Spartacus: Blood and Sand - The Complete First Season - Region 1 DVD

6 Lists

Edit page

Buy at Amazon

Starring :

Andy Whitfield

John Hannah

Peter Mensah

Lucy Lawless

Nick Tarabay

Lists

19 votes

My DVD COLLECTION (7267 items)
list by YAHEMMI

Published 11 years, 3 months ago

3 comments

18 votes

Sword, Saddle, Bow & Arrow - Historical War Movies (54 items)
list by Phil_Sump

Published 12 years ago

5 comments

3 votes

2014 TV Shows Diary (12 items)
list by Ocifer

Published 9 years, 10 months ago

3 votes

crap my dvd collection (1380 items)
list by littlesprout

Published 14 years, 2 months ago

2 comments

2 votes

TV Show Seasons Watched in 2014 (38 items)
list by Hiramunda

Published 9 years, 4 months ago

1 comment

View all Spartacus: Blood and Sand - The Complete First Season lists (1 more)

Description: The "sword and sandals" genre isn't exactly known for its subtlety and restraint, but even by those standards, Spartacus: Blood and Sand is deliriously, delightfully over the top. Viewers familiar with the 1960 film starring Kirk Douglas and directed by Stanley Kubrick, the best-known version of the Spartacus tale, will recognize the basic outline of the story: a Thracian warrior with a beautiful, loving wife is betrayed by his Roman "allies" and forced into slavery, whereupon he distinguishes himself as a gladiator nonpareil and, after enduring countless indignities, leads his brethren and others in a rebel
The "sword and sandals" genre isn't exactly known for its subtlety and restraint, but even by those standards, Spartacus: Blood and Sand is deliriously, delightfully over the top. Viewers familiar with the 1960 film starring Kirk Douglas and directed by Stanley Kubrick, the best-known version of the Spartacus tale, will recognize the basic outline of the story: a Thracian warrior with a beautiful, loving wife is betrayed by his Roman "allies" and forced into slavery, whereupon he distinguishes himself as a gladiator nonpareil and, after enduring countless indignities, leads his brethren and others in a rebellion against their oppressors. But there's a lot more Caligula than Kubrick in the 13 first-season episodes (each a bit less than an hour long) of this Starz television series, which stars Andy Whitfield in the title role and also features Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) as the wicked wife of Spartacus's owner. The fight scenes are highly stylized (the entire production seems to have taken a cue from the surreal, painterly look of 300) but extraordinarily brutal, featuring multiple dismemberments and decapitations amidst seas of slow-motion, CGI-generated blood; a gladiatorial battle in episode 5 pitting Spartacus and his rival-turned-ally Crixus (Manu Bennett) against a monster named Theokoles is definitely not for the squeamish, but that's only one of many such scenes. There's also ample sex and nudity, as the couplings involving various studly gladiators and lustful Roman noblewomen are like salacious combat between Chippendales dancers and Victoria's Secret models. Meanwhile, the personal relationships are the stuff of soap operas, with the Romans in particular depicted as relentlessly decadent, duplicitous, and power-hungry.

If this all sounds outrageously entertaining, it is, though perhaps not for everyone. And although the future of the show (which was executive produced by Spider-Man director Sam Raimi) is in doubt due to Whitfield's ongoing battle with cancer, we'll always have this season to revel in. Bonus material in the four-disc set includes audio commentary on a variety of episodes and a batch of featurettes, most prominently a 15-minute "making of" documentary. --Sam Graham

... (more)

Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Release date: 21 September 2010
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 0013132141190 UPC: 013132141190

Tags: Action (1), War (1), 2010 (1)

My tags:

Add tags

Watched
Condition
Added date
Private notes Only visible to you
or cancel