The movie is set in first century BC Rome. The main character, Spartacus, is a man who was sold into slavery as a boy and has spent years working in mines. Being the strong man he is he tried to fight the guards and bit one in the ankle. He was then tied up and made an example of until a wealthy Roman man came along to buy him. The man was looking for strong, fit men to fight. The movie continues into a montage type scene where they have the slaves training and preparing to fight. In my opinion, this scene was very silly, I understand the movie is from the 1960s but some of the training techniques they do don’t seem realistic to me. There is one point where they basically are playing jump rope with a blade and also have to duck another blade. Around this time they also introduce a love aspect with a slave woman that he has feelings for. So far through the movie, most of the costumes and sets are very convincing. The quarries look just how I would imagine ancient Roman quarries would look like. There were large pits with hundreds of slaves with pickaxes and chains around them. Even the slaves and wealthy people have proper attire with the slaves wearing ragged robes and the wealthy people wearing clean white robes and gold necklaces, arm, and headpieces. 

Spartacus is also made to fight another slave gladiator with four rich Roman men watching. You could tell these men were rich because they wore clean white robes with gold accents and jewelry. It looked very convincing with how this fight would actually have been set. The fighting itself wasn’t too convincing but it did fit the scene. The set here again is very convincing. About this point in the movie, he makes a rash decision and drowns the man who was training them to fight. This scene is a strong turning point and also refers back to earlier in the movie when the trainer attempted to make Spartacus fight him in an attempt to make an example and kill him. I like how the directors choose to kill him because this shows how the tables have turned. Spartacus beings freeing the other slaves and starts a large rebellion against his owner. He is eventually elected as leader of the rebellion by the other freed slaves. Next, they begin to plunder and pillage many small villages across the countryside, getting rich while they do it. While they are continuing their raids, stealing and freeing slaves, Varinia escapes her owner and is reunited with Spartacus. Spartacus then convinced his rebellious army to fight against the much stronger republic in the hopes of freeing all people who are enslaved. The movie ends with a large battle and Spartacus getting to see his son before it ends. 

In all honesty, this movie really kept my attention the entire time. In my personal opinion, the plot was very predictable and it didn’t really keep me on the edge of my seat.  Just like a lot of movies from this time period the plot is straightforward and the next move can usually be predicted. The characters and the acting were very good and the actors seemed like they had real emotion and anger. The real strong suit of this movie was the sets and costumes. The sets and costumes were so period-correct I felt like I was actually there. The buildings looked very accurate for the time and did just appear as normal set backgrounds. Considering this movie was only the Fifth one that Stanley Kubrick directed it was very good. This was one of his first big movies and it was done very well. It obvious why it won multiple awards and it is so memorable. It is definitely a movie I would recommend to a friend or to anyone who is looking to watch a classic movie filled with action. 

The next two stars of the movie are the two princes of Troy, Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom). The two are on a diplomatic mission to sign a peace treaty with the king of Sparta Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson). Following Greek mythology, Paris falls in love with Sparta’s queen, Helen (Diane Kruger) and takes her back to Troy which initiates the war. After negotiations, Paris sneaks Helen onto the Trojan’s ship and they sail back to Troy. Not too long later Menelaus discovers this and goes to his brother Agamemnon (Brian Cox), who rules over most of Greece, to start what becomes known as the Trojan Wars.

Some may argue that it’s hard to make a battle exciting when the ending is already known (those who are aware of the historical context), but I disagree. I was completely engaged during all of the battle scenes. The war begins and one thousand ships are deployed to attack Troy and reclaim Helen, and in the front of the fleet is Achilles’s ship. The opening scene didn’t show us enough of how strong the mighty Achilles really is, now we get to see him, and his fifty men take on hundreds of Trojans. In single combat, Achilles has a distinctive fighting style. He prefers the long run-up and then leaps into the air to slay his enemy, as seen throughout several parts of the movie. 

The Greeks arrive at Troy and attack the walled city, lead by Achilles who takes the beach of Troy with just fifty men. Throughout the film and just as most Greeks did back then, we see Greeks make many tributes to the Gods. One of the tributes that the Trojans made was a temple and a large beautiful statue of the sun god Apollo. After Achilles’s victory he cuts off the head of the statue, which was his way of saying the gods don’t decide fate, we do. Later before the two major armies clash, Paris and Menelaus have a single combat duel and the winner gets to keep Helen. The camera zooms out on the battlefield to show the two massive armies standing and watching as two men face off. Orlando Bloom is just coming off the successful Lord of the Rings movies, where he plays as Legolas, a powerful elven warrior. In this case, however, we see the exact opposite of a warrior and that is a frightened little boy who looked like he had never held a sword in his life.

