Spartacus is a 1960 cinematic classic by all time great director Stanley Kubrick. Spartacus tells the story of a slave against oppression to become the leader of a slave revolt against their masters.
Like many Kubrick movies you are treated to a visual masterpiece. The movie is well shot and includes a splendid soundtrack. As a story Spartacus is amazing, from an art standpoint, specifically in the detail this movie was lacking. Like other movies take place in ancient Rome it fails to be realistic. This is most commonly seen in sculptures. The sculptures and marble work of the time would have been painted. In this movie they are base white. This could have been done to avoid a distracting and allow the viewer to immerse themselves into the movie due to the fact that most people are not aware that they statues would have been painted. Another issue is the overwhelming lack of art in general. These halls would have been highly decorated with statues, sculptures, busts, anything to add a flair to a room but this was not included in the movie. The senate chambers were bare aside from of a flag in the middle of the room, and the bathhouses were dull, limited to some simple wall texture. One of the few examples of fine detail being used was in Crassus chamber. His camber had all the luxuries you would expect of upper-class Rome.
Clothing and armor was also an issue. To put it simple it was bland. Even the upper class was underwhelming in most cases. It looked like they took a white bed sheet and wrapped the actor in it and then added a little gold trim around the neck. The armor of Rome was even generic. Simple leather was used or basic chain mail that covered one arm. Even Spartacus himself was wearing two slabs of metal with bumps on it. I understand that a movie of this size had to cut budget somewhere but they couldn’t even bother to give the important characters something acceptable looking. In all my critiques however I did notice that the Roman elites in battles armor did actually have some design on it. When I looked deeper into it though I failed to see a wolf, which is an important figure in Roman culture and was commonly used on elites armor to symbolize greatness and tradition. Theirs simply had some trim and design on it that meant nothing.
As brutally critical as I have been thus far I do want to state that I actually enjoyed the movie. As a story it was actually really good and tells a underdog and love story in one that makes you feel for the characters. I also do attribute a lot of what they are lacking in historical accuracy’s to the limitations of the era. If you look at Gladiator which does a fairly good job of representing that time frame 99% of the buildings and structures are CGI. This was not in existence in 1960. We have also advanced in film since then which would have also been a limitation of the movie.
Spartacus and Kubrick do get some things right though. Spartacus did a good job as far as combat goes and kept that historically accurate to the time. The had multiple styles of fighters (trident and net vs. sword and shield) and had them fight in pairs. They did their best to maintain realism from and architectural sense. The large, marble, columned style of building that is synonymous with Roman architecture was used thought out the movie. The gladiator school also resembled some realism in the sense of the stadium used to fight. The stadium was similar to the Coliseum in the sense of it being a circular design with a watching area dedicated for only the elites. Obviously it is nowhere near the same size of the Coliseum but shares the principle elements.
Overall Spartacus is a great film. It is a classic like many of Kubrick’s and should be praised in its own right. As critical as I was ,I want to emphasize that from a strict enjoyment factor the movie is very good. From a historical standpoint the movie is only somewhat accurate. Most of my issues are strictly in the detail. You could argue that I was being nitpicky or that my gripes are unrealistic for the time, however, I argue that for a movie of this caliber with a director of that magnitude my expectations were very high and were not met from a depiction of the art as well as a Roman culture standpoint. If art and art-related detail does not matter to you then this movie is flawless if art does matter to you then these fine details will drive you crazy and ruin some of the immersion factor that one would hope for.
