Spartacus (1960) ft. Peterson W. Hill

Guest:

• Peterson W. Hill - Co-Host of the War Starts at Midnight podcast

  • @petersonwhill on IG, Letterboxd, and Twitter

  • Previous Guest on Gone Girl (2014), Parasite (2019), Fight Club (1999), Ben-Hur (1959), Up in the Air (2009), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), La Dolce Vita (1960), The Social Network (2010) Revisit, Pather Panchali (1955), Se7en (1995)

Cast:

• Stanley Kubrick, Director

• Dalton Trumbo, Writer

• Russell Metty, Cinematography

• Alex North, Music

• Kirk Douglas as Spartacus

• Laurence Olivier as Crassus

• Jean Simmons as Varinia

• Charles Laughton as Gracchus

• Peter Ustinov as Batiatus

• John Gavin as Julius Caesar

• Nina Foch as Helena Glabrus

• John Ireland as Crixus

• Herbert Lom as Tigranes Levantus

• John Dall as Marcus Publius Glabrus

Background:

• Spartacus was released on October 6, 1960 in NYC.

• On a reported budget of $12 million, Spartacus allegedly made $32.5 million during its initial run over multiple years while finishing #3 at the worldwide box office for 1960, but #1 at the domestic box office that year.

• It was met with mostly positive critical reviews at the time, and received 6 Oscar nominations for Best Film Editing (Robert Lawrence) and Original Score while winning Best Supporting Actor (Ustinov), Art Direction - Color, Cinematography - Color (Metty), and Costume Design - Color.

• Spartacus has since been recognized by the AFI on the following lists:

  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (1998) – Nominated

  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills (2001) – #62

  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains (2003)

    • Spartacus – #22 Hero

  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes (2005)

    • "I'm Spartacus! I'm Spartacus!" – Nominated

  • AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores (2005) – Nominated

  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers (2006) – #44

  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) (2007) – #81

  • AFI's 10 Top 10 (2008) – #5 Epic Film

• In 2017, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

• Spartacus currently holds a 93% among critics on RT, an 87 score on Metacritic, and a 3.9/5 on Letterboxd.

Plot Summary: Spartacus tells the story of a slave in ancient Rome who refuses to accept a life of cruelty and injustice. Born into slavery, Spartacus is forced to fight as a gladiator for the entertainment of wealthy Romans. However, his strength, courage, and sense of dignity inspire other slaves to follow him when he leads a massive revolt, freeing thousands of men, women, and children.

Spartacus dreams of escaping Rome’s control and living freely. However, the Roman army is powerful and relentless. Despite many victories, Spartacus and his followers cannot escape Rome’s reach. In the end, Spartacus is captured and crucified, but his spirit of resistance lives on. The film shows how his fight for freedom challenged the might of an empire and became a symbol of courage against oppression.

Did You Know:

• Kirk Douglas had an unhappy time for most of the production. After a major falling out with original director Anthony Mann, he asked Stanley Kubrick, with whom he had collaborated well three years previously on Paths of Glory (1957), to direct. However, he had an equally difficult time working with Kubrick, as the men had frequent clashes about many artistic choices. The disagreements got so bad that both men reportedly went into therapy together. After the production, Douglas claimed he would not collaborate with Kubrick again if he was given the opportunity and, in his memoirs, called Kubrick "a talented shit". Douglas often said he regretted having Mann fired from the movie, and also that, when he was offered The Heroes of Telemark (1965), he agreed to take that role, on condition that Mann be hired as director. However, in reality, Mann was already attached to the project and had originally approached Anthony Perkins to play what became Douglas's part.

• Despite this movie being a huge box-office success, gaining four Oscars and being considered to rank among the very best of historical epics, director Stanley Kubrick disowned the movie and did not include it as part of his canon. Although his personal mark is a distinct part of the final movie, his contract did not give him complete control over the filming, and he frequently clashed with the studio and star/producer Kirk Douglas, making this the only occasion on which he did not exercise such control over one of his movies.