Later in the movie Achilles and Hector finally have the showdown we have all been waiting for. The two most powerful warriors in all of Greece face off in front of the great wall of Troy. Hector gives Achilles his toughest battle he has ever faced, but even Hector is not good enough to defeat Achilles. Achilles defeats Hector and from that point on the Greek army has all the advantage they could ever need. After the loss of Hector, the film then portrays the famous Trojan Horse scene (those who know the historical context know). The plan was created by Odysseus according to history, but they do not show the formation of the plan in the film. Then just like most movies of this nature (Gladiator), the main character meets his end after he finally finds peace. The mighty Achilles meets his end by the hands of Paris, to avenge his fallen brother Hector. 

Despite some shortcomings, there were many things I enjoyed about Troy. I may be a little biased because I enjoy historically based movies, but I believe they did a good job considering how little is known about the real Troy. Not much is known about the Trojan Wars except little pieces of history that have been found on archeological digs. The goal of this movie was to portray a significant part of ancient Greek culture based on what we currently know about the Trojan Wars. I found myself closely watching and listening more often than not but considering it is three hours, the average viewer may deserve a little more to keep them interested. Audiences should get the impressions that Ancient Greece was beautiful in terms of climate, architecture, and art, but was also a time of war, sickness, and pettiness. If you are looking for a love story with plenty of character development this is not the film for you. The best historical based films work when both visual and emotional qualities. As I stated already the goal of the film was to portray the Trojan Wars to the best of their ability, so it’s understandable that they didn’t spend a great amount of time on character development. Peterson nailed it when it comes to battle scenes but fell short when it comes to believable characters.

The major piece of culture that the movie Spartacus that is shown is the life of a slave and how many slaves the Romans uses to build their cities.  The Gladiators were forced to fight each other in the small wooden arenas, and they trained and to fight for the amusement of the rich.  Every slave Spartacus came upon he freed, and they joined his army because they believed in his leadership.  The clothes the slaves wore were rags and leather armor.  Spartacus taught them how to fight and he led them against the armies of Rome using spears and shields that the slaves made themselves or won when they defeated the legions.  

In stark contrast to the slaves, the senators led lives of opulence and greed.  They use gold and marble in every building they were in.  The bathhouses were made almost completely out of marble with grand designs in the walls and pillars.  The walls of their homes had paintings of gods and goddesses on them and marble statues and busts everywhere.  The armor the generals wore were gold plated armor and red capes and gold-plated helmets.  On the armor were great feats of battle and their ancestors and previous rulers. Each soldier had a set of heavy iron armor and a wooden and metal shield and a brown cape.  This movie gave a very accurate representation of the respective sides with the Soldiers that had battle tactics and proper armor and training, and the slaves turned into Soldiers and trained by Spartacus.

The music composed for this movie is by Alex North.  This music is the best part of the movie and it makes the scenes so much more emotional.  If there was no music the movie would be so lifeless and emotionless.  The best part of the movie that music effects is when Spartacus is tied up and Crassus the new emperor confronts Spartacus and Crassus punches Spartacus and Spartacus in return spits in the face of the new Emperor and a big swell of music happens at the same time.  This impacts the overall feeling in the movie because you can really feel the life and death situation.  The greatest part of the entire movie is the battle between the slaves and the Roman Legions, and the music portrays the battle as a climactic final battle that will result in victory or death.

The movie shows all these aspects including the culture, grand designs of the building, the slave’s lives and the Roman Legion armor and the Generals.  This movie does an amazing job of portraying the stark contrast of the senator’s lives compared to the lives of the slaves.  The senators had wealth and slaves had nothing this was shown off very well in the movie because anyone that was freed from being a slave wanted to join the slave army immediately.  The music is the most amazing part of this movie and without it, the movie would not feel as great as it does.  I think this is one of the best movies based on the Ancient Romans before they became completely dominant over a large area.  I would highly recommend anyone who likes Roman history or any history to watch this movie and they will not be disappointed with the dedication the actors and directors put into this movie. 

