A Near Perfect Film

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2019)

One of my favorite things about Epics is their simplicity. The plot of "Ben Hur," "Seven Samurai," and "Lawrence of Arabia," are all very simple. What is epic about them is the way they are shot and the way that every aspect of a single, simple story is shown, so that the simple is seen for what it is, multi-faceted.
Spartacus is no exception. The simple story of slave uprising could be told in an hour and a half, but this film is interested in more than just battle scenes. In fact, I would hesitate to even call this an action movie. There are really only a few fight scenes. The majority of the film is spent in senate chambers, politicians households, and in ramshackle tents thrown together by slaves on the run.
One might expect the story of gladiator escape to be full of gruesome battles and glorious blood soaked victories but there is only one gladiatorial contest ever shown on screen and only two are even spoken of. The first is only ever heard through the closed door of a holding pen and the second, Spartacus actually loses, a twist of fate being the only measure that saves his life. Doesn't Kubrick understand what a movie like this should be about?
Of course he does. That's why it isn't full of action scenes. Because this movie is about man, power, slavery, and domination. It is a statement against despotism, factionalism, and machiavellian politics. It's a statement of solidarity with unions, black listed actors, the downtrodden, and oppressed. It reminds the viewer that while the dominating forces of this world may have the power, law, and structures of the world to support them, the working man, the slave, and the prisoners have numbers on their side if they can only unite.