Spartacus (HD DVD, 2006)

I've seen a few recent movies from Stanley Kubrick. I've seen A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut. They're all different, but they all have a strangeness to them that can only come from the mind of Kubrick. And they're all excellent movies as well. Eyes Wide Shut got a lot of bad reviews, but I think it's a cult type movie that's similar to A Clockwork Orange (different story, but the same eeriness that's associated with the three films). There are a lot of undertones and read between the lines stuff that make this movie quite a bit underrated compared to what critics have said about it.

With all that in mind, Spartacus is a much different kind of movie. It's an epic movie taking place in Biblical times, yet it's not a Biblical movie. I believe it takes place before Christ is born (not positive, but a young Caesar is a character in this movie, I think it's the same Caesar that Jesus faced in the Bible). Spartacus (played by Kirk Douglas) is a man who has lived in slavery his whole life. He finally gets sick of his treatment and attacks and bites a guard. For his retaliation he is supposed to be put to death, but instead he is sold to become a gladiator. That's where he meets his future wife, a beautiful servant slave who is given to the best gladiators to have sex with. Spartacus soon retaliates again and leads an uprising through Italy, with slaves following him to try to attain their goal of freedom. Meanwhile, the Romans continue chasing them through Italy because they want their slaves back. Along the way he meets up with the servant girl again and they become married.

Spartacus can be compared to Gladiator a little, but the movie resembles Braveheart more I think, with freedom being the ultimate goal for everyone, even if costs them their lives. My favorite line in the film is when Kirk Douglas says that when free people die, they lose enjoyment; when slaves die, they escape the pain. I think this is a definite classic and it shows what Stanley Kubrick could do early in his career, he was only 31 at the time he directed Spartacus. To hand the controls over to such a young director was probably a risk at the time, but it proved to be a winning gamble. The film is among the best epic movies of all time.