There's a Thrace For Us

Rating: 9/10 (12 February 2020)

Still, for me, the granddaddy of the sword and sandal epics, I wanted to rewatch this, one of my favourite movies, in tribute to the late, great, recently deceased Kirk Douglas. I'm actually not that big a fan of Kubrick, considering his film-work very hit and miss and yet this is the film of his I like most, even after learning, surprisingly, that he disowned it on release.
I've read about the supposed disagreements over the direction of the screenplay and the rumoured head-butting of the acting talent, but to me all or any of this is subsumed into the grand sweep and vision of the movie. I try to imagine what it looked like when it first hit the big screen, it must have seemed huge, even after the previous, recent success of the similarly monumental "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben Hur".
Perhaps one of the reasons I like "Spartacus" more than "Ben Ten" is its lack of religiosity. A simple and stirring story of the uprising of the downtrodden, there are of course possible read-acrosses in Dalton Trumbo's screenplay to the Hollywood Blacklist, or the treatment of the Jewish people in the Second World War and if the allegory fits then by all means wear it, but I prefer to let it stand in its own as a great and involving, if admittedly historically inaccurate tale, brought to life in the grand Hollywood manner by great direction, writing, cinematography and acting.
Douglas of course never won an individual acting Oscar for any of his film performances, which I consider ridiculous when I think of "Champion", "The Bad And The Beautiful", "Paths Of Glory" and my favourite of all his roles "Ace In The Hole", to name but four. I think he's terrific here as the rebellious Thracian slave, athletic, inspiring and manly but also sensitive and fair-minded. He gets fine support from those two English stalwarts, Lawrence Olivier as the intractable Crassus, although still with an eye it would seem for a young man or woman on the side and Charles Laughton as the seasoned Gracchus, with Tony Curtis and Jean Simmons fine also as Spartacus's young right-hand man and calming partner respectively. Almost stealing the show however is Peter Ustinov, back in the toga, as the weaselly Batiatus.
Kubrick directs unhurriedly, letting the grand story develop naturally before the climactic battle at the end and of course the famous "I am Spartacus" scene which has entered the lexicon of popular culture. His mastery of composition and the panoramic shot and crowd scenes in particular, assisted by Douglas Sirk's great cameraman Russel Metty, bring the story to life in vivid colour assisted by Alex North's stirring soundtrack.
Undoubtedly a massively ambitious cinematic undertaking, Kubrick and Douglas in my opinion certainly pull it off and I personally still consider it a true classic of cinema.
R.I.P. Mr Douglas.