Spartacus (1960) on Netflix
PG-1319603h 17mAdventureDramaHistory
Sentenced to death by starvation, the Thracian slave Spartacus is bought by Lentulus Batiatus for a gladiatorial school in Capua. Trained for the arena, he meets Varinia, a fellow slave.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.9/10152,422 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
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Plot summary
In the first century BC, the Roman Republic rests on slave labor. A Thracian named Spartacus refuses to cooperate in a mining pit and is condemned to die of hunger. Lentulus Batiatus, who runs a school for gladiators in Capua, sees him displayed, admires his ferocity and buys him, warning the trainer Marcellus not to break him. At the school Spartacus meets Varinia, a serving woman, and will not force himself on her when she is brought to his cell for his captors' amusement. Both endure humiliations, including Varinia's assignment to another gladiator. The senator Marcus Licinius Crassus, who aims at dictatorship, visits Batiatus and buys Varinia for his own household.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Spartacus (1960)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dalton Trumbo wrote the Spartacus screenplay while blacklisted as one of the Hollywood Ten. Kirk Douglas publicly announced Trumbo as the screenwriter, and President John F. Kennedy crossed American Legion picket lines to view the film, helping to end blacklisting.
- Rather than hiring a crowd, 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!" for the film's crowd noise.
- Producer and star Kirk Douglas removed original director Anthony Mann after three weeks of shooting and replaced him with Stanley Kubrick, who had directed Douglas in Paths of Glory.
- When the film was restored, Tony Curtis, by then 66, re-recorded his part, but Laurence Olivier's Crassus was voiced by an impersonation by Anthony Hopkins, who was suggested by Olivier's widow, Joan Plowright.
- A four-minute bath scene in which the Roman general Crassus tries to seduce his slave Antoninus was removed from Spartacus after an objection by the National Legion of Decency.
- Douglas first offered the role of Varinia to French actress Jeanne Moreau, who did not want to leave her boyfriend in France. German actress Sabine Bethmann was cast instead, but was replaced by Jean Simmons after only two days of filming.
- Alex North's prize instrument in the Spartacus score was the ondioline, similar to an early electronic synthesizer, which had never been used in film before.
- The "I'm Spartacus!" scene has been referenced or parodied in many later films and shows; Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) reverses it, with a group of crucified men all claiming to be Brian.
