Spartacus

Overview

It's been five decades since swords-and-sandals blockbuster Spartacus made its cinematic debut.

The 1960s epic was directed by a relatively unknown Stanley Kubrick, who at the time had only four feature films under his belt. The responsibility came with a massive $12 million budget, a cast of 10,500 and an already tarnished reputation thanks to blacklisted screenwriters and crew disputes. Based on the novel by author Howard Fast, the film was also inspired by the story the slave Spartacus and the events of the Third Servile War.

After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads a swelling number of slaves to rebel against the Roman Republic, before claiming that they are all in fact the one that goes by the name Spartacus.

Starring a prime Kirk Douglas as the title character, Laurence Olivier as a Roman general and politician, Peter Ustinov as a trader of gladiators, plus a who’s who of Hollywood stars, the film became the biggest moneymaker in Universal Studios' history, until it was surpassed ten years later. It has since been imitated, parodied, honoured and dissected.

Spartacus will screen at The Civic on Friday April 17 at 7:15pm and Saturday April 18 at 2:15pm.