When is a
Stanley Kubrick film not a Stanley Kubrick film? The answer: when legendary auteur was a hired gun for the one and only time in his career. Kirk Douglas installed Kubrick as director of the Roman epic
Spartacus after sacking original choice Anthony Mann. Douglas and Kubrick had previously worked together on a much more recognisably Kubrickian film the 1957 World War One drama Paths of Glory but on Spartacus things were different. A big-budget, high-risk project produced by Douglas himself, reportedly after the actor failed to win the title role in 1959s wildly successful Ben-Hur, Spartacus needed to be big at the box office and Douglas, perhaps understandably, wanted to harness Kubricks talent in a very direct and unflashy way. Its the directors most mainstream work a picture he all but disowned entirely and which convinced him to from that point only make films on which he could exercise full creative control. It sounds like a bit of a mess after saying all that, but Spartacus is for me the best film of its kind ever produced and for a great many reasons. Firstly, it is the only major Hollywood film of its kind which isnt a dreary Christian parable. Spartacus is a much more down to earth human story, focussing on a slave revolt as an underclass seek to defeat their rulers and escape the Roman Empire. Written by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, the parallels between the story of Spartacus and the ideology of communism are hard to miss, as the wealthy, privileged Roman ruling elite face the wrath of those whose labour has kept them so well-fed. The final famous defeat of the slaves at the hands of the Roman army also echoes Trumbos own story and his defiance. Through the I am Spartacus sequence we see the solidarity of those who refuse to name names a sub-text Trumbo has since confirmed in interviews whilst the fate of Spartacus himself is also interesting in this context: though the Romans defeat him, they can not defeat his idea. We are told at the films opening that Spartacus dreamed of the abolition of slavery 2000 years before it became a reality and it is from this fact that Trumbo asks us to take heart. Laurence Olivier, as Roman patrician Crassus, states as the film nears its climax that his aim is not just to kill Spartacus, but to kill the legend of Spartacus. But unfortunately for him, you cant kill an idea.
With this political tract, Spartacus is about something more contemporary and more important than the Roman Empire or outdated superstition. It is a hopeful and humanistic film which lacks the soft-focus romanticism of its cinematic rivals. It is also spectacularly witty, such as when Peter Ustinovs cowardly schemer Lentulus Batiatus tells Crassus that he doesnt want to stay with the army during battle, saying: Im a civilian Im even more of a civilian than most civilians. Having such a terrific cast is another huge reason why Spartacus is so good. Ustinov won an Oscar for his part (and deservedly so), whilst Olivier and Douglas are also ably joined by actors of the calibre and presence of Charles Laughton, Jean Simmons and the late great Tony Curtis. The scenes of simmering sexual tension between Curtis and Olivier are among the best in the film and add to the sense that something more complex and mature is going on here than in the films of Cecil B. Demille.
Perhaps these details are the most tangible signs of Kubricks influence on the project are felt in the unprecedented authenticity and scale of the battle scenes, filmed in on location in Madrid using Spanish infantry soldiers at his urging (something he wanted to repeat ten years later, hoping to use real Romanian cavalry to make his doomed Napoleon film). The action scenes in Spartacus are much more bloody and visceral than any others seen in Roman epics of the era as well and hold up well today. The least Kubrickian element is Spartacus himself. In no other Kubrick film other than perhaps Douglas Col. Dax in Paths of Glory is the hero so without fault. If let loose on the film I suspect Kubrick would have made a point of having the slave leader destroyed by his obsession with freedom, whilst he might also have questioned Spartacus willingness to offer his comrades lives for an ideal. Kubrick was many things but never an ideologue. But the screenplay of Dalton Trumbo is the opposite of Kubrick: it has a point of view, an ideology, an ethos which makes it compelling and affecting. Stanley Kubrick made many great films and it is a pity that he never considered Spartacus to be one of them.
Extras
The Blu-ray edition is fairly low on features and those that are included are short and lack substance, although a few provide mildly entertaining diversions. There are four deleted scenes which together run for less than eight minutes and in low-definition. Two of these are different versions of the same scene, whilst one is audio only and the other is a different cut of the ending. Slightly better is a three minute archival interview with Peter Ustinov who is characteristically charming and funny. At one point he says that its never worth playing a hero without a weakness or a villain without a heart, a character must have three dimensions and some sort of inner contradiction to make it interesting something a lot of todays screenwriters still need to take on board. There is also a rather odd interview with Jean Simmons, that runs at just under four minutes in length. The interview has long pauses so that regional TV presenters could pretend to ask her questions during the inane, but strangely glamorous, pre-recorded piece. As a result the answers feel (or are) very scripted and forced. Bizarre. Equally staged and inauthentic is a five minute behind the scenes look at the construction of the gladiatorial school set (shot whilst Anthony Mann was still the films director). This features what look like recreations of Kirk Douglas being taught fight choreography and Peter Ustinov chatting to the films historical advisor. The forced nature of this short feature is highlighted by a playful Ustinov, who walks out into the centre of the gladiatorial arena in a suit and then eats a donut in self-consciously absurd fashion. Amusing but pointless.
There is also just less than five minutes of contemporary newsreel footage, which is entertaining if not especially enlightening (and then more out of interest in history than the film Spartacus). Finally, there is an original theatrical trailer and an image gallery, which includes costume designs, productions stills, promotional art and story boards by Saul Bass (its pretty good stuff, but does anyone ever look at these gallery features?). This feature set, with a total running time under thirty minutes, is hardly impressive for such a significant, epic movie. One need only look at the treatment afforded to the whopping great big four-disc DVD release of Ben Hur or the splendid 70th anniversary Blu-ray edition of Gone With the Wind both released by Warner Bros and packed with proper feature-length documentaries to see how Universal are resting on their laurels when it comes to Spartacus and their wider back catalogue in general. They did a better job with the 2004 DVD release, which contained all of the above as well as a 1992 interview with Ustinov, a 1960 documentary on the Hollywood Ten (the blacklisted group that included Spartacus screenwriter Dalton Trumbo), additional score compositions and a scene-by-scene analysis with Trumbo. Better still, that DVD also featured an audio commentary with Kirk Douglas, Peter Ustinov, Howard Fast (writer of the original novel), producer Edward Lewis, film restoration expert Robert A. Harris and designer Saul Bass. Why are these features absent here? Youll have to ask Universal.
Spartacus was released on
Blu-ray this week.