In the beginning of the movie, you can see the slavery aspect of the ancient Roman time period come to be as the Roman soldiers were all wearing gladiator helmets they were beating the slaves. The outfits the Roman soldiers were wearing were portrayed very accurately as the sculpture “The Augustus of Primaporta” had matched up to the soldiers in the movie with a very similar look, as the dominant empire color red stuck out on their clothes. Also, very noticeable from the start is an early example of marble head sculptures like the one you can see of a woman displayed in one of the houses in the background of the main scene which reflects a famous sculpture of Antonius Pius. Many sculptures were brought to life during this time in Rome, as contrapposto was on the rise in sculptures artists were making a lot more of them, during the movie you can see a sculpture with this technique in the background. 

Spartacus is a movie depicting specifically the struggle of fighting and the glory that comes out of being a true gladiator. The movie portrayed the gladiators and armor that they wore almost perfectly making it seem like It was actually real and almost not a movie as the gladiator’s costumes were pinpoint accurate and precise with detail. The armor shined and the helmets where designed perfectly giving off a powerful look. The Roman Empire was famous for the dedication and will to build amazing structures as their architectures were precise and taken deep into consideration with great pride. In the movie, you can see in the background an example of a bridge with arches holding it up, which shows the geometrical symmetry in the structure. During the movie, the buildings are portrayed as typical ancient Rome structures, with the big white pillars and the look of higher status. As leaders tend to ride horses as shown in many ancient Roman sculptures, the movie nicely depicted the same way in the movie as examples are shown a lot. The movie has done a good job of incorporating fresco paintings in the background of scenes which is a painting done rapidly in watercolor on wet plaster or ceilings. The fresco painting in the movie has a similar touch to it and is portrayed extremely well as it reminds the typical viewer of the fresco “Garden from Villa of Livia” as it had multiple corresponding colors and looks that are accurately the same.

All together Spartacus the movie did well portraying the roman empire accurately displayed the artwork techniques and the structures of the time of the Roman Empire. Starting from the gladiators and armor to the fresco paintings and sculptures to the precise bridges and pillars in front of the buildings. The Roman empire was accurately displayed as the gladiators, scenery, and artworks were all depicted specifically.

Spartacus, a slave in the Roman republic is to be put to death. His life is spared when Biatius purchases him and brings him back to his gladiator school to be trained as a gladiator. Through some surprising turns of events, Spartacus leads the other slaves to revolt against the Roman republi. Roman troops are sent out to capture the revolting slaves, who defeat the Roman soldiers. Crassus tells the slaves that they can have their freedom if they just give him Spartacus. Spartacus is about to reveal himself when each of the other slaves shouts out the famous line “I am Spartacus!”. This leads to a mass slaughter by the Romans; However, Spartacus miraculously survives and is eventually reunited with his family.

The screenwriters and directors do an exceptional job at creating a thrilling tale that is easy to watch. It pulls the viewer in and keeps them wanting more. However, while it is a great movie in regards to entertainment, it is also a superb movie with regard to the art that is portrayed throughout. We need to keep in mind that this film was created in 1960 which is nearly 60 years ago. The technology that was available during that time period does not even compare to the technology that is available to us now for the use of creating and editing films. However, the director and everyone involved in making this film come alive used the resources that were available to them and used them to their fullest as the movie turned out great.

For starters, the landscape that is used in the movie truly gives the movie more of a “grand effect”. In more than one scene we see the large and vast dry desert. In the portrayal, the viewer can almost feel how dry and hot it is in that scene. The viewer can sympathize with Spartacus because we can almost feel the agonizing heat and despair that he is feeling.

In other scenes, we see the gladiator armor that the slaves are wearing. This is where I want to stop and take a little more time to look at some of the choices that the costume designers, directors, and others made. In some cases, they made great decisions. In one scene, we see Spartacus with armor over just one arm and he is holding a sword; this is a historically correct representation of what one type of gladiator armor may look like based off artifacts that we have from these time periods. In other scenes, however, we see much less historically accurate armor for these types of gladiators and for this time period such as the armor that Spartacus is wearing in several of the fighting scenes. If the viewer doesn’t know any better, then these costumes look like they would be historically correct, but this also can lead to misunderstandings since some of the costumes are historically correct and others are not. Additionally, if you are a viewer who does have historical knowledge of this time period, then this detail can make the film less accurate and less impactful for you since some of the details are accurate and others are not.

