Spartacus (HD DVD)

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In the following joint review, John J. Puccio and Yunda Eddie Feng wrote up their opinions of the film, and in addition John wrote up the video, audio, extras, and concluding remarks.

The Film According to John:
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, CinemaScope, 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 HD-DVD. Although no home theater can fully replicate the big movie-screen experience, "Spartacus" on HD-DVD, fully restored (if not fully cleaned up), 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. In age before CGI graphics, it features a multitude of extras making up the slave army and the legions of Rome. It's quite a sight to behold.

The Film According to Eddie:
When I first watched the film on disc, I skipped over the entire movie just to watch the scene where the slaves rise in unison, all shouting, "I'm Spartacus!" I'm telling you, despite the simplicity of the on-screen action, the emotions stirred by the scene overwhelmed me. My eyes misted over, mirroring star Kirk Douglas's reaction to what was happening.

I first saw "Spartacus" when I was about six or seven. One evening, my dad, my mom, and I sat down to watch "Spartacus." I didn't remember much of the film, obviously, but I got the feeling that my dad was really impressed with it.

When I first got "Spartacus" in the mail, I gave my dad a ring to tell him about it. He was happy, of course, and he told me that my grandfather had taken him to see the movie back when he was a teenager. I guess watching "Spartacus" with me was my father's way of way of passing down some sort of cinematic legacy to me. I intend to watch it with my dad again some time. I also plan on watching "Spartacus" with my children. In a way, this film is the ultimate family film. Spartacus fights not only for freedom but also for dignity, family, brotherhood, and father-son relations. The film is a moving experience but not in the Robin Williams schmaltz sense. Rather, here is a film based on ideals, convictions, and moral vigor that enthralls through sheer force of intellect.

Back in the day, Kirk Douglas eagerly sought the title role in "Ben-Hur." Director William Wyler chose Charlton Heston instead, offering the role of Messala to Douglas. Miffed, the hotheaded Douglas decided to make his own Roman epic. He secured the rights to "Spartacus," a novel written by Howard Fast, and hired Dalton Trumbo to write the screenplay. Now, Trumbo was on the blacklist as one of the "Hollywood Ten," so he had been writing screenplays with pseudonyms. (The Hollywood blacklist lead to anomalies such as French writer Pierre Boulle winning the Oscar for "adapting" his own novel for "Bridge on the River Kwai," despite the fact that he didn't write the screenplay and didn't speak a word of English!) At any rate, Douglas worked as the executive producer of the film, and he decided to go ahead and openly credit Trumbo for writing the screenplay. I remember once reading a magazine article about the making of "Spartacus" where Douglas discussed Trumbo's contributions to the film. Douglas said that one day, Trumbo walked up to him looking at him weirdly and softly said, "Thank you." History has been kind to Mr. Douglas--he is credited with breaking the blacklist.

In the film, Douglas stars as Spartacus, a Thracian slave sold to Batiatus (a hilarious Peter Ustinov), a gladiator trainer. Eventually, Spartacus leads a slave revolt that threatens to collapse the Roman system. Sir Laurence Olivier stars as Crassus, the ambitious Roman senator who seeks to become dictator of Rome. Crassus actually believes in the greatness of Rome as an ideal, and he sets out to quash Spartacus's rebellion. What makes this film so endlessly fascinating is that the "bad guys" fight for their beliefs as much as the "good guys" do. To get a sense of how good the script is, there is a scene near the end of the film where Crassus talks about drawing up lists of Rome's enemies, a cleverly off-handed way of referring to the blacklist.

Jean Simmons plays Varinia, Spartacus's love interest, Tony Curtis plays Antoninus, a "singer of songs," and the sly Charles Laughton plays Gracchus, Crassus's main opponent in the Roman Senate. Laughton and Ustinov would've stolen the movie had it not been for the power of Douglas and Olivier's acting. The "corpulence" dialogue between the two "big" actors is a marvel of screenwriting.

Some time ago, I wrote about how powerful it was to see actual airplanes and ships recreate the attack on Pearl Harbor in the film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" A similar effect takes place here, where a real cast of thousands was employed for the massive battle scenes. There are matte shots, of course, but still, for the most part, the people that you see on screen were actually physically there as opposed to the computer-generated "cast" of thousands we see in modern-day epics.

Much brou-haha has been made about the fact that Stanley Kubrick directed "Spartacus." Some think that the film fits neatly into Kubrick's oeuvre, how he never made the same movie twice. Others think that it was a shame how their beloved director was shoehorned into the project as a gun-for-hire after the original director left due to creative differences with Kirk Douglas. You want to know what I think? Except for "Paths of Glory" and "Dr. Strangelove," Kubrick was overrated. Just because Kubrick's films are difficult to understand does not necessarily make him a genius. Personally, I don't think that Kubrick directed "Spartacus" at all. He was just there to set up a few shots and to keep the Director's Guild from fining the production for violation of guild rules about actors/producers who seize control from directors. Every minute of the film feels like it was directed by Kirk Douglas.