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Spartacus was released at a time where epic costume dramas began to take shape and become very popular. I mean, nowadays we see these history costume dramas time and time again but they really don't feel the same or even as realistic as the classic ones do. Obviously, this was in Kubrick's early days of his career and because pretty much all of the films that were released after Spartacus turned out more successful, it became an underrated film.
I must say that the cast is absolutely amazing that has a group of amazing actors of that generation. Kirk Douglas portrays the historical hero Spartacus who is a Thracian slave working in Libya, who is purchased by the lanista Lentulus Batiatus, and trained as a gladiator. He later leads the revolt at the gladiatorial school, which spreads throughout the countryside. Douglas shows us once again in Spartacus like he did in Paths Of Glory that he is a great actor playing a heroic character like this. I wouldn't have been entirely satisfied if Charlton Heston was cast as Spartacus because he's already been in enough historic costume dramas like The Ten Commandments as Moses and Ben-Hur as Judah Ben-Hur.
Laurence Olivier is another legendary Hollywood actor in the film! He portrays Crassus, a patrician with an obsessive love of the city of Rome and its old tradition of patrician rule. As the wealthiest man in Rome, he vies for power in the Roman Senate and thinks little of Spartacus's rebellion. Originally, Olivier wanted Douglas's role of Spartacus much to Douglas's dismay but in the end, Olivier accepted the role of Crassus in a supporting role. I mean, its not really like Olivier playing a character in a supporting role but I think he did a pretty awesome job! Now, before I go onto what Jean Simmons was like in terms of acting, I must admit that she was striking in the film and was absolutely gorgeous! She appeared in Hamlet with Laurence Olivier so she worked pretty well with him as well as Douglas. Her performance as Varinia was brilliant! In pretty much every costume dramas, there's always the fighting, brave and heroic man and then there's the wife who cooks, cleans and looks after the children. Varinia is a slave girl who meets and falls in love with Spartacus. Peter Ustinov, John Gavin (who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in the same year) and Tony Curtis delivered awesome performances too.
Stanley Kubrick and Kirk Douglas reunite for a second time in a row after their previous classic World War I film Paths Of Glory and despite that some of Kubrick's films earned Academy Award Best Picture and Director nominations and didn't win, I must say that Spartacus is another one that should have earned that right. I mean, Kubrick wasn't the original director for Spartacus; original director was Anthony Mann. 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.
Spartacus won 4 Academy Awards out of 6 nominations it received. It won Best Supporting Actor (Peter Ustinov), Best Art Direction (Colour), Best Cinematography (Colour) and Best Costume Design (Colour). It was nominated for Best Music Score and Best Film Editing.
Overall, Spartacus is an epic classic that deserves to be one of the best action films and biography/history films ever! I think if you have watched this as well as Ridley Scott's Gladiator, you can easily tell how similar both films really are. I do like Gladiator more but Spartacus had the spirit to feel bit more real. Kubrick, you are a legend and you will never die as one of the best filmmakers of all time!
9/10
