Advantages: Beautifully filmed and acted Disadvantages: Overpowered by the CGI-fest "Gladiator"
Forget "Gladiator" and "Ben Hur" - this is truly a taste of pure Roman Epic.
Directed by the late great "slave driver" that is Stanley Kubrick, "Spartacus" follows the tale of lowly slave of the same name (Kirk Douglas) through a rebellion of the Roman Empire.
Douglas is superb as Spartacus (No - I'm Spartacus etc.) and the supporting cast of Sir Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov and Tony Curtis are tremendous, but it is the Academy Award winning cinematography that is the real star - who need CGI when you can just use paintings! Due to the beautiful filming, this is one of those films that MUST be seen in the widescreen format.
Glad to see that the video and DVD now include the deleted bathing scene between Olivier and Curtis - "Do you prefer oysters or snails?" Incidentally Olivier's voice in this scene was dubbed by Anthony ...
Kozinski 27.12.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Spartacus (DVD)
Advantages: Stands up well even by today's production standards Disadvantages: Plays fast and loose with actual history at times
Currently in the United States, the USA Network is showing a remake of the story of ?Spartacus?, taken from the same novel text as the classic 1960 Oscar-winning film of the same subject, so I thought this might be the opportune time to look at this classic film and tale. The author of the novel, Howard Fast, was also the author of many novels-turned-films like ?The Crossing?, ?April Morning?, ?Freedom Road?, and ?How the West was Won?. Fast passed away just last year, while the current remake of Spartacus was in production.
The original film, based as it was on Fast?s novel, takes many liberties with history. The characterisations of Spartacus? early days with Varinia, for example, are mere speculation. The course of the slave-army progress through Italy is similarly an invention made for easier poetic rendering ? the slave ...
