive. And the greatest thing about Spartacus is how incredibly fresh and modern his story remains.
Even now, with all the revolts that plant the seeds of liberty in the third-world streets, Spartacus is still relevant. And the script written by formerly blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo was even more significant in the years of its release during the escalation of Civil Rights' movements and McCarthyism. The film's most emblematic scene depicts the polar opposite of whatever the blacklisting stood for: naming names and condemning a stranger, a friend, for infamy and disgrace. Slaves stood up and started shouting "I'm Spartacus!" refusing to collaborate with the enemy, even if that applied their crucifixion. This brotherhood has forged Spartacus' aura in history, and it contributes to a heart-breaking climax when Spartacus and his friend, Antoninus (Tony Curtis) are ordered to fight to the death, and the winner shall be crucified. Ironically, it turns out to be their most ruthless fight because one's death implied the other's suffering. The scene occurs at last when we had more than a glimpse about the solidarity between the gladiators, so, we feel the devastation in Spartacus' heart when he kills his friend.
Spartacus was one of Karl Marx' most admired figures because he incarnated the same values to inculcate to the workers from all over the world, the modern slaves of his period. How about now? Has slavery that disappeared, it's not a system of course but it reunites many people victims of a same injustice: people who can only live by providing their working value and thus cannot enjoy the fruits of another's labor, those who incarnate both virtue in the Latin meaning of quality and force, a sort of honorable modesty that deprives them from the decadent enjoyment of wealth. "Spartacus" is a film that divides the world in two distinct entities: slaves and oppressors, such a simplistic dichotomy can find echoes today, where one percent of the planet still rules the other 99 percent. But much more than a political statement, the film speaks something nobler, deeply rooted in the heart of Spartacus and his slaves, the idea of a community, of a powerful unity. And Douglas' performance is crucial because he manages to betray an ounce of vulnerability all through the film.
In one of the most memorable scenes, Spartacus is picked to fight Draba (Woody Strode), the Ethiopian gladiator. Unexpectedly, Spartacus loses the fight and only owes his life to his opponent's suicidal move. Draba throws his stick to the same women who wanted to be entertained and asked for a fight to death just for sheer entertainment. But it's a pivotal moment for Spartacus as he understands he'd rather die fighting this criminal injustice than live in such dehumanizing conditions, like an animal. But as vulnerable as he is, Spartacus drains his strength from community. That's the key, people don't follow him because he's stronger, but he's stronger because people follow him. He's conscious of his legend and accepts the heavy weight on his shoulders. During a poignant conversation with his pregnant wife, former slave Varinia (Jean Simmons), he fears weakness but she finds the right words to reassure him. "You're strong enough to be weak"
While heroism in movies implies a sort of loneliness, Spartacus acts for a collective ideal. His humanistic aura even outshines the film itself and almost makes us forget we're watching a Technicolor big-budgeted swords-and-sandals epic, quite an accomplishment if you realize how much less fight scenes and much more conversations it features. But what conversations! And what a casting! Beyond Douglas and Olivier, there are two remarkable performances that drove my personal enjoyment: Charles Laughton as the plebeian senator, Gracchus, Crassus' greatest rival, and Peter Ustinov as the slave trader and gladiator's impresario Lentulus Batiatus (he rightfully won an Oscar for that role). Both of them, with the same tendency for corpulence and this endearing capability to shamelessly admit their flaws, added a certain dimension of humor and human depth in a rather solemn film. They're essential as counterparts to the grave tyranny of Crassus and Spartacus' flamboyant heroism. Together, they provide half of the enjoyment, something that all the beauty of Jean Simmons couldn't have satisfied.
And since the film is still listed in his glorious filmography, kudos to Stanley Kubrick! It's not the most Kubrickian of all his films, but it still stands alone on its own as one of the most thrilling, inspiring and fascinating American classics.