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Spartacus

Spartacus (1991)

April. 26,1991
|
7.9
|
PG-13
| Adventure Drama History War

The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other slaves in rebellion. As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers swell as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to southern Italy, where they will cross the sea and return to their homes.

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Reviews

Colibel
1991/04/26

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

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Lawbolisted
1991/04/27

Powerful

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WillSushyMedia
1991/04/28

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

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Scarlet
1991/04/29

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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gridoon2018
1991/04/30

"Spartacus" is one of the greatest of all the historical epics - chiefly because it has a lot of humanity and intelligence to go along with its grand spectacle. More than "just" an account of a slave rebellion, it is also a love story for the ages, and a look into the political power play of 70 BC Rome. Dalton Trumbo's savvy script has a lot of remarkable lines ("We buy everything else these days, no reason why we shouldn't be charged for patriotism" or "I'm even more of a civilian than most civilians"). Kirk Douglas heads a distinguished cast and gives one of the finest performances of his career; I cannot picture anyone else in the title role. His love story with Jean Simmons has a passion and a purity that are rarely equalled in Hollywood. Peter Ustinov steals every scene he's in as a groveling slave trader, and Woody Strode is unforgettable as a huge, taciturn gladiator. The production values are top-notch, from Saul Bass' imposing title sequence and Alex North's superb score to the incredible crowd scenes and the painful-looking stunts. It's one of my all-time favorite films; it holds up beautifully in repeat viewings, and I never fail to cry with Tony Curtis' song. ***1/2 out of 4.

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jacobs-greenwood
1991/05/01

Though it's a fairly long historical epic, this essential drama features some terrific performances and huge battle sequences in the movie-making era before CGI, which enabled such scenes to become more commonplace.Directed by Stanley Kubrick with a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, based on the novel by Howard Fast, and featuring Kirk Douglas in the title role, the film includes Best Supporting Actor Peter Ustinov as a droll self-interested gladiator-owner-businessman Lentulus Batiatus; it also won for Color Art Direction-Set Decoration, Cinematography and Costume Design and was nominated for Editing and Alex North's Score.Laurence Olivier as Crassus and Charles Laughton as Gracchus provide the Roman Senate political backdrop as they alternatively manipulate the younger more naïve among them: John Gavin – as Julius Caesar – and John Dall, the less capable Glabrus. #62 on AFI's 100 Most Heart-Pounding Movies list. #44 on AFI's 100 Most Inspiring Movies list.Spartacus (AFI's #22 hero) is a proud, combative slave that's saved from death when he's picked by Batiatus to become a gladiator. After being trained by Batiatus' ex-slave gladiator-trainer Marcellus (Charles McGraw), he's forced into a ring "fight to the death" with Draba, another slave-gladiator (played by Woody Strode), for the pleasure of some visiting Roman 'royalty': rich Crassus, Glabrus and their women (Nina Foch and Joanna Barnes).After losing to but being spared by Draba, who chooses to take out his anger futilely against the Romans, Spartacus leads a revolt of the gladiators against their captors, which becomes an insurgency and then a quest for freedom by all of "slave nation".The major subplot involves the slave leader's love for the slave woman Varinia, played by Jean Simmons. Later, she too becomes a pawn in the Senators' manipulations. John Ireland plays Spartacus' loyal right- hand man Crixus; Harold J. Stone plays the silent David, another loyalist.Tony Curtis plays Antoninus, a slave gift to Crassus that's scared away by his master's advances, runs away to join Spartacus and, with his 'singing' and other entertainer talents, adds a culture to the uneducated slave clan as they revel in a freedom that must inevitably end. Herbert Lom plays a negotiator on behalf of some Sicilian pirates that were to join the slaves' rebellion against Rome.The memorable scene in which Antoninus and each of the other slave survivors claim - "I'm Spartacus" - to keep their Roman conquerors from identifying their leader is nowhere near the end of the story.

