Poor Man’s Braveheart — I know I am supposed to like Spartacus more, but I just found it a little less fun
★★★★☆
Everyone knows the quote, “I am Spartacus!” However, fewer know the other 3 hours and 14 minutes of film that surround that scene. Spartacus is Stanley Kubrick’s story of the titular character and the slave revolt he led against the Republic of Rome. It is an epic tale in