Stanley Kubrick: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best

Notable for its huge cast, this historical epic is probably best known for the line, "I'm Spartacus, no I'm Spartacus!". The movie sees Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) lead a slave group into a violent revolution against their Roman rulers. This is a film that features big industry names of the time, such as the blacklisted movie writer Dalton Trumbo, and Laurence Olivier (Lawrence of Arabia) playing the Roman General antagonist.

There was as much revolt behind the camera as on the screen. The original Director Anthony Mann was fired a week into production by Douglas and replaced with Kubrick. This was due to their previous collaboration on the film Paths of Glory. However, the director only carried on this backstage drama by protesting his apparent lack of artistic control on the production. This eventually led him to butt heads with the writer over a supposed lack of flaws with the character of Spartacus.

The movie was the biggest money maker in Universal Studio history and won four Oscars - though none of them were for the director himself. The process of making Spartacus left Kubrick disillusioned and unsatisfied with his work at Hollywood and eventually led him to move to England for the rest of his life.

Spartacus takes a low spot however, because despite its massive size, it fails to contain any of the Kubrick charm or nuance that we see in his later works and as a result, lacks any personal touch.