Spartacus
Directed by	Stanley Kubrick
Written by	Dalton Trumbo Howard Fast (novel)
Starring	Kirk Douglas Laurence Olivier Jean Simmons Charles Laughton Peter Ustinov Charles McGraw
Produced by	Edward Lewis Kirk Douglas (executive producer)
Distributed by	MGM
Release date	6 October 1960 (premiere)
Runtime	184 min. (premiere) 198 min. (1991 restored version)
Language	English
Budget	$12,000,000
IMDb page

Spartacus is a 1960 film by Stanley Kubrick based on the historical novel of the same name by Howard Fast. The film stars Kirk Douglas as rebellious slave Spartacus and Laurence Olivier as his rival, Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus. John Gavin (Julius Caesar), Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Herbert Lom, Woody Strode, and Tony Curtis are also featured. The production design is by Saul Bass. Image File history File links The DVD cover for Spartacus. ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director. ... Dalton Trumbo ( December 9, 1905 - September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter and novelist, and a member of the Hollywood Ten, one of group of film professionals who refused to testify before the 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee about alleged communist involvement. ... Howard Fast (November 11, 1914 - March 12, 2003) was an American novelist and television writer. ... Kirk Douglas in Champion Kirk Douglas (born December 9, 1916) is an American actor. ... Laurence Olivier, as photographed in 1939 by Carl Van Vechten Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM, KBE (May 22, 1907 – July 11, 1989) was an English actor and director, esteemed by many as the greatest actor of the 20th century. ... Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons in Angel Face Jean Merilyn Simmons (born January 31, 1929 in Crouch Hill, London, England, United Kingdom) is a British actress. ... Charles Laughton as photographed in 1940 by Carl Van Vechten Charles Laughton (July 1, 1899 - December 15, 1962) was a British-born American stage and film actor. ... Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander von Ustinov) (April 16, 1921 – March 29, 2004) was a British-born and raised actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur. ... Born Charles Butters in Ohio May 10, 1914, square-jawed Charles McGraw grew up to become an actor and eventually made his first movie in 1942. ... Edward B. Lewis (May 20, 1918–July 21, 2004) was an American geneticist, the winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Medicine. ... Kirk Douglas in Champion Kirk Douglas (born December 9, 1916) is an American actor. ... MGM logo Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM, is a large media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of cinema and television programs. ... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in Leap years). ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... This is a list of film-related events in 1991. ... See also: 1959 in film 1960 1961 in film 1950s in film 1960s in film years in film film // Events April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I. Blues August 10 - Filming of West... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director. ... Howard Fast (November 11, 1914 - March 12, 2003) was an American novelist and television writer. ... Kirk Douglas in Champion Kirk Douglas (born December 9, 1916) is an American actor. ... Spartacus was a Roman slave who led a large slave uprising in what is now Italy, then the Italian Peninsula, during 73 BC-71 BC. His army of escaped gladiators and slaves defeated several Roman legions in what is known as the Third Servile War, one of the three slave... Laurence Olivier, as photographed in 1939 by Carl Van Vechten Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM, KBE (May 22, 1907 – July 11, 1989) was an English actor and director, esteemed by many as the greatest actor of the 20th century. ... Marcus Licinius Crassus Marcus Licinius Crassus Dives (Latin: M·LICINIVS·P·F·P·N·CRASSVS·DIVES¹) (c. ... John Gavin (born John Anthony Golenor on April 8, 1928) is an American film actor and former US Ambassador to Mexico. ... Bust of Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (Classical Latin: IMP·C·IVLIVS·CAESAR·DIVVS¹) (b. ... Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons in Angel Face Jean Merilyn Simmons (born January 31, 1929 in Crouch Hill, London, England, United Kingdom) is a British actress. ... Charles Laughton as photographed in 1940 by Carl Van Vechten Charles Laughton (July 1, 1899 - December 15, 1962) was a British-born American stage and film actor. ... Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander von Ustinov) (April 16, 1921 – March 29, 2004) was a British-born and raised actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur. ... Herbert Lom (born January 9, 1917) is an international film actor. ... Woody Strode, a. ... Tony Curtis Tony Curtis is the stage name of Bernard Schwartz (born June 3, 1925 in The Bronx, New York to Jewish immigrants from Hungary), an actor who has appeared in over 100 films since 1949. ... Saul Bass Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 - April 25, 1996) was a graphic designer, but is best known for his design on motion picture title sequences, which is thought of as the best such work ever seen. ...

Spartacus is a classic Hollywood large format epic, with a historically important cast and crew despite the fact that it is a severely flawed production. Its shortcomings were attributed to various elements including the interference of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which imposed censorial conformity under the Hays Code; a sparring cast (Laughton vs. Olivier and director Kubrick vs. executive producer/star Douglas); and a distracting and boisterous orchestral soundtrack. ... EPIC might be an acronym or abbreviation for: Electronic Privacy Information Center Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing Enhanced Programmable ircII Client El Paso Intelligence Center End Poverty In California European Privatisation and Investment Corporation Sometimes it is also used to refer to Epic Games game development company. ... The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA, originally called the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association) is a non-profit trade association formed to advance the interests of movie studios. ... The Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of guidelines governing the production of motion pictures. ...