• The original version included a scene where Marcus Licinius Crassus (Sir Laurence Olivier) attempts to seduce Antoninus (Tony Curtis). The Production Code Administration and the Legion of Decency both objected. At one point Geoffrey Shurlock, representing the censors, suggested it would help if the reference in the scene to a preference for oysters or snails was changed to truffles and artichokes. In the end the scene was cut, but it was put back in for the 1991 restoration. However, the soundtrack had been lost in the meantime and the dialogue had to be dubbed. Curtis was able to redo his lines, but Olivier had died. Dame Joan Plowright, his widow, remembered that Sir Anthony Hopkins had done a dead-on impression of Olivier and she mentioned this to the restoration team. They approached Hopkins and he agreed to voice Olivier's lines in that scene. Hopkins is thanked in the credits for the restored version.

• Thirty years after filming, Jean Simmons met the baby she held in this movie, who was working in the movie industry as a stuntwoman.

• Cinematographer Russell Metty walked off the set, complaining that director Stanley Kubrick was not letting him do his job. Metty was used to directors allowing him to call his own shots with little oversight, while Kubrick was a professional photographer who had shot some of his previous movies by himself. Subsequently, Kubrick did the majority of the cinematography work. Metty complained about this up until the release of the movie and even, at one point, asked to have his name removed from the credits. However, because his name was in the credits, when this movie won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, it was given to Metty, although he actually didn't shoot most of it.

Best Performance: Kirk Douglas (Spartacus)/Stanley Kubrick (Director)

Best Secondary Performance: Charles Laughton (Gracchus)/Dalton Trumbo (Writer)

Most Charismatic Award: Jean Simmons (Virinia)/Peter Ustinov (Batiatus)

Best Scene:

• Spartacus v. Draba

• Gladiator Revolt

• Bathhouse

• Defeating Glabrus

• Battle to I'm Spartacus

• At the Foot of the Cross

Favorite Scene: Battle to I'm Spartacus

Most Indelible Moment: I'm Spartacus/At the Foot of the Cross/Bathhouse

In Memorium:

• N/A

Best Lines/Funniest Lines:

Spartacus: When a free man dies, he loses the pleasure of life. A slave loses his pain. Death is the only freedom a slave knows. That's why he's not afraid of it. That's why we'll win.

Gracchus: You and I have a tendency towards corpulence. Corpulence makes a man reasonable, pleasant and phlegmatic. Have you noticed the nastiest of tyrants are invariably thin?

Antoninus: Are you afraid to die, Spartacus?

Spartacus: No more than I was to be born.

Antoninus: I'm Spartacus!

Crassus: One of the disadvantages of being a Patrician is that occasionally you are obliged to act like one.

Julius Caesar: I thought you had reservations about the gods.

Gracchus: Privately, I believe in none of them - neither do you. Publicly, I believe in them all.

Draba: Gladiators don't make friends. If we're ever matched in the arena together, I have to kill you.

Lentulus Batiatus: But I'm a civilian. I'm more of a civilian than most civilians.

Gracchus: This Republic of ours is something like a rich widow. Most Romans love her as their mother, but Crassus dreams of marrying the old girl, to put it politely.

Julius Caesar: [about Spartacus] Did you fear him, Crassus?

Crassus: Not when I fought him, I knew he could be beaten. But now I fear him, even more than I fear you.

Batiatus: Good luck, and may fortune smile upon... most of you.

Spartacus: Maybe there's no peace in this world, for us or for anyone else. I don't know. But I do know that as long as we live, we must stay true to ourselves. I do know that we're brothers. And I know that we're free. We march tonight!

The Stanley Rubric:

Legacy: 6.5

Impact/Significance: 9

Novelty: 7

Classic-ness: 8

Rewatchability: 5.33

Audience Score: 8.15 (87% Google, 76% RT)

Total: 43.98

Remaining Questions:

• What happens to Spartacus' son?

Listener Questions:

• Kieran B (Best Picture Cast)

  • ADA: As an Otto Preminger fan, have you seen/heard of Exodus starring Paul Newman? Thoughts? And is it worth the “blind buy”…(I found a nice double cassette VHS copy)