Spartacus (1960) USA
Spartacus Image Cover
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Director:Stanley Kubrick
Studio:Universal Studios
Producer:Edward Lewis, James C. Katz
Writer:Howard Fast, Dalton Trumbo
Rating:4
Rated:PG-13
Date Added:2006-06-21
ASIN:0783226039
UPC:0025192018121
Price:$19.98
Awards:Won 4 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 9 nominations
Genre:Classics
Release:1998-03-30
IMDb:0054331
Duration:196
Picture Format:Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:2.20 : 1
Sound:Dolby
Languages:English, Dolby Digital 5.1, French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Subtitles:English, Spanish
Features:Letterboxed
2.20:1
Stanley Kubrick  ...  (Director)
Howard Fast, Dalton Trumbo  ...  (Writer)
 
Kirk Douglas  ...  Spartacus
Laurence Olivier  ...  Marcus Licinius Crassus
Jean Simmons  ...  Varinia
Charles Laughton  ...  Sempronius Gracchus
Peter Ustinov  ...  Lentulus Batiatus
John Gavin  ...  Julius Caesar
Nina Foch  ...  Helena Glabrus
John Ireland  ...  Crixus
Herbert Lom  ...  Tigranes Levantus
John Dall  ...  Marcus Publius Glabrus
Charles McGraw  ...  Marcellus
Joanna Barnes  ...  Claudia Marius
Harold J. Stone  ...  David
Woody Strode  ...  Draba
Peter Brocco  ...  Ramon
Comments: They trained him to kill for their pleasure. . .but they trained him a little too well. . .

Summary: Stanley Kubrick was only 31 years old when Kirk Douglas (star of Kubrick's classic Paths of Glory) recruited the young director to pilot this epic saga, in which the rebellious slave Spartacus (played by Douglas) leads a freedom revolt against the decadent Roman Empire. Kubrick would later disown the film because it was not a personal project--he was merely a director-for-hire--but Spartacus remains one of the best of Hollywood's grand historical epics. With an intelligent screenplay by then-blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo (from a novel by Howard Fast), its message of moral integrity and courageous conviction is still quite powerful, and the all-star cast (including Charles Laughton in full toga) is full of entertaining surprises. Fully restored in 1991 to include scenes deleted from the original 1960 release, the full-length Spartacus is a grand-scale cinematic marvel, offering some of the most awesome battles ever filmed and a central performance by Douglas that's as sensitively emotional as it is intensely heroic. Jean Simmons plays the slave woman who becomes Spartacus's wife, and Peter Ustinov steals the show with his frequently hilarious, Oscar-winning performance as a slave trader who shamelessly curries favor with his Roman superiors. The restored version also includes a formerly deleted bathhouse scene in which Laurence Olivier plays a bisexual Roman senator (with restored dialogue dubbed by Anthony Hopkins) who gets hot and bothered over a slave servant played by Tony Curtis. These and other restored scenes expand the film to just over three hours in length. Despite some forgivable lulls, this is a rousing and substantial drama that grabs and holds your attention. Breaking tradition with sophisticated themes and a downbeat (yet eminently noble) conclusion, Spartacus is a thinking person's epic, rising above mere spectacle with a story as impressive as its widescreen action and Oscar-winning sets. --Jeff Shannon