The film was re-released in 1967, 23 minutes shorter than the original release, and again in 1991, with those 23 minutes restored, plus an additional 14 minutes that had been cut from the film before its original release. That addition included several violent battle sequences as well as a bath scene in which the Roman patrician and general Crassus (played by Olivier), attempting to seduce his slave Antoninus (played by Curtis), uses the analogy of "eating oysters" and "eating snails" to express his opinion that sexual preference is a matter of taste rather than morality. An analogy is a comparison between two different things, in order to highlight some form of similarity. ...

When the film was restored, two years after Olivier's death, the original dialogue recording from this scene was missing, and so it had to be re-dubbed. Tony Curtis was able to re-record his part, but Crassus's voice is actually an Olivier impersonation by Anthony Hopkins. Anthony Hopkins A separate article is about composer Antony Hopkins. ...

C: Do you steal, Antoninus?

A: No, master.

C: Do you lie?

A: Not if I can avoid it.

C: Have you ever dishonoured the gods?

A: No, master.

C: Do you refrain from these vices out of respect for the moral virtues?

A: Yes, master.

C: Do you eat oysters?

A: When I have them, master.

C: Do you eat snails?

A: No, master.

C: Do you consider the eating of oysters to be moral, and the eating of snails to be immoral?

A: No, master. Of course not.

C: It is all a matter of taste, isn't it?

A: Yes, master.

C: And taste is not the same as appetite, and therefore not a question of morals, is it?

A: It could be argued so, master.

C: That will do. My robe, Antoninus.

C: My taste includes...both snails and oysters.

In post-production, Douglas was made aware that Kubrick intended to take writing credit for the film, although the script was adapted from Howard Fast's novel by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo. The powerful Douglas publicly resisted Trumbo's exclusion, and when Trumbo's name appeared in the credits, the Hollywood blacklist was effectively broken. Howard Fast (November 11, 1914 - March 12, 2003) was an American novelist and television writer. ... Playwright Arthur Miller testifies before HUAC The Hollywood blacklist was a group of mainly film actors, directors, and screenwriters in the late 1940s and early 1950s who were unable to work openly after having been targeted by Hollywood producers who were members of the MPAA after being convicted of contempt... Dalton Trumbo ( December 9, 1905 - September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter and novelist, and a member of the Hollywood Ten, one of group of film professionals who refused to testify before the 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee about alleged communist involvement. ...

Music

The original score from Spartacus was composed and conducted by Alex North. It is considered one of his best works, and a textbook example of how modernistic compositional styles can be adapted to the Hollywood leitmotif technique. North's score is large and epic, as befits the scale of the film. Much of the music is written without a tonal center, or flirting with tonality in ways that most film composers wouldn't. North has one theme that he uses for both slavery and freedom, but they are given different values and therefore sound like different themes. The love theme for Spartacus and Virinia is the most accessible theme in the film, and there is a harsh trumpet figure for Crassus. Alex North (December 4, 1910 - September 8, 1991) was an American composer responsible for the first jazz based film score (A Streetcar Named Desire) and the first truly modernist film score (Viva Zapata!). Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, Alex North was an original composer probably even by the classical music standards... ... A leitmotif (also spelled leitmotiv) is a recurring musical theme, associated within a particular piece of music with a particular person, place or idea. ...

The soundtrack album runs less than forty-five minutes and is not very representative of the score. There were plans to re-record a significant amount of the music with North's friend and fellow film composer Jerry Goldsmith, but the project kept getting delayed until Goldsmith's death in 2004. There have been numerous bootlegs, but none of them had very good sound quality. Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was a famous film score composer from Los Angeles, California. ... As a noun, bootleg means the top part of a boot, the part that is around the leg instead of the foot. ...

"I am Spartacus!"

One famous scene of the movie has the recaptured slaves being asked to point out which one of them is Spartacus in exchange for leniency. Instead, they each proclaim themselves to be Spartacus and thus share his fate. A similar scene or event is sometimes called a Spartacus moment in reference to this particular scene.

Historical inaccuracies

• In the opening of the film, Spartacus is shown performing labor on what appears to be a rock quarry. Most slaves in ancient Rome worked in agricultural environments.
• Spartacus was actually one of numerous slave revolters, and not the sole leader of the Roman slave revolts, as portrayed in the film.
• The film's famous "I am Spartacus!" scene and all other scenes afterwards with Spartacus never occured, as Spartacus is widely believed to have been killed in battle.
• Marcus Crassus was actually unwilling to pursue Spartacus and his army. It is also widely believed that the film's large battle near the end was started when Spartacus' army attempted to ambush Crassus.

Awards and nominations

• Best Supporting Actor - Peter Ustinov

The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander von Ustinov) (April 16, 1921 – March 29, 2004) was a British-born and raised actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur. ...

External links

• Spartacus at the Internet Movie Database