Spartacus (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Spartacus | |
|---|---|
 Original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Stanley Kubrick |
| Produced by | Kirk Douglas (producer) |
| Written by | Novel: Howard Fast Screenplay: Dalton Trumbo |
| Starring | Kirk Douglas Jean Simmons Laurence Olivier Charles Laughton Peter Ustinov John Gavin and Tony Curtis |
| Music by | Alex North |
| Cinematography | Russell Metty |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  6 October 1960 (premiere) 8 December 1960 9 December 1960 |
| Running time | 184 min. (premiere) 198 min. (1991 restored version) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12,000,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Spartacus is a 1960 film directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast about the historical life of Spartacus and the Third Servile War. The film stars Kirk Douglas as rebellious slave Spartacus and Laurence Olivier as his rival, the Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus. The film also stars Peter Ustinov (who won a an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus), John Gavin (as Julius Caesar), Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Herbert Lom, Woody Strode, Tony Curtis, John Dall and Charles McGraw. The titles were designed by Saul Bass. [1]
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[edit] Synopsis
The film begins at a mine worked by slaves in the Roman province of Libya. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) comes to the aid of an old man who has fallen down. A Roman soldier tells Spartacus to get back to work, only to be attacked and bitten on the ankle. For this, Spartacus is tied up and sentenced to death. A slave dealer, Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov), arrives, looking for recruits to turn into gladiators. He inspects several slaves with a disgusted look, before finally settling on Spartacus, recognizing his unbroken spirit. Batiatus sails for Capua and his villa in the country, which doubles as a gladiator training school. Over the course of several months, Spartacus becomes a fine warrior. As a reward, he is given the opportunity to sleep with one of the slave girls, Varinia (Jean Simmons), but declines, declaring: "I am not an animal!"
Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier) arrives at the school with some companions, wishing to be entertained by watching two pairs of gladiators fight to the death. Spartacus is chosen, and is defeated, but his vanquisher (Woody Strode) refuses to kill him, instead throwing his trident into the elevated spectators' box and trying to reach them. Crassus kills him as he is climbing and leaves. However, he purchases Varinia, of whom Spartacus has grown fond. When Batiatus personally takes her away, Spartacus leads a revolt against the Romans. The freed slaves eventually take Capua.
In the Senate of Rome, plebeian senator Sempronius Gracchus (Charles Laughton) cunningly manipulates Crassus' protege and friend Marcus Glabrus (John Dall) into taking the Garrison of Rome out to crush the revolt, leaving the way is open for Gracchus' ally, Julius Caesar (John Gavin) to take command of the city. Meanwhile, Crassus purchases a new slave, Antoninus (Tony Curtis), a former children's tutor from Sicily, and tries to seduce him. Antoninus runs away and joins Spartacus.
Spartacus reviews some new recruits, assigning them positions according to their skills. Antoninus presents himself as a poet and illusionist, but Spartacus still wants him in the army, indirectly commenting on the relation between politics and art. Spartacus is reunited with Varinia, who ran away from the portly Batiatus. After destroying the Garrison of Rome, he outlines his plan to escape by sea, aboard the ships of the Cilician (called "Silesian" by characters in the film) pirates, who have been paid from the plunder they have amassed.
Rome keeps sending armies to put down the rebellion (the theatrical trailer mentions "nine armies"), but Spartacus defeats them all. Crassus resigns from the Senate, supposedly to share the disgrace of Glabrus. However, Gracchus suspects that he is merely waiting for the situation to become so desperate that the senators will make him dictator, thus neutralizing Gracchus' rival plebeian party. Gracchus manoeuvers to help the slaves to escape to deny Crassus his opportunity. However, Caesar betrays Gracchus, letting Crassus know about this plan.
When the former slaves reach the coast, they discover that the Cilicians have been bought off by Crassus. Spartacus rejects an offer of the Cilician envoy (Herbert Lom) to smuggle him and his family and aides to Asia to enjoy their riches. Spartacus is then trapped between three Roman armies (Pompey in Calabria, Lucullus in Brundisium and the Garrison of Rome). The only solution is to fight their way through to Rome. Meanwhile, Crassus is given the sweeping powers he desires. In parallel scenes, Spartacus harangues to the slaves, while Crassus warns against the elimination of patrician privileges. Batiatus is hired by Crassus to help him identify Spartacus.
The climactic battle results in the total defeat of the rebel army and the capture of many of the slaves, including Spartacus. Crassus promises the captives that they will not be punished if they will just identify Spartacus or his body. In a powerful scene, one by one, they stand up and claim to be him ("I'm Spartacus!"), so Crassus has them all crucified, one by one all the way from the battlefield to the gates of Rome. He saves Antoninus and Spartacus for last, suspecting that the latter is the one he seeks.
