Epic cinema at its best

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2001)

Laurence Olivier, Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov... with such an assembly of actors, how could this film not be extraordinary? Well, it is extraordinary. I am not going to go into a long history of the slave revolt under Spartacus; see the film and enjoy every minute of it (and if you like that, there are many different academic books on the real life of Spartacus, as well as classic Roman texts to be found). Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is a stalwart, reticent, but bravely rebellious slave-turned gladiator whose spirit cannot be broken, and yet he finds it in his heart to love the lovely British slave, Varinia, (Jean Simmons) with a fierce loyalty and tenderness that really gets the emotions going... Laurence Olivier (Crassus) has never turned in a finer performance in my opinion (a bare description could hardly do it justice), and Charles Laughton (a fine actor virtually unknown outside the acting world of today) *IS* the licentious senator, Gracchus. Tony Curtis does seem a bit out of place in the cast, but he makes at the very least, a sincere (though somewhat stilted-sounding) Antoninus. All in all, this is one of classic cinema's best. My rating: 10/10.