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EspañolSPARTACUS (FILM)
'''Spartacus''' is a 1960 film directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast about the historical life of Spartacus and the Third Servile War. The film stars Kirk Douglas as rebellious slave Spartacus and Laurence Olivier as his foe, the Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus. The film also stars Peter Ustinov (who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus), John Gavin (as Julius Caesar), Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Herbert Lom, Woody Strode, Tony Curtis, John Dall and Charles McGraw. The titles were designed by Saul Bass. [1]
Synopsis
The film begins at a mine worked by slaves in the Roman province of Libya. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), a burly Thracian, comes to the aid of an old man who has fallen down. A Roman soldier tells Spartacus to get back to work, only to be attacked and bitten on the ankle, apparently on the Achilles tendon. (In the film, he is said to have "hamstrung" the guard, which is obviously inaccurate.) For this, Spartacus is tied up and sentenced to death by starvation. Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov), a lanista (an impresario of gladiatorial games), arrives looking for recruits for his gladiatorial establishment. He disgustedly inspects several slaves before finally settling on Spartacus, recognizing his unbroken spirit. Batiatus sails for Capua, where his gladiatorial training camp is located.
Draba throws his trident into the spectators' box after refusing to execute Spartacus
After several scenes showing gladiator training and life at the school, Crassus (Laurence Olivier) arrives with some companions, wishing to be entertained by watching two pairs of gladiators fight to the death. Spartacus is selected, and is defeated, but the victor (Woody Strode) refuses to kill him, instead throwing his trident into the elevated spectators' box and leaping to attack the Romans. Crassus quickly dispatches the slave, and prepares to depart. As he leaves, he purchases the pretty slave woman Varinia, whom Batiatus has "assigned" to Spartacus. Spartacus and Varinia have fallen in love, and in frustration at his loss the former begins a successful uprising. The gladiators eventually take Capua and all the surrounding districts. Many local slaves flock to the insurgents.
In the Senate of Rome, plebeian senator Sempronius Gracchus (Charles Laughton) cunningly manipulates Crassus' protege and friend Marcus Glabrus (John Dall) into taking the Garrison of Rome out to crush the revolt, leaving the way open for Gracchus' ally, Julius Caesar (John Gavin) to take command of the city. Meanwhile, Crassus purchases a new slave, Antoninus (Tony Curtis), a former children's tutor from Sicily, and tries to seduce him. Antoninus soon runs away to join Spartacus.
Spartacus reviews some new recruits, assigning them positions according to their skills. Antoninus, who is among them, identifies himself as a poet and illusionist. Later he entertains the slave army, but he is determined to be a soldier, indirectly commenting on the relation between politics and art. Spartacus is reunited with Varinia, who had escaped from the portly Batiatus: he had run after her, but was too fat to catch her. After destroying the Garrison of Rome, Spartacus outlines his plan to escape by sea, aboard the ships of the Cilician pirates, whom he is able to pay from the plunder the slave army has amassed.
Rome keeps sending armies to put down the rebellion (the theatrical trailer mentions "nine armies"), but Spartacus defeats them all. Crassus resigns from the Senate, supposedly to share the disgrace of his exiled friend Glabrus. However, Gracchus suspects that he is merely waiting for the situation to become so desperate that the senators will make him dictator, thus neutralizing Gracchus' rival plebeian party. Gracchus, for his own purposes, maneuvers to help the slaves to escape in order to deny Crassus his opportunity. Caesar betrays Gracchus, however, and Crassus reaches deep into his own pockets to defeat the plan.
When the former slaves reach the coast, they discover that the Cilicians have been bought off by Crassus. The Cilician envoy (Herbert Lom) offers to convey Spartacus, whom he addresses as "General", along with the pregnant Varinia and Spartacus' senior officers, to Asia to "live like kings". The honest Thracian, however, is unwilling to abandon his army. Spartacus finds himself trapped between three Roman armies (Pompey in Calabria, Lucullus in Brundisium and the Garrison of Rome). The Roman deployment has maneuvered Spartacus into a position where his only choice is to fight his way through to Rome, a strategy which is nearly impossible of success. Meanwhile, the Senate gives Crassus the sweeping powers he desires. In parallel scenes, Spartacus harangues the slaves, while Crassus warns against the elimination of patrician privileges. Batiatus is hired by Crassus to help him identify Spartacus after his expected capture, and is in turn promised the dealership of the survivors of Spartacus' army after its defeat.
Spartacus fights his way through the Roman ranks on horseback
The climactic battle results in the total defeat of the rebel army and the capture of many survivors, including Spartacus. Crassus promises the captives that they will not be punished if they will identify Spartacus or his body. In a powerful scene, one by one, each surviving soldier stands and claims to be Spartacus ("I'm Spartacus!"). Crassus condemns them all to be crucified along the Appian Way from the battlefield to the gates of Rome. He saves Antoninus and Spartacus for last, recognizing the former and recalling the latter's face and name from his visit to Capua.
Meanwhile, Batiatus sees that the revenge of Crassus denies him the promised lucrative auction of the surviving slaves. Varinia is taken to Crassus' home, where he unsuccessfully woos her. In his last act before committing suicide, the disgraced Gracchus generously hires Batiatus to steal Varinia from Crassus, then grants freedom for her and her son, personally writing out manumission documents for them. Meanwhile, Crassus orders Spartacus and Antoninus to duel to the death, too impatient to wait for the next day's celebrations in which the pair was to figure, and declaring that the winner will be crucified. Each man tries to kill the other, to spare his companion a slow, agonizing death on the cross. Spartacus is victorious and is crucified by the walls of Rome. Crassus admits to Caesar that he now and for the first time "fears" Spartacus, who has become a martyr.
Batiatus and Varinia leave for Gaul via the Appian Way and find Spartacus hanging on the last cross by the road, not quite dead. Varinia shows Spartacus their newborn son and vows that he will grow up a free man. Spartacus's head slumps forward, and Varinia gets back onto the wagon and rides on.
Production
The development of ''Spartacus'' was partly instigated by Kirk Douglas's failure to win the title role in William Wyler's ''Ben-Hur''. Douglas had worked with Wyler before on ''Detective Story'', and was disappointed when Wyler chose Charlton Heston instead. Not wanting to appear beaten, he decided to upstage Wyler, and create his own epic, ''Spartacus'', with himself in the title role.
Screenplay development
Originally, Howard Fast was hired to adapt his own novel as a screenplay, but he experienced difficulty working in the screenplay format and was replaced by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, who worked under the pseudonym "Sam Jackson". It has been argued that Trumbo's adaptation of Fast's novel, like the novel itself, is presented as a form of early communism. The filming was plagued by the conflicting visions of Kubrick and Trumbo: Kubrick, a young director at the time, did not have the degree of control he would later have over his films, and the final product is more a result of Trumbo's optimistic screenplay than it is of Stanley Kubrick's trademark cynicism; Kubrick complained, in fact, that the character of Spartacus had no faults or quirks.
When Trumbo's name appeared in the credits, the Hollywood blacklist was effectively broken.
Filming
''Spartacus'' was originally to be directed by Anthony Mann. However, two weeks into shooting, Mann was fired by the studio because of his alleged lack of leadership and Stanley Kubrick was hired to take over. At this point in his career, Kubrick had already directed four feature films, two of which were major Hollywood productions. Even so, ''Spartacus'' was Kubrick's biggest project so far, with a budget of $12 million and a cast of 10,500, an impressive achievement for such a young director (although his contract did not give him complete control over the filming).
''Spartacus'' was filmed using the 35 mm Technirama format and then blown up to 70 mm film. This was a change for Kubrick, who preferred using square-format ratios. Kubrick found working outdoors or in real locations to be distracting and thus preferred to film in the studio. He believed the actors would benefit more from working on a sound stage, where they could fully concentrate. To create the illusion of the large crowds that play such an essential role in the film, Kubrick's crew used three-channel sound equipment to record 76,000 spectators at a Michigan State – Notre Dame college football game shouting "Hail, Crassus!" and "I'm Spartacus!"
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.
Music
The original score for ''Spartacus'' was composed and conducted by six-time Academy Award nominee Alex North. It is considered one of his best works, and a textbook example of how modernist compositional styles can be adapted to the Hollywood leitmotif technique. North's score is epic, as befits the scale of the film. After extensive research of music of that period, North gathered a collection of antique instruments that, while not authentically Roman, provided a strong dramatic effect. These instruments included a Sarrusophone, Israeli recorder, Chinese oboe, lute, mandolin, Yugoslav flute, kythara, dulcimer, and bagpipes. North's prize instrument was the Ondioline, similar to an earlier version of the electronic synthesizer, which had never been used in film before. Much of the music is written without a tonal center, or flirts with tonality in ways that most film composers wouldn't allow. One theme is used to represent both slavery and freedom, but is given different values in different scenes, so that it sounds like different themes. The love theme for Spartacus and Varinia (sung by Terry Callier) is the most accessible theme in the film, and there is a harsh trumpet figure for Crassus.
The soundtrack album runs less than forty-five minutes and is not very representative of the score. There were plans to re-record a significant amount of the music with North's friend and fellow film composer Jerry Goldsmith, but the project kept getting delayed until Goldsmith's death in 2004. There have been numerous bootlegs, but none of them have good sound quality.
Cast
Starring
★ Kirk Douglas as Spartacus. Spartacus is a Thracian slave working in Libya, who is purchased by the ''lanista'' Lentulus Batiatus, and trained as a gladiator.
★ Laurence Olivier as Crassus. Crassus is a patrician with an obsessive love of the city of Rome. He vies for power in the Roman senate, and thinks little of Spartacus' rebellion. Academy Award-winner Sir Laurence Olivier is considered by many to be the greatest classical actor of the 20th century. Olivier, when approached by Douglas (who knew him because they had both worked together on ''The Devil's Disciple''), suggested that ''he'' play Spartacus, much to Douglas' chagrin. Olivier, however, accepted the secondary part and second billing.
★ Jean Simmons as Varinia. Varinia is a slave girl working for Batiatus, who falls in love with Spartacus and eventually becomes his loving wife. Academy Award-nominee Simmons had played many roles in notable British films (''Great Expectations'', ''Black Narcissus'', Olivier's ''Hamlet''), and had made a successful transition to Hollywood. This was one of her numerous leading roles.
★ Charles Laughton as Gracchus. Gracchus is a dedicated Roman senator who is Crassus' only real opposition. Academy Award-winner Laughton's career had dwindled somewhat since the late 30's. This was one of his last major roles, before his death in 1962.
★ Peter Ustinov as Batiatus. Lentulus Batiatus is a shrewd, manipulative, slave dealer, who purchases Spartacus, and ends up paying dearly for it. Peter Ustinov won his first Oscar for his role in this film (the second would come with ''Topkapi''). Ustinov was a writer, director, and a distinguished raconteur. His performance was the only one that would win an Oscar from a Kubrick film.
★ John Gavin as Julius Caesar. Caesar is the young, ambitious, protege of Gracchus, who gains command of the Garrison of Rome during the chaos of the Spartacus rebellion. Gavin is today best known as the lover of Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Psycho''. He would later become the United States Ambassador to Mexico.
Supporting
★ Nina Foch as Helena Glabrus. Helena is the shrewd, maniplative sister of Marcus Publius Glabrus. The Academy Award-nominated Foch had gained mainstream stardom in another epic, Cecil B. DeMille's ''The Ten Commandments''.
★ John Ireland as Crixus. Crixus is one of Spartacus' most loyal lieutenants, and serves him until he is slain in the final battle. Academy Award-nominee Ireland normally played supporting roles akin to the one he played in ''Spartacus''; he featued a mixture of supporting characters in Hollywood epics and Westerns, as well as larger roles in Italian sword and sandal films and spaghetti westerns.
★ Herbert Lom as Tigranes Levantus. Levantus is a Cilician pirate who is forced to betray Spartacus. Herbert Lom was a Czech who moved to Hollywood, eventually to gain his greatest fame as Inspector Dreyfuss in Blake Edwards' long running film series ''The Pink Panther''.
★ John Dall as Marcus Publius Glabrus. Glabrus is the naïve protege of Crassus, who unwittingly plays into the hands of Gracchus. Academy Award-nominee Dall was an American actor who worked primarily in the theatre. His most famous screen role is as Brandon Shaw, one of the two murderers in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Rope''.
★ Charles McGraw as Marcellus. Marcellus is Lentulus Batiatus' gruff and cruel gladiator trainer, who picks on Spartacus in particular. McGraw was well known for playing heavies similar to his role in ''Spartacus''.
★ Tony Curtis as Antoninus. Antoninus is a young slave who leaves his master, Crassus, and joins Spartacus. At the conclusion of the movie Spartacus and Antoninus are forced to fight to the death in a gladiator match. Academy Award-nominee Curtis had recently had huge success with Billy Wilder's ''Some Like It Hot'', and Douglas wanted him for the film to add more "star power".
Versions
The film was re-released in 1967 (in a version 23 minutes shorter than the original release), and again in 1991 with the same 23 minutes restored, plus an additional 14 minutes that had been cut from the film before its original release. This addition includes several violent battle sequences as well as a bath scene in which the Roman patrician and general Crassus (Olivier) attempts to seduce his slave Antoninus (Curtis) using the analogy of "eating oysters" and "eating snails" to express his opinion that sexual preference is a matter of taste rather than morality. When the film was restored, two years after Olivier's death, the original dialogue recording of this scene was missing, and so it had to be re-dubbed. Tony Curtis, by then 66, was able to re-record his part, but Crassus's voice is actually an impersonation of Olivier by actor Anthony Hopkins, a talented mimic who had been a protege of Olivier during his early career and knew his voice well.
Historical inaccuracies
★ The events in the famous "I am Spartacus!" scene and all the scenes afterwards with Spartacus may never have occurred, as Spartacus is widely believed to have been killed in battle.
★ Marcus Crassus was actually unwilling to pursue Spartacus and his army. It is also widely believed that the film's large battle near the end was started when Spartacus' army attempted to ambush Crassus. Furthermore it was Crassus alone who won the final battle against Spartacus. Pompey's role was simply killing 5,000 slaves who had fled from that final battle, but Pompey received most of the honour.
★ There are fewer battles in the movie than actually took place in real life. For example, after being defeated in the north, Spartacus flees south, and rather than confront him, Crassus builds a wall across the boot of Italy to contain him.
★ Julius Caesar could not have commanded the garrison of Rome, since it did not exist at that time.
★ In the film, Spartacus was born into a life of slavery. The real Spartacus is believed to have served in the Roman Army as an auxiliary soldier who deserted, then was caught and sold into slavery as punishment. There is no evidence that Spartacus worked in the mines of Libya. These facts, deemed less than heroic, were altered in the film and help explain the hero's seemingly uncanny leadership and grasp of how to build and strategically deploy large armies.
★ In the film there is a character referred to as Gracchus. The character is depicted as being part of the Senate and opposed to Crassus. Although there may have been a Gracchus at the time that opposed Crassus, there does not seem to be any documentary evidence of this. The most significant Gracchi were Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus who were both revolutionary political figures. However, their combined lifetimes spanned the period between 163 BC–121 BC. The slave revolts that the film refers to occurred around 73 BC–71 BC. This means that the character in the film is most likely fictional. The character was probably used as a plot contrivance because his name is linked to populism, a recurring theme in the film. His words in the film portray him as a person who prefers political expediency over traditional laws and customs which was also a notable trait of the Gracchi. The plural of Gracchus is Gracchi.
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
★ Best Sound Editing - Golden Reel Award
Criticism
Critics such as Roger Ebert have argued that the film has flaws which have caused it to become severely dated. Critics attribute the film's flaws to various elements including the interference of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which imposed censorial conformity under the Production Code; the replacement of original director, Anthony Mann, after the first week's shooting; a sparring cast (Laughton vs. Olivier; replacement director Kubrick vs. executive producer/star Douglas); and a distracting and boisterous orchestral soundtrack.
In popular culture
A famous scene of the movie involves the recaptured slaves being asked to point out which one of them is Spartacus in exchange for leniency. Instead, they each proclaim themselves to be Spartacus and thus share his fate. A similar scene or event is sometimes called a 'Spartacus moment' in reference to this particular scene.
In the ''Seinfeld'' episode "The Gum", the show's central characters see ''Spartacus'' at a revival theatre.
In the movie ''Clueless'', Christian brings over the movie ''Spartacus'' to Cher's house because he "has a thing for Tony Curtis."
A Pepsi commercial circa 2006 had a Roman centurion coming upon a lost bag lunch labeled "Spartacus." He asks the assembled slaves "is there a Spartacus here?" When the slaves realize the bag lunch contains a Pepsi, each claims to be Spartacus. In the end, the Centurion drinks the beverage.
In Monty Python's ''Life of Brian'', Brian is to be released by Pontius Pilate as a gesture of goodwill. He will be taken down from his cross and set free. The actual character of Brian (played by Graham Chapman) is not paying attention, and nearby crucified characters claim to be Brian instead; a nod to the scene in ''Spartacus''. One goes so far as to state, "I'm Brian, and so is my wife!"
Elements of the popular film ''Gladiator'' (2000), with Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, reference ''Spartacus'', including the main character being forced into slavery and then becoming a gladiator, and the subplot involving struggles between the authoritarian Emperor and the Senate. Both films feature Republican Senators named Gracchus, and Derek Jacobi, playing that film's Gracchus, quotes a line spoken by John Gavin's Julius Caesar in ''Spartacus'': "Rome is the mob!"
In the ''South Park'' episode "Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow" when the boys try to admit they were the ones who broke a beaver dam, the entire community joins in with them – symbolically taking the blame of Global Warming onto themselves as they each state that "I broke the dam."
In the movie ''That Thing You Do!'', the main character Guy has an obsession with the movie and frequently repeats the phrase "I am Spartacus!" within various contexts and emotions.
In the ''Kappa Mikey'' episode "Ship of Fools", various characters dressed as Mikey claim to be him, with one dressed in Roman attire similarly declaring "I'm Spartacus!"
In the ''The 4400'' episode "The Wrath of Graham", soldiers arrive to capture Graham Holt, a teen with the power to "convert" people into his followers. Some of his supporters throw themselves in front of the soldiers, each of them in turn saying, "I'm Graham Holt!"
In the movie ''The Mask of Zorro'', Spanish Governor Don Rafael Montero demands a aged and imprisoned Zorro to reveal himself among other prisoners. The other prisoners then all claim to be Zorro.
In the '' episode "Hercules on Trial", Hercules is about to face a verdict on a false sedition charge, on which, if convicted, would result in his banishment from Greece forever. At the end of the episode, Hercules gives an eloquent closing statement about the need for heroes and their place in society. His lifelong friend, Iolaus, then steps up and says, "No, take me; I'm Hercules! I think like him, I want to be like him. If you exile him, then you're going to have to exile me, too." This is followed by Jason of the Argonauts, who also declares, "No, take me. I'm Hercules!", followed by virtually everyone else in the courtroom, including a distraught young mother who originally--and erroneously--had blamed Hercules for the death of her infant son and had previously testified against him to that effect. The prosecuting attorney is about to move to protest, but the judge himself then admonishes the prosecutor, saying, "Don't say it...! If we proceed, I shall have to exile myself as well... I AM HERCULES! Case dismissed!"
In the ''Undergrads'' episode "Traditions," Gimpy's minions, one by one, declare themselves to be G-Prime, culminating when another student shouts "I am Spartacus!" Later on, that same student informs the other characters that G-Prime is pranking State U, and that he is still Spartacus.
In the ''Power Rangers in Space'' finale, ''Countdown to Destruction'', ''Astronema'' calls for the Space Rangers to reveal themselves or she and her army will destroy ''Earth'', starting with ''Angel Grove''. The citizens of Angel Grove protect the Rangers, claiming one-by-one, that they are the Power Rangers, beginning with ''Bulk and Skull'' claiming that they are the ''Red Ranger'' and ''Green Ranger''. The rest of the city follows suit, and Astronema unleases her army. The Space Rangers, moved by the courage of the city, and concerned for their safety, reveal themselves to Astromena and all of Angel Grove.
In Futurama, Bender is sentenced to be executed, because he is Santa Claus. The Planet Express crew burst through the wall, claiming that "We're also Santa Claus!". Zoidbeg claims to be "his friend, Jesus". In a subversion, the Mayor replies "None of you are Santa Claus! How dare you lie in front of Jesus?"
References
1. Retrieved June 17, 2006.
External links
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★ Anecdote about President Kennedy's screening
★ Criterion Collection essay by Stephen Farber
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