Meanwhile, Batiatus sees that the revenge of Crassus denies him the promised lucrative auction of the surviving slaves. Varinia is taken to Crassus' home, where he unsuccessfully woos her. In his last act before committing suicide, Gracchus generously hires Batiatus to steal Varinia from Crassus, then grants freedom for her and her son. Frustrated at Varinia's rejection, Crassus orders Spartacus and Antoninus to duel to the death, too impatient to wait for the next day's celebrations. He declares that the winner will be crucified. Each man tries to kill the other, to spare his companion an agonizing death. Spartacus is victorious and is crucified by the walls of Rome. Crassus tells Caesar that he fears Spartacus now, as he will have the power of a martyr.
Batiatus and Varinia leave for Gaul through the Via Appia and find the crucified, but still living Spartacus there. Varinia shows Spartacus his newborn son and vows that he will grow up a free man.
[edit] Production
The development of Spartacus was partly instigated by Kirk Douglas's failure to win the title role in William Wyler's Ben-Hur. Douglas had worked with Wyler before on Detective Story, and was disappointed when Wyler chose Charlton Heston instead. Not wanting to appear beaten, he decided to upstage Wyler, and create his own epic, Spartacus, with himself in the title role.
[edit] Screenplay development
Originally, Howard Fast was hired to adapt his own novel as a screenplay, but he experienced difficulty working in the screenplay format and was replaced by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, who worked under the pseudonym "Sam Jackson". Some people[citation needed] feel the Spartacus in Trumbo's adaptation is depicted as a form of early communist who fights against the wealthy Roman establishment by liberating the slaves. The filming was plagued by the conflicting visions of Kubrick and Trumbo: Kubrick, a young director at the time, did not have the degree of control he would later have over his films, and the final product is more a result of Trumbo's optimistic screenplay than it is of Stanley Kubrick's trademark cynicism.
In post-production, Douglas was made aware that Kubrick intended to take writing credit for the film instead of Trumbo. The powerful Douglas publicly resisted Trumbo's exclusion, and when Trumbo's name appeared in the credits, the Hollywood blacklist was effectively broken.
[edit] Filming
Spartacus was originally to be directed by Anthony Mann. However, two weeks into shooting, Mann was fired by the studio because of his lack of leadership and Stanley Kubrick was hired to take over. At this point in his career, Kubrick had already directed four feature films, two of which were major Hollywood productions. Even so, Spartacus was Kubrick's biggest project so far, with a budget of $12 million and a cast of 10,500, an impressive achievement for such a young director (although his contract did not give him complete control over the filming).
Spartacus was filmed using 70 mm Super Technirama cameras, which was a change for Kubrick, who preferred using square-format ratios. Kubrick found working outdoors or in real locations to be distracting and thus preferred to film in the studio. He believed the actors would benefit more from working on a sound stage, where they could fully concentrate. To create the illusion of the large crowds that play such an essential role in the film, Kubrick's crew used three-channel sound equipment to record 76,000 spectators at a Michigan State – Notre Dame college football game shouting "Hail, Crassus!" and "I'm Spartacus!"
The intimate scenes were filmed in Hollywood, but Kubrick insisted that all battle scenes be filmed on a vast plain outside Madrid. Eight thousand trained soldiers from the Spanish infantry were used to double as the Roman army. Kubrick directed the armies from the top of specially constructed towers. However, he eventually had to cut all but one of the gory battle scenes, due to negative audience reactions at preview screenings.
[edit] Music
The original score for Spartacus was composed and conducted by six-time Academy Award nominee Alex North. It is considered one of his best works, and a textbook example of how modernist compositional styles can be adapted to the Hollywood leitmotif technique. North's score is epic, as befits the scale of the film. After extensive research of music of that period, North gathered a collection of antique instruments that, while not authentically Roman, provided a strong dramatic effect. These instruments included a Sarrusophone, Israeli recorder, Chinese oboe, lute, mandolin, Yugoslav flute, kythara, dulcimer, and bagpipes. North's prize instrument was the Ondioline, similar to an earlier version of the electronic synthesizer, which had never been used in film before. Much of the music is written without a tonal center, or flirts with tonality in ways that most film composers wouldn't. One theme is used to represent both slavery and freedom, but is given different values in different scenes, so that it sounds like different themes. The love theme for Spartacus and Virinia (sung by Terry Callier) is the most accessible theme in the film, and there is a harsh trumpet figure for Crassus.
