Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Was Spartacus just a savage?



Was Spartacus just a savage?

Dramatically, Spartacus rode along the cheering ranks of his men. Then he stepped down and slaughtered his steed in full view.

link

2 comments:

S.R.Orsulak said...

Having seen Kirk's movie and having read several articles as the one here,Spartacus was a warrior and savage at that. I also have the TV miniseries by the same name with Goran Visnjic in the lead role. This version is very close to the historical version. He was quite brutal in his arena fights, and despised all Romans as is evident in this movie. I guess you seen this movie and what is your opinion on it?

PEPLUM cinema said...

I haven't seen the Goran Visnjic version but I have seen the 1913 silent version, SPARTACO starring Massimo Girotti, SPARTACUS starring Kirk Douglas and some of the episodes of the Spartacus series.

I have to get a hold of the mini-series to check it out. The main problem I had with the 1960 version of SPARTACUS was that they really romanticized the whole thing: Romans = bad; Slaves = Saints. Kubrick apparently had issues with this as he despised any Hollywood stuff.