Originally written September 11, 2025.
Oh, I really liked this. A 3+ hour long historical epic that never felt like it wasted time. As Kubrick came in as a backup director it doesn’t have quite as many of his definitive touches, and it’s a bit dismaying that he was seemingly unhappy with the result and wanted to distance himself from it because it may very well be my favorite of his early work.
Spartacus is like a worn and faded paperback novel you’d find inside a musty, dusty bookstore. You can almost pick up the scent of shelves lined with oft-turned pages in its warmth and adventurous spirit. The story of Spartacus, of a man who breaks free from gladiatorial slavery and leads an enormous rebellion against the forces of Rome in an attempt to get back home, is the kind of story you might imagine reading in a younger fairy tale version of yourself where you have a favorite tree that you like to sit underneath with a book, a pleasant breeze on the air as you get lost in the exploits spilling out across the pages. Everything is perfect here.
It’s also goofy as hell at times, whether from a sudden line of dialogue ADR’d in from a different planet (and actor) or a battle scene extra blandly swinging a bladed weapon in the most noncommittal manner. But it feels more in the vein of a production stretched to the limits for the time, and less an issue of filmmaking competence.
And there is a lot of skill that went into Spartacus. The costuming is outstanding. Seriously, all of the hundreds of people who appear in this film in some capacity look terrific, be they a slave, a member of the Roman senate, or an armored warrior. The same can be said of the believable location work, which stretches from rolling hilltops—complete with beautiful engrossing wide shots—to Roman government interiors and a gladiator school. Essential for a film of this scale, the sense of journey is excellent.
Kirk Douglas, who was a centerpiece of the movie’s inception, puts on a rather muted performance at first as the slave-turned-rebellion leader Spartacus, but he breaks out of the shell nicely in the back half of the story when he’s fully in command of an army.
Other actors turn in great performances, including Laurence Olivier as the ambitiously cunning Crassus and Charles Laughton—director of The Night of the Hunter, which rules—as Gracchus, who has an enjoyable arc through the world of internal Roman politicking. One of the real standouts is Peter Ustinov as the gladiator school headmaster Batiatus, who seemed to have a lot of fun portraying the quick-thinking suck-up.
Spartacus does a fine job keeping track of its various characters, moving between the life of the slave rebellion and the discussions of Roman leaders with a great deal of confidence and consistency. This flow is helped tremendously by Alex North’s compelling and comprehensive score, a constant companion that employs a great variety of instruments and themes in nearly every scene.
It’s just a grand time. I can’t wait to open this book again.
Nate Andrews 
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