The soundtrack album runs less than forty-five minutes and is not very representative of the score. There were plans to re-record a significant amount of the music with North's friend and fellow film composer Jerry Goldsmith, but the project kept getting delayed until Goldsmith's death in 2004. There have been numerous bootlegs, but none of them have good sound quality.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Starring
- Kirk Douglas as Spartacus. Spartacus is a Thracian slave working in Libya, who is purchased by the lanista Lentulus Batiatus, and trained as a gladiator.
- Laurence Olivier as Crassus. Crassus is a patrician with an obsessive love of the city of Rome. He vies for power in the Roman senate, and thinks little of Spartacus' rebellion. Academy Award-winner Sir Laurence Olivier is considered by many to be the greatest classical actor of the 20th century. Olivier, when approached by Douglas (who knew him because they had both worked together on The Devil's Disciple), suggested that he play Spartacus, much to Douglas' chagrin. Olivier, however, accepted the secondary part and second billing.
- Jean Simmons as Varinia. Varinia is a slave girl working for Batiatus, who falls in love with Spartacus. Academy Award-nominee Simmons had played many roles in notable British films (Great Expectations, Black Narcissus, co-star Olivier's Hamlet), and had made a successful transition to Hollywood. This was one of her numerous leading roles.
- Charles Laughton as Gracchus. Gracchus is a dedicated Roman senator who is Crassus' only real opposition. Academy Award-winner Laughton's career had dwindled somewhat since the late 30's. This was one of his last major roles, before his death in 1962.
- Peter Ustinov as Batiatus. Lentulus Batiatus is a shrewd, manipulative, slave dealer, who purchases Spartacus, and ends up paying dearly for it. Peter Ustinov won his first Oscar for his role in this film (the second would come with Topkapi). Ustinov was a writer, director, and a distinguished raconteur. His performance was the only one that would win an Oscar from a Kubrick film.
- John Gavin as Julius Caesar. Caesar is the young, ambitious, protege of Gracchus, who gains command of the Garrison of Rome during the chaos of the Spartacus rebellion. Gavin is today best known as the lover of Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. He would later become the United States Ambassador to Mexico.
[edit] Supporting
- Nina Foch as Helena Glabrus. Helena is the shrewd, maniplative sister of Marcus Publius Glabrus. The Academy Award-nominated Foch had gained mainstream stardom in another epic, Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments.
- John Ireland as Crixus. Crixus is one of Spartacus' most loyal lieutenants, and serves him until he is slain in the final battle. Academy Award-nominee Ireland normally played supporting roles akin to the one he played in Spartacus.
- Herbert Lom as Tigranes Levantus. Levantus is a Cilician pirate who is forced to betray Spartacus. Herbert Lom was a Czech who moved to Hollywood, eventually to gain his greatest fame as Inspector Dreyfuss in Blake Edwards' long running film series The Pink Panther.
- John Dall as Marcus Publius Glabrus. Glabrus is the naïve protege of Crassus, who unwittingly plays into the hands of Gracchus. Academy Award-nominee Dall was an American actor who worked primarily in the theatre.
- Charles McGraw as Marcellus. Marcellus is Lentulus Batiatus' gruff and cruel gladiator trainer, who picks on Spartacus in particular. McGraw was well known for playing heavies similar to his role in Spartacus.
- Tony Curtis as Antoninus. Antoninus is a young slave who leaves his master, Crassus, and joins Spartacus. Academy Award-nominee Curtis had recently had huge success with Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, and Douglas wanted him for the film to add more "star power".
[edit] Versions
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| Argentina: | 13 |
| Australia: | PG |
| Canada (Manitoba): | G (original) PG(restored) |
| Canada (Ontario): | PG (original) AA(restored) |
| Canada (Maritime): | G |
| Canada (Quebec): | G |
| Denmark: | 15 |
| Finland: | K-16 |
| France: | U |
| Germany: | 12 |
| Ireland: | PG |
| Netherlands: | 12 |
| Norway: | 16 |
| Spain: | 13 |
| Sweden: | 15 |
| United Kingdom: | A (original) PG |
| United States: | PG-13 |
The film was re-released in 1967 (in a version 23 minutes shorter than the original release), and again in 1991 with the same 23 minutes restored, plus an additional 14 minutes that had been cut from the film before its original release. This addition includes several violent battle sequences as well as a bath scene in which the Roman patrician and general Crassus (Olivier) attempts to seduce his slave Antoninus (Curtis) using the analogy of "eating oysters" and "eating snails" to express his opinion that sexual preference is a matter of taste rather than morality. When the film was restored, two years after Olivier's death, the original dialogue recording of this scene was missing, and so it had to be re-dubbed. Tony Curtis, by then 66, was able to re-record his part, but Crassus's voice is actually an impersonation of Olivier by actor Anthony Hopkins, a talented mimic who had been a protege of Olivier during his early career and knew his voice well.
[edit] Historical inaccuracies
- The events in the famous "I am Spartacus!" scene and all the scenes afterwards with Spartacus may never have occurred, as Spartacus is widely believed to have been killed in battle.
- Marcus Crassus was actually unwilling to pursue Spartacus and his army. It is also widely believed that the film's large battle near the end was started when Spartacus' army attempted to ambush Crassus. Furthermore it was Crassus alone who won the final battle against Spartacus. Pompey's role was simply killing 5,000 slaves who had fled from that final battle. But Pompey recived most of the honour.
- There are fewer battles in the movie than actually took place in real life. For example, after being defeated in the north, Spartacus flees south, and rather than confront him, Crassus builds a wall across the boot of Italy to contain him.
- Julius Caesar could not have commanded the garrison of Rome, since it did not exist at that time.
- In the film, Spartacus was born into a life of slavery. The real Spartacus is believed to have served in the Roman Army as an auxiliary soldier who deserted and was caught and sold into slavery as punishment. This was deemed not heroic enough and was changed to what is seen in the film.
- In the film there is a character referred to as Gracchus. The character is depicted as being part of the Senate and opposed to Crassus. Although there may have been a Gracchus at the time that opposed Crassus, there does not seem to be any documentary evidence of this. The most significant Gracchi were Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus who were both revolutionary political figures. However, their combined lifetimes spanned the period between 163 BC–121 BC. The slave revolts that the film refers to occurred around 73 BC–71 BC. This means that the character in the film is most likely fictional. The character was probably used as a plot contrivance because his name represents people power which is a recurring theme in the film. His words in the film portray him as a person who prefers political expediency over traditional laws and customs which was also a notable trait of the Gracchi. Note: The Gracchus family was a plebeian family in Rome. The plural of Gracchus is Gracchi.
[edit] Awards and nominations
[edit] Academy Awards
| Award | Person | |
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Peter Ustinov | |
| Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color | Alexander Golitzen Eric Orbom Russell A. Gausman Julia Heron |
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| Best Cinematography, Color | Russell Metty | |
| Best Costume Design, Color | Valles Bill Thomas |
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| Nominated: | ||
| Best Film Editing | Robert Lawrence | |
| Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture | Alex North | |
[edit] Criticism
Critics such as Roger Ebert have argued that the film has flaws which have caused it to become severely dated. Critics attribute the film's flaws to various elements including the interference of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which imposed censorial conformity under the Production Code; the replacement of original director, Anthony Mann, after the first week's shooting; a sparring cast (Laughton vs. Olivier; replacement director Kubrick vs. executive producer/star Douglas); and a distracting and boisterous orchestral soundtrack.
[edit] Trivia
A famous scene of the movie involves the recaptured slaves being asked to point out which one of them is Spartacus in exchange for leniency. Instead, they each proclaim themselves to be Spartacus and thus share his fate. A similar scene or event is sometimes called a 'Spartacus moment' in reference to this particular scene.
In the Seinfeld episode The Gum, the show's central characters see Spartacus at a revival theatre.
[edit] References
- Spartacus, Directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Dalton Trumbo, 1960.
- ^ Spartacus at the Internet Movie Database Retrieved June 17, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Spartacus at the Internet Movie Database
- Anecdote about President Kennedy's screening
- Criterion Collection essay by Stephen Farber
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| Films: Fear and Desire • Killer's Kiss • The Killing • Paths of Glory • Spartacus • Lolita • Dr. Strangelove • 2001: A Space Odyssey • A Clockwork Orange • Barry Lyndon • The Shining • Full Metal Jacket • Eyes Wide Shut Shorts: Day of the Fight • Flying Padre • The Seafarers Productions: A.I.: Artificial Intelligence Kubrick in Popular Culture: Spartacus • Dr. Strangelove • 2001: A Space Odyssey • A Clockwork Orange • The Shining |
| Preceded by: Double Suicide |
The Criterion Collection 104 |
Succeeded by: Coup de Torchon |
Categories: Articles lacking sources from June 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Articles with unsourced statements | 1960 films | Biographical films | English-language films | Anti-War Film | Films directed by Stanley Kubrick | Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winning performance | Films over three hours long | Universal Pictures films | Films based on actual events
