Roman365 Directory

A troubled epic production, Spartacus shot for 167 days, employed over 10,000 people and cost over $12 million, making it one of the most expensive films ever produced in Hollywood at that time. However, the film was a great success, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture and grossing over $13 million within the year. Production began on January 27,

SK claims this is not a good film (because he could not control it from the very beginning!) but it is a superior epic and perhaps one of the best films about the ancient world. It is based upon a true story of a slave revolt, led by the Thracian gladiator slave Spartacus, which threatened Rome about 74-70 BC. S is a slave who is taught martial skills at Lentulus's gladiator school in order to be sold and then to entertain the Roman crowds in the Colliseum in fights to the death.

The darkest historical epic. No dancing girls, no chariot races, filmed in sombre browns and reds. Nominally directed by Kubrick but Douglas, as a very 'hands on' producer was responsable for the operatic sweep of the film. I was astonished when revisiting the film in 1991 at the cinema at the bravery of the project-to have the hero cry several times, once even out of self pity and with a heart rending ending!