"Sword and Sandal" Epics were all the rage in the 1950's/early 1960's. Films like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956) were cleaning up at the Box Office - and the Oscars - and producers were clamoring to outdo themselves.
Director William Wyler (THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES) announced that he was going to do BEN-HUR and Kirk Douglas (then a MAJOR star in Hollywood) lobbied to play the titular role. When Charlton Heston (the star of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS) was given the part, Wyler offered Douglas the supporting part of Messala (a part that went to Stephen Boyd).
Offended by this, Douglas went off to find his own Sword and Sandal epic to rival BEN-HUR. He came across Howard Fast's novel SPARTACUS - a story of a slave revolt in Italy around 75 B. C. and decided that this would be perfect.
Anthony Man was tabbed to direct, but after about a week of filming, Douglas had him fired (Kirk felt he wasn't "up to" the task) and asked 30 year old Stanley Kubrick, who Douglas had worked with on PATHS OF GLORY, to take the "job for hire".
It was an interesting mismatch of Director and material. Douglas and Kubrick (who was used to having full control of his films) clashed often (mostly over the script written by black-listed writer Dalton Trumbo) and Kubrick really developed his sloth-like pace of filming as the studio wanted Kubrick to shoot 32 camera "set-ups" everyday while Kubrick only wanted to shoot 2. The compromised on 8.
Kubrick shot this film using the 35mm Super 70 Technirama format (then blowing it up to 70mm). This was an expensive process but allowed Kubrick to achieve Ultra-High Definition (unheard of at the time because of the cost). This allowed him to capture, clearly, large panoramic scenes (like the climactic battle sequence).
Consequently, the budget ballooned from $5 million to $9 million (and, eventually, to $12 million - the most expensive film ever made at the time) and many of the cast and crew complained about the length of the shoot. Actor Peter Ustinov joked that his daughter (who was born right as production started) would be entering kindergarten before they were done. Though, to give Kubrick credit, Spartacus would become Universal Studios highest grossing film of all time (surpassed in 1970 by AIRPORT).
In addition, Kubrick really cemented his reputation as a perfectionist as he took over most of the Cinematography work from Russell Metty (who was hired by Mann to be the Cinematographer on this film). Metty complained bitterly about this - right up until the moment when Metty (not Kubrick) would win the Oscsar for Best Cinematography. He pretty much quieted down about this at that point.
Because of their constant strife on-set, Kubrick and Douglas estranged from each other and would never work together again.
All this is a lead up to the fact that SPARTACUS is one heckuva film. Sharply directed with a focus not only on the EPIC BATTLE SCENES (a must of Sword and Sandal films of the day), but also the intimate character scenes (where such actors as Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Tony Curtis and Jean Simmons shone).
Kubrick would disavow this film - since he did not have final cut rights and disliked the final cut of the film, but this film would go on to garner 6 Oscar nominations, winning 4 (including a Best Supporting Actor win for Ustinov - the ONLY actor to win an Oscar for a performance in a Kubrick film) and the line "I Am Spartacus" is listed by the American Film Institute as one of the top 100 lines in cinema history.
Though, it must be noted, that Spartacus did NOT garner a BEST PICTURE nomination nor would Kubrick get a Best Director nod.
SPARTACUS is overly long at 3 hours and 15 minute - but that is part of it's charm as a timepiece of these types of epic films and it ranks right up there with THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and BEN-HUR as top examples of the Sword and Sandal epic.
Letter Grade: A-
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis.
Director William Wyler (THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES) announced that he was going to do BEN-HUR and Kirk Douglas (then a MAJOR star in Hollywood) lobbied to play the titular role. When Charlton Heston (the star of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS) was given the part, Wyler offered Douglas the supporting part of Messala (a part that went to Stephen Boyd).
Offended by this, Douglas went off to find his own Sword and Sandal epic to rival BEN-HUR. He came across Howard Fast's novel SPARTACUS - a story of a slave revolt in Italy around 75 B. C. and decided that this would be perfect.
Anthony Man was tabbed to direct, but after about a week of filming, Douglas had him fired (Kirk felt he wasn't "up to" the task) and asked 30 year old Stanley Kubrick, who Douglas had worked with on PATHS OF GLORY, to take the "job for hire".
It was an interesting mismatch of Director and material. Douglas and Kubrick (who was used to having full control of his films) clashed often (mostly over the script written by black-listed writer Dalton Trumbo) and Kubrick really developed his sloth-like pace of filming as the studio wanted Kubrick to shoot 32 camera "set-ups" everyday while Kubrick only wanted to shoot 2. The compromised on 8.
Kubrick shot this film using the 35mm Super 70 Technirama format (then blowing it up to 70mm). This was an expensive process but allowed Kubrick to achieve Ultra-High Definition (unheard of at the time because of the cost). This allowed him to capture, clearly, large panoramic scenes (like the climactic battle sequence).
Consequently, the budget ballooned from $5 million to $9 million (and, eventually, to $12 million - the most expensive film ever made at the time) and many of the cast and crew complained about the length of the shoot. Actor Peter Ustinov joked that his daughter (who was born right as production started) would be entering kindergarten before they were done. Though, to give Kubrick credit, Spartacus would become Universal Studios highest grossing film of all time (surpassed in 1970 by AIRPORT).
In addition, Kubrick really cemented his reputation as a perfectionist as he took over most of the Cinematography work from Russell Metty (who was hired by Mann to be the Cinematographer on this film). Metty complained bitterly about this - right up until the moment when Metty (not Kubrick) would win the Oscsar for Best Cinematography. He pretty much quieted down about this at that point.
Because of their constant strife on-set, Kubrick and Douglas estranged from each other and would never work together again.
All this is a lead up to the fact that SPARTACUS is one heckuva film. Sharply directed with a focus not only on the EPIC BATTLE SCENES (a must of Sword and Sandal films of the day), but also the intimate character scenes (where such actors as Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Tony Curtis and Jean Simmons shone).
Kubrick would disavow this film - since he did not have final cut rights and disliked the final cut of the film, but this film would go on to garner 6 Oscar nominations, winning 4 (including a Best Supporting Actor win for Ustinov - the ONLY actor to win an Oscar for a performance in a Kubrick film) and the line "I Am Spartacus" is listed by the American Film Institute as one of the top 100 lines in cinema history.
Though, it must be noted, that Spartacus did NOT garner a BEST PICTURE nomination nor would Kubrick get a Best Director nod.
SPARTACUS is overly long at 3 hours and 15 minute - but that is part of it's charm as a timepiece of these types of epic films and it ranks right up there with THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and BEN-HUR as top examples of the Sword and Sandal epic.
Letter Grade: A-
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis.