THE BEAST WITHIN WEEK 3 : "SPARTACUS"

Well, as long as we’re on the subject of blood, gore and violence, let’s do a bit of time travelling as well. Waay back, to the days of the Roman Empire. Yes, let’s give them their due; we owe the Romans many cornerstones of civilization: architecture, literature, law and many military formations. They were, for all that, a bloodthirsty lot. Ok, maybe not more so than anyone else then or today Now don’t protest; any fans of Quentin Tarantino among my readers? I rest my case. The only difference with the Roman gladiators (you probably guessed I was getting to that from the title, right?) and watching films with violence in them, is that we know that at the end of the day’s shooting, our actors picked themselves up from wherever they had been slashed to bits, were hosed off and handed a hot drink and possibly complained to the director about getting red dye out of their hair. The gladiators actually died at the end of the show. Leave aside the fact that this was a brutal and sad waste of a human life, a life usually captured and forced into slavery / gladiatorship, it was not particularly cost-effective either (you cannot re-use a dead gladiator unlike actors who can star in more than one film). There was, however, nothing to be done. The audience loved it and special effects hadn’t been invented so there you were.
One man however, decided to put a stop to this or die trying. This was Spartacus, a Thracian shepherd who was sold into slavery and made a gladiator. Now, the rich crowds in the Roman times usually preferred fights to be to the death. The life expectancy of a gladiator once he had been trained was 5 – 10 years if he was particularly good. Spartacus decided he had had quite enough of being the rather brutal plaything of the Roman aristocracy and started the biggest slave revolt in the whole of Roman history. Along with 6000 slaves from the gladiator school and those liberated from nearby estates they formed an army with the sole purpose of marching to the sea , securing ships and sailing back to their homelands (slaves in Roman times you understand were rarely if ever Romans – they were usually the natives of lands the empire had invaded ). Naturally, Rome could not allow this – the honor and name of the empire depended o it and… Well, you can pretty much guess what happened next…
Now, do NOT be fooled (and I had to check and encyclopedia too by the way) Spartacus is a TRUE story. And despite my rather flippant introduction the whole idea of gladiators makes me sick to my stomach and I have ENDLESS respect for Spartacus who took on, almost single handedly, one of the greatest empires in the world and actually gave it a good old shake. Like all great stories, there are MANY adaptations to the cinema of this one too. The one I watched (and recommend) is actually Stanley Kubrick’s version. It is 188 minutes long (but so was the Godfather so don’t whine about it being too long!). Starring such immortal names as Laurence Olivier, Kirk Douglas (as Spartacus) and the stunning Jean Simmons it is a true epic that won 4 Oscars® (Best Supporting Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Costumes) for its trouble among other awards. The film basically stays true to the actual sequence of events, there are, however, literary flourishes (love interests, tear jerkers and the like) but they take nothing away either from the event or the greatness of the man…
It is a great story of a great man who stood up for his own rights and what actually IS right despite oppression and almost impossible odds. This demands respect. And as such a great master as Kubrick himself decided to cover it, it only seems fitting to watch this version… Any old representation just would not do…