Spartacus (1960)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

A huge blockbuster success at the time of it's release and when it was re-released in 1967, you could say it has something of a slightly diminished status today.  It's shelved under that dust covered category known as "classic film" and not much thought of anymore.  This is unfortunate because this is one of the original action filled epics that many others are modeled on.  Watching it today it really doesn't seem dated, everything in the movie looks fantastic, the scenes have all the appropriate impact.  It compares quite favorably to modern films in the epic genre.

Stanley Kubrick had a particularly difficult time working with Kirk Douglas on this film (who was also the producer).  He felt his work was being compromised, and as a result had a sour feeling about the project forever after.  Because of this it is often left out of retrospectives and collections of the director's work.  This is really too bad, it may not be a work of pure vision by Kubrick but it is still an excellent film.  Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, and Laurence Olivier all turn in fantastic performances (Ustinov won a best supporting actor Oscar).

So yes, the movie is missing some of the Kubrick style, particularly the script which is what Kubrick had most contention with, but his stamp is definitely evident.  Kubrick's eye for period detail is what really comes through.  The final battle scene is literally awesome. The long shot of thousands of soldiers marching over the hill is very very impressive (especially when seen in a theater with a really big screen). A very good job was done to give the impression of the Romans as the evil empire with a lot of help from Olivier's General Crassus. You can see the influence of this movie on a lot of later big blockbusters like Braveheart, Gladiator, and Conan The Barbarian.

Kubrick on location in Spain during the filming of Spartacus.