The Eternal Cry For Freedom
From what little I've read of this film it was lucky to have been made
at all. Some very big talents had some very big egos and those egos clashed repeatedly. Original director Anthony Mann was replaced by Stanley Kubrick by Producer/Star Kirk Douglas among other clashes. But the result was all worth it. The stars all give top notch performances, but the mark of a really great film is the memorability of each individual in the ensemble. To give a few examples, Charles McGraw as the sadistic trainer at the gladiatorial school, John Dall as Sir Laurence Olivier's prot. rpal8262 watch Lighthouse Keeping movie
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dire003 watch River Of No Return movie
it make man to be brave
Contrasted with their impassioned plans for open rebellion are the cool, calculating minds of their Roman adversaries Crassus, Grachus and Batiatus. To Rome, a poorly equipped army of slaves are no more threatening than the invasion of insects which attack the city during the hot, humid seasons. The slaves' cries for freedom and their challenge will be but a more diversion from the musty affairs of state. And so, in a chilling engagement, the superior military might of Rome proceeds to crush the army of Spartacus..
ya_vete watch Lifeguard movie
this was nor part of your promotiopn, your "come on"..
Toonen watch The Hard Word movie
since its made in 1960 it's good for a movie of that time.
But for this time it isn't.
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nice movie, ı like it.
mikewebb
Great movie
.
rendchens@yahoo.co.uk
kirk douglas at his very best. a film to keep and watch over and over again.
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bangalore05
it could be nice..
Rome Epic Roams Too Much
"Spartacus" has its moments but feels for the most part like what it
is: An overblown epic with too many cooks stirring the pot. It's shortly before the dawn of the Christian era, and somewhere in the vastness of the Roman Empire, a slave named Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is forced to become a gladiator, providing kill-or-be-killed entertainment for leisured decadents. Alas, he is pushed too far, and leads a revolt that soon threatens great Rome herself. Will Spartacus lead his people to freedom? Or will the vile Crassus (Laurence Olivier) bring him to heel? Nominally directed by Stanley Kubrick, for which this was his introduction to the big-time, "Spartacus" is in fact a shining example of limitations, both of the Hollywood star vehicle as art form and the ability of a 1960 film to come to grips with the ancient world. How best to condense the social upheaval of the Third Servile War? Why, how about Kirk and Jean Simmons smooching at a pond! The film starts off well enough, with Douglas in fine fettle glowering at the camera and everyone else, especially trainer/tormentor Marcellus (Charles McGraw). In a sequence that obviously influenced the later Best Picture winner "Gladiator", Spartacus learns the ropes, makes some friends, and begins to want to do something about the injustice he is experiencing. The first hour concludes in the film's only great moment, a duel between Spartacus and the mysterious Draba (Woody Strode) for Crassus's cruel enjoyment. Once Spartacus rebels, however, the film goes to pot. Douglas loses the fire while Kubrick loses interest in Spartacus's story, becoming engaged only when the scene shifts to Rome, where the aristocratic Crassus battles with the plebian Gracchus (Charles Laughton) for the city's soul, and Spartacus's former owner Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov) finds himself in the unhappy role of political pawn. Ustinov's performance was the only Oscar-winning one in any Kubrick film, and he's great both as a bridge between the two story arcs and as low-key comic relief, playing off the high dungeon of everyone else. The problem with "Spartacus" is you also have some Golden Turkey performances, too, like those of Simmons, John Dahl, John Ireland, and John Gavin. Olivier may be the best thing in the film, in those moments when he is at the center of it. Playing Crassus as if he were Roy Cohn in a toga, he plumps quite convincingly as he makes sheep eyes at slave boy Tony Curtis and displays a patriotic narcissism in uncovering his lusts: "There is only one way to deal with Rome, Antoninus. You must serve her. You must abase yourself before her." Nothing else sticks quite like that (and that only because the restored version on the Criterion DVD put back an excised scene of Crassus and Antoninus in a bath, which explains what the old Roman meant by "abase".) Whenever the movie goes back to Spartacus and company, its hard watching as Douglas smiles a lot and moves through adoring crowds like John F. Kennedy at a campaign stop. We are told a lot of Spartacus's skill as a commander, but the battles all occur off-screen, with the one exception being the final one, a clumsy set-piece that compares badly to the spectacle of less-heralded "sword-and-sandals" pictures. Not uninteresting, especially as the Criterion DVD includes many commentaries and supplements that enrich the experience of the movie. It's just that for a director of such discipline as Kubrick, "Spartacus" is all over the map. It's no mystery why he largely disowned this film after its release; it really was never his picture in the first place.. |
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