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gab-14712
1991/05/02

It is really interesting to see why this film, Spartacus was made in the first place. Obviously, historical epics were massively successful during this time period. But this particular film was made as an answer to 1959's Ben-Hur. In fact, it was Kirk Douglas's answer to that movie. Douglas was originally set to star in that movie, but Charlton Heston was cast over Douglas at the last minute, giving Douglas a feeling of bitter resentment. Both films have a very common theme: one man rising against the mighty Roman Empire to fight for their beliefs. I think Ben-Hur is the better film, but there is much to admire about this film.The movie, based off the popular novel by Howard Fast, was written by Dalton Trumbo. Trumbo is a well-known screenwriter, not only for his writing talent but because he was blacklisted because of his associated ties with communism. Kirk Douglas and director Stanley Kubrick stood strong behind their screenwriter and they publicly announced Trumbo wrote their movie, instead of Trumbo hiding behind a pseudonym. I found that to be a very courageous move on the part of Douglas and Kubrick, because that could have easily hurt the movie's chance at the box office. Luckily, the film was a box office smash and was very popular with the critics and the audience alike.This film has a Roman slave named Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) as the film's central character. Spartacus is held at a gladiatorial school ran by the amusing Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov). One day, he starts a revolt because he became angered at the notion of fighting to the death for the entertainment of spoiled women. This revolt soon spread all across Italy, where thousands of slaves joined the cause. Their plan was for Silesian pirates to transport them away from Italy to new lands. Meanwhile in Rome, Senator Gracchus (Charles Laughton) schemes to have the slaves taken down by a Roman garrison. After they failed, his mentor Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier) decides to lead his own army against Spartacus's slaves. Now Spartacus must face the might and power of the Roman army.Now compared to other epics of the time, I didn't like this film as much. It's certainly not a bad film, not even close to being so. The problem is the movie is a tad overlong and the story drags at certain moments. Some of the dialogue was cheesy too. By today's standards, the dialogue does not hold up very well and some of the words are laughingly bad. These complaints dragged the movie down, but only to a very small degree.There are many things I did admire about the film. There are plenty of majestic battle sequences and I liked them very much. I loved watching how the revolt started and I was cheering for Spartacus the entire time. I liked the political backdrop of the movie. Obviously, Spartacus uprising has a major political undertone which is revolution, a very appropriate theme. We also get to go behind the scenes and see how Roman politics influenced the war. It's a common fact that Roman senators always schemed against each other. The film also did something different, when compared to other epics. These other epics usually provide the normal happy ending. Well, that is not much the case with this film. If you follow history, you'll know the fate of Spartacus. But I'm not going to spoil anything for those who don't know. But the ending was very powerful and memorable. Speaking of powerful, my favorite scene was when a Roman general asked Spartacus's army where Spartacus was. Each soldier stood up and said, "I'm Spartacus." A very powerful scene showing the loyalty the slaves had for Spartacus and his cause.This film was the first big film of Stanley Kubrick's career. He was 30 when he directed the film, but he already had 4 feature films under his belt before this film. He masterfully directed the film, but it is publicly known that he disowned the film. It's his most straightforward film, and it was nominated for 6 Oscars (and won 4 of them). But Kubrick didn't like the film he made. He is one of my favorite directors, and you'll see more reviews of his films down the line.The film features fine performances from everyone involved. One of Kubrick's strengths is getting the very best out of his actors. Kirk Douglas portrayed Spartacus as a strong man driven by perseverance. Peter Ustinov, who won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his role as Batiatus, does a wonderful job. He is consistently funny and he has a great screen presence whenever on screen. Laurence Olivier delivers a deep performance as Crassus, who is identified as bisexual in the movie. Jean Simmons does a good job as Varinia, the wife of Spartacus. She delivered some emotional performances. Just watch the ending of the movie to see why I say so. Also, keep an eye on a meaty supporting turn by Tony Curtis as Antoninus, the man who loves Spartacus like a brother. Finally, Charles Laughton is great as the soft-hearted scheming Roman Senator, Gracchus.Overall, I liked Spartacus, but I didn't really love it much. It runs into some boring stretches and parts of the movie such as the dialogue and costumes don't hold up well. But I liked how the film strived to be more historically accurate than previous epics. This is a nice film to learn something about Ancient Rome. The film does feature wonderful, bold performances, great direction, good production design, and spectacular battles. Not the greatest epics ever made, but good enough.My Grade: B

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irishm
1991/05/03

I went to Rome last fall and I'm now amusing myself by watching lots of movies set in Rome, both present-day and ancient-history oriented. I enjoyed "Ben Hur" and "Quo Vadis", but "Spartacus" was kind of difficult to sit through. Maybe it was too much of a Kirk Douglas overdose. Maybe it was Peter Ustinov (who I usually enjoy) hamming it up to the point where he was out-hamming Charles Laughton, a neat trick in itself. Ustinov apparently won an Oscar for his performance; personally I thought his humor was misplaced and overdone in this context, although he was certainly funny.I've read that up to 10,000 people were associated with this film, and I think I saw them all in one scene where the slaves are coming over the hills towards the Romans. For a moment I automatically thought the effect had to be CGI, but then of course I remembered this was 1960 and those were in fact real extras running down the hillside like thousands upon thousands of ants. That shot was absolutely breathtaking; I'm glad I saw the film just to be able to experience the awesomeness of that scene.One of my favorite character actors, Harold J. Stone, had a significant supporting role as one of Spartacus' advisers; it was fun to see him in his prime doing drama.I'm sure I would have gotten less out of the film if I hadn't had the "I was in Rome" focus to hang it all on. The sight of the crucified slaves, dozens of them, hanging all along both sides of the Appian Way was rather sobering, to say the least, since I couldn't help but recall the moments I spent walking along that same road.I've seen "Ben Hur" a couple of times and I would certainly consider watching "Quo Vadis" again, but I think once was enough for "Spartacus".

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