2008-09-06 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful
If you have a widescreen TV, get the criterion version. This version sports new packaging, but it's the same print from 10 years ago...which is to say it is NOT enhanced for correct display on widescreen TVs. (Read full review at Amazon)
2008-08-20 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful
Entertaining film, well worth the time. But Hollywood history. To begin with Sparticus was a Roman not a Thracian. Marcus Licineus Crassus trapped Sparticus in the Toe of Italy, not the Heel. Pompey "The Great" (The "Great" part not mentioned in... (Read full review at Amazon)
2008-08-13 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful
I'm one of those people who cries easily in movies. I cry at sad parts, I cry at happy parts, I have no problem with turning on the water-works. I have seen a lot of great movies in my time, many of which have indeed caused me to tear up, but... (Read full review at Amazon)
A classic--and the Peter Ustinov extras are priceless!
2008-08-07 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful
I grew up with this movie and it will always have a place in my heart. I have found,though, that as I have gotten older, the characters of the freedom-seeking slaves sem less interesting than those of the Romans. The slaves are too "good" to... (Read full review at Amazon)
2008-07-03 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful
A GREAT EPIC FILM. I WAS DISAPOINTED THAT IT DID NOT INCLUDE ANY OF THE EXTRAS THAT OFTEN GO WITH DVDS TODAY. NO COMINTARY TRACK, NO FEATURETTES, NO DOCUMENTARY WITH INTERVIEWS. BUT MOETLY, IT COUILD HAVE BENIFITED FROM A HISTORY DOCUMENTARY. (Read full review at Amazon)
Stanley Kubrick was only 31 years old when Kirk Douglas (star of Kubrick's classic Paths of Glory) recruited the young director to pilot this epic saga, in which the rebellious slave Spartacus (played by Douglas) leads a freedom revolt against the decadent Roman Empire. Kubrick would later disown the film because it was not a personal project--he was merely a director-for-hire--but Spartacus remains one of the best of Hollywood's grand historical epics. With an intelligent screenplay by then-blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo (from a novel by Howard Fast), its message of moral integrity and courageous conviction is still quite powerful, and the all-star cast (including Charles Laughton in full toga) is full of entertaining surprises. Fully restored in 1991 to include scenes deleted from the original 1960 release, the full-length Spartacus is a grand-scale cinematic marvel, offering some of the most awesome battles ever filmed and a central performance by Douglas that's as sensitively emotional as it is intensely heroic. Jean Simmons plays the slave woman who becomes Spartacus's wife, and Peter Ustinov steals the show with his frequently hilarious, Oscar-winning performance as a slave trader who shamelessly curries favor with his Roman superiors. The restored version also includes a formerly deleted bathhouse scene in which Laurence Olivier plays a bisexual Roman senator (with restored dialogue dubbed by Anthony Hopkins) who gets hot and bothered over a slave servant played by Tony Curtis. These and other restored scenes expand the film to just over three hours in length. Despite some forgivable lulls, this is a rousing and substantial drama that grabs and holds your attention. Breaking tradition with sophisticated themes and a downbeat (yet eminently noble) conclusion, Spartacus is a thinking person's epic, rising above mere spectacle with a story as impressive as its widescreen action and Oscar-winning sets. --Jeff Shannon
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