Finally, the architecture and landscape that is shown in the movie does give the movie more of a grand feeling for the viewer. As stated earlier, the technology that was available during the 1960’s is not to the same grade that technology is now; however, the director was still able to get the same feeling across to the viewer as he would have been able to do if he had better and higher grade technology. He achieved this by the camera pans and careful selections of the film settings. The opening scene was filmed in Death Valley, California. Filming then moved to the Universal Lot in Hollywood, where most of the film was filmed, with the battles being filmed in Spain. Additionally, the directors used many landscapes between Los Angeles and San Francisco to get the “historic” look they were searching for. That is not where the director stopped with the “using his resources” though. The sounds that are heard throughout battle is the recording of football fans attending a Notre Dame versus Michigan football game.  

Spartacus, a film about pride, determination, and freedom, comes to life on the screen. It is a true testament to the directors who put their best foot forward to deliver a, historically accurate film about a slave revolt against the Roman Republic that closely models what the time period would have felt and looked like during the Roman republic. It is a grand film that touches the hearts of its viewers.

Their estate, Longborn house, is marked by symmetry and proportion based on the classical architecture of Greece and Rome, which the audience will see throughout the whole film in all the estates and in the actual Georgian Era. Column work holding up a triangular arch can see in the front of the mysterious Mr. Darcy’s magnificent Pemberly Estate, also alluding to Greek and Roman structures such as the Parthenon. The splendor of his estate completely embodies his wealth and elusiveness in the narrative. There is also a chance that the greatness of Pemberly is exaggerated to paint a more idealized, spectacular image than what would probably be realistic in that time, for the sake of Hollywood movies.

More nods to the architecture of this time are presented during climactic parts of the movie such as, Mr. Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth. The scene is very dramatic following Elizabeth learning of Mr. Darcy’s separation of Jane and Mr. Bingley, added to Elizabeth believing that Mr. Darcy is the reason for Mr. Wickham’s unfortunate money situation. Elizabeth is surprised by Darcy underneath a random stone gazebo looking structure, that continues with the Greek/ Roman details, while it is pouring and terribly dreary. As Elizabeth rejects him this time, to add increased drama to the scene, the audience can hear thunder in the background as she spits anger and in that moment, hatred at him. Throughout the movie, dependent on the emotions of the characters, the setting changes. Contrasting to the first engagement’s dark, angry setting, the second engagement is calm and happy. It is one of the last scenes of the movie, after Elizabeth is visited by a distraught Lady Catherine DeBurgh, who interrogates Elizabeth about her potential relationship with Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth rightfully cannot sleep and goes for a walk. The sun is just rising in the early morning scene, with a soft playing of the piano in the background. As Elizabeth sees Darcy walking toward her in the distance the scene erupts with light from the rising sun and the piano crescendos. This beautifully conveys the overwhelming emotion of the scene, as reflected coming from both Elizabeth and Darcy while they finally come to complete terms with their feelings for another. Both engagement scenes in the movie are reminiscent to Georgian style paintings, where the people in the scene are depicted in a naturalistic, yet perfect way with flawless skin and calm faces. Also, in Georgian paintings the background, especially in outdoor pictures, are highly dynamic in the shades in the sky and other aspects like plant-life and structures. Figures in these paintings are usually in compelling poses and in different dimensions, including the foreground, middle-ground and background. This helps conveys what is happening in the scene, which is used throughout the plot, especially in major scenes.

Sadly, this is of course a wonderful fiction that probably would not play out that way in this time in history. The scene although amazingly romantic would be highly inappropriate and would not happen during this era. Women of this prestigious time had chaperones at all times and men did not just waltz to their perspective “girlfriend’s” house unannounced, basically in his pajamas, without talking to her father first. Doing any of this would result in women being looked at as “damaged goods” and forced to become spinsters, not married to the wealthiest, most attractive man of the land.

Lastly, there is a scene in the movie where white, marble statues are actually the main focus. Elizabeth is on a trip with her aunt and uncle and they end up going to Pemberly. Elizabeth only agreed to go because she was told that Mr. Darcy would not be there (jokes on her, he’s there). While visiting the huge estate, the housekeeper brings Elizabeth and her guests to a room just filled with statues and busts. These statues are also very reminiscent to those seen in Greek and Roman works. Realistic draping details thrive in this scene under bright natural light and it makes the statues look as if they could come to life at any moment. One bust in particular is that of Mr. Darcy, not only does this show fantastical technique into getting the likeness of his face, but acts as a plot point in showing Elizabeth’s change of feeling toward him.

Although not truly in the main focus of Pride & Prejudice, art plays a large role in showing the scenery of that time in a magical way and helping portray the emotions of the characters. Art can truly be found anywhere, one just has to look for it.