A seminal epic

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2001)

This epic film was obviously the provenance for later historic-dramas such as Braveheart and Gladiator (in fact the similarities to the former are numerous in both style and content right down to the torturous death scene, alleviated by emotional fulfillment, that ends the movie). But the makers of both those flicks were prescient in using this Stanley Kubrick classic as an archetypal base. A strong cast consisting of Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Tony Curtis and the enjoyable Peter Ustinov impels the vision of Kubrick, resulting in a magniloquent saga of the slave who fights the good fight. Of course it's not Spartacus' self-solicitousness that endears us to his plight, it is his struggle for the manumission of all his brothers in bondage. His dedication to his comrades is reciprocated in a cinematic highlight that swells the soul as his defeated soldiers defy the power of mighty Rome by unifying in impending death (`I am Spartacus' they all shout) rather than condemn their leader to a lonely demise.

Kubrick would go on to make more important films, but none as august as this work. Spartacus stands as a salient film be it for its precursory effluence or its own sublime qualities.