Spartacus

1959

Rome, 73BC: a slave, Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), leads a revolt in the gladiators' school run by Batiatus (Peter Ustinov). He assembles a veritable army, and the rebellion quickly spreads throughout the country. Loved by Varinia (Jean Simmons) and surrounded by faithful friends like Antoninus (Tony Curtis), Spartacus falls back with his army to the slopes of Vesuvius. Sent from Rome to attack them, the garrison commanded by Glabrus (John Dall) is decimated.

In Rome, the events worry the Senate. Every day, hundreds of slaves flee to join the insurgents. Henceforth, there is only one man who can take over as leader of a powerful army to defeat them: the general and senator Crassus (Laurence Olivier). This time, Spartacus is defeated: he and his men are crucified along the Appian Way.

Spartacus, an adaptation of Howard Fast's novel, was initially to have been directed by Anthony Mann. However, in the course of filming, differences of opinion between Mann and the leading actor and producer, Kirk Douglas, led the director to leave the project. Douglas turned to Kubrick, who had directed him in Paths of Glory and who agreed "to be "loaned out" to Universal to direct Spartacus" (1).

This fifth work of Kubrick is inevitably the director's least personal, the one where he had the least initiative and artistic freedom. However, the film did enjoy commercial and critical success.

Spartacus was released in the United States on 7 October 1960 and in France on 15 September 1961; French censorship amputated its most violent or daring scenes (the allusion, in particular, to Crassus's homosexuality in the "oysters or snails" scene). It was re-released in 1991 in an uncensored, restored version.