In the 1950s, cinema had a big rival. Rather than spend money to watch a movie, the new fangled television became the choice. Well, OK, it wasn’t new fangled, and it was a long time since 1927, but it (tv) became popular after the war.
People loved it. They could stay home, watch something mindless for ‘free’, not have to dress up and could even eat while it was on and be nude.
Cinema fought back. It’s the period when the gimmick hit Hollywood bigly. 3D was popular, Smell-O-Vision, vibrating seats, stereo sound…
The big push was to a larger screen. Many techniques were invented to fill the big screen: Cinerama, VistaVision, Todd-AO, Super Technirama 70 and so on.
But what for content? Well, so many produers and directors turned to the religious, quasi-religious or historic epic. Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, King Of Kings, The Greatest Story Ever Told and more (into the 1960s).
Spartacus falls into this class. It’s set in Roman times, pretends to be a true story and is long. It was shot for the big screen. It is, as they say, and epic.
Kubrick was brought in by producer and star Kirk Douglas as the director. It’s a big starring vehicle for Douglas and his mate Tony Curtis. But there are real actors, like Laurence Olivier.
We are sure the set pieces look fantastic on a really big screen. And if you like that kind of historical stuff, maybe you will enjoy it. But boy is it boring. And at one point in its history, 23 minutes was removed, but this has been restored.
Kubrick tried his best to make something of it, but by all accounts hated it. It sticks out like a sore thumb in Kubrick’s filmography, and he would probably have made a better film if he had tackled it ten years later.