frankm@microsoft.UUCP (Frank MALONEY) (05/15/91)
SPARTACUS
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1991 Frank Maloney
SPARTACUS is Stanley Kubrick's classic epic about a slave rebellion
in republican Rome. It was originally released in, I think, 1960, to
tepid reviews and packed houses. Of the *major* Academy awards (best
picture, director, actor, actress) it was nominated only for best
picture; in all it won four Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor for
Peter Ustinov. Despite its cold reception from the Academy, it was the
biggest money maker of its release year.
On May 3 a restored SPARTACUS was released in several U.S. cities,
including Seattle. I played hookey from work and Lyndol and I spent
three-and-a-half happy hours on a glorious spring day in the dark of one
of Seattle's largest houses watching a SPARTACUS that was even more
wonderful than it was when I saw it first-run at the age of 15 or 16.
I hope you get a chance to see this, the second greatest epic Hollywood
ever made (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA being the greatest by most, and my,
accounting).
One of the reasons it is better this time around is it includes a
now-famous scene where Crassus (Lawrence Olivier) makes a pass at his
body-slave Antoninus (Tony Curtis). The story is that Olivier insisted
that the scene be filmed even though Kubrick and the others knew that
the scene was unreleasable, so the soundtrack was never recorded. For
the restoration, the scene was found in tact in the three-color
separations used to reconstruct the negative (the original negative
having long since been allowed to disintegrate); Curtis dubbed his
dialog by pitching his voice higher and Anthony Hopkins dubbed Olivier's
dialog seamlessly. The scene is fascinating in its delicacy and
indirection, its talk of having appetites for oysters or snails or both,
as an historical footnote on the presentation of homosexuality in the
films. More importantly, in terms of the overall film, it goes a long
ways toward filling out Curtis's character as well as his sudden
appearance among the volunteers joining Spartacus and the other escaped
gladiators on slopes of Mt. Vesuvius; I never really understood
Antoninus before.
Another reason why SPARTACUS is better the second time around is
that I am older and I understand the subtext now. As a teenager, I
reacted merely to the spectacle. As an old fart, I now react to the
theme of personal freedom that informs the entire movie. The script was
written Dalton Trumbo, the great film writer who was blacklisted during
the Red Scare of the late Forties. He had survived for years by selling
scripts through fronts and by using noms de plume; I understand he
actually was given a writing Oscar under an alias. He could not enter
any studio in Hollywood. Meetings had to be held in private homes.
Stanley Kubrick to his everlasting credit got tired of the hyprocrisy,
issued Trumbo a gatepass one day, and used Trumbo's real name on the
screen credits. I tell you it gave me a catch in the throat to see the
credit, to see "Dalton Trumbo" proudly, defiantly displayed in those
huge 70-mm letters.
Just as the theme is human liberty, so the background of the film
itself recapitulates the theme. Trumbo said he knew the studio
wouldn't go for the obvious stuff like the scene mentioned previously
and choked on the slight nudity and sex (Jean Simmons has two coy nude
scenes that were highly controversial in their day with the Legion of
Decency and other bluenoses), but he knew the studio execs weren't
astute enough to understand the really controversial aspect of the film,
its theme. This theme is just as resonant today as it was then when
SPARTACUS marked the "official" end of the McCarthy Era.
A third reason for liking SPARTACUS even more today is that no one
makes these wonderful sweeping 70-mm epics today. Thirty years ago the
budget originally called for $12 million; you could not bring it in for
under $200 million today. Hollywood made a terrible choice when it
turned its greedy back on 70-mm; the brilliant clarity of the medium
brings tears to the eyes of a movie lover, the tears of pain and regret.
And these epic stars are no longer available either. Look at the
cast: Kirk Douglas (Spartacus), Laurence Olivier (Crassus), Jean Simmons
(Varinnia), Charles Laughton (Gracchus), Peter Ustinov (Batiacus), John
Gavin (Julius Caesar), Tony Curtis (Antoninus), and literally a cast of
thousands. Actors like Douglas and Olivier are more than equal to the
challenge of the epic medium. Gavin was the weakest of the principals,
but gosh he was handsome--what happened to him, old farts want to know.
Jean Simmons was a marvel of strength and delicacy, a stronger version
of Audrey Hepburn, who didn't find real strength until she became
middle-aged. But the absolute treats are Laughton and Ustinov, who have
two scenes together that ought to be required viewing for all interested
in acting for the screen.
SPARTACUS was restored by the same team that restored LAWRENCE OF
ARABIA, the restoration that sparked the current wave of restored
classics.
This is more than recommended, this is required viewing.
--
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
And now a note from the Moderator:
=======*=======*=======*=======*=======*=======*=======*=======*=======*=======
[The following information regarding Dalton Trumbo and the blacklist was
published in a set of articles for Jewish Heritage Month and may be of some
interest:
"Breaking the Hollywood Blacklist: The darkest chapter of the American
entertainment industry was the years of the Hollywood blacklist. People
accused of disloyalty to the government could not confront their
accusers, but would suddenly find that nobody would hire them. Careers
were destroyed by innuendo. One blacklisted writer was Dalton Trumbo.
Before the years of the blacklist he was a successful screenwriters, but
when his name appeared on the blacklist he could submit only very few
scripts and then only under a pseudonym. Then in 1960 two major films
were released with screen credit given to Trumbo under his own name. On
both films the directors and the lead actors risked being blacklisted
themselves by insisting to their studios that Trumbo's name appear in
the credits in type no smaller than their own. When there was no fuss
from the public, it was generally acknowledged that the blacklist was
dead. The films were EXODUS and SPARTACUS. The directors were Otto
Preminger and Stanley Kubrick; the stars were Paul Newman and Kirk
Douglas."
And why Jewish Heritage Month? Well, Preminger, Kubrick, Newman, and
Douglas were all Jewish. --Moderator]