Spartacus [Universal, Movie-Only Edition]

---

Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »

---

The 1950s were a time of change, and not a little trepidation, for the movie industry. Television was the enemy, keeping people in their homes, and Hollywood was doing everything it could to lure viewers back into theaters. It was the age of widescreen color, Cinerama, 3-D, stereo sound, and the grand extravaganza. It was the era of "Ben-Hur," "The Ten Commandments," "El Cid," and their casts of thousands. And at the end of the decade, released in 1960, came the best and most intelligent of the blockbusters, Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus."

It is fitting that one of the finest of its breed should be among the first of its kind to make it to DVD. Although no home theater can fully replicate the big movie-screen experience, "Spartacus" on DVD, fully restored and uncut, is as striking today as ever. It is a film fully worthy of its ranking as a super spectacular.

The character of Spartacus, played by Kirk Douglas, is, of course, based on the real historical figure, an escaped gladiator-slave who led an army of fellow slaves in revolt against the legions of the Roman Republic in the first century, B.C. The movie is notable not only for its expected sword play and scenery, but for the genuine complexity of its characters, their relationships, and their political intrigues.

It is a story of both inward and outward conflicts, common territory for director Kubrick and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. In addition to Douglas, other stars of the film include Jean Simmons as Varinia, the slave with whom Spartacus falls in love; Sir Laurence Olivier as Crassus, a scheming Roman general; Charles Laughton as Gracchus, a scheming Roman senator; Peter Ustinov as Batiatus, an obsequious slave trader; and Tony Curtis as Antoninus, a body servant to Crassus and singer of songs.

---

---