Spartacus
                               
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Year: 1960
Rating: 8.5
The Scala film theater in Bangkok continued its tribute to the King with its program of Hollywood classics today with the 1960 Spartacus. I had forgotten what an immensely good film it was with a lovely mix of the epic and the intimate; the slave revolt and Roman politics. And what a cast with Kirk Douglas, Lawrence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Charles Laughton, Jean Simmons and Peter Ustinov all eating up the dialogue as if their lives depended on it. Watching them perform together and play off each other is a delight. An old-fashioned epic before the advent of CGI.

 

It is sort of amazing that Kubrick got to direct such a huge film that must have cost zillions in today's money. These are the days before CGI extras and the film is loaded with them. Up till then Kubrick had only directed 4 films - three small ones that no one knew about and an anti-war film titled Paths of Glory. But Kubrick only got the job when the director Anthony Mann, who had made some great Westerns, sort of lost it after a week of filming. Douglas who was the Executive Producer and the shot caller on this film, had worked with Kubrick on Paths of Glory and called him in. All the cinephiles say Spartacus doesn't have the Kubrick touch which must be true since later he distanced himself from the film because he felt like he was just a hired hand on it - but he does a glorious job of capturing landscapes and faces and a mounting feeling of fatalism.

 

Douglas also brought in Dalton Trumbo to write the script. It is brilliant for a film of this sort exploring the themes of freedom, democracy, corruption and dictatorship - things we are still wrestling with today. Trumbo had been blacklisted since 1947 when he was sentenced to a year in prison for refusing to answer questions before the UnAmerican Committee - part of a group of writers who came to be called the Hollywood 10. In exile he wrote scripts under pseudonyms - Roman Holiday being one. In a courageous act Douglas hired him and insisted that his name go on the credits. It was very controversial and may be the reason it was not nominated for Best Picture (The Apartment), Best Director (Billy Wilder for the Apartment), Best Actor (Burt Lancaster - Elmer Gantry), Best Actress (Elizabeth Taylor - Butterfield 8) or Best Script (Richard Brooks - Elmer Gantry). Ustinov won for Supporting Actor. John Kennedy though crossed a protest line to see the film and gave it accolades. It was a huge hit and is now considered a great film, After this the blacklisted writers, directors and actors began to come back to Hollywood. I am Spartacus in a time of public cowardice resonates today more than ever. This is a magnificent film.

The Scala has since been shut own since I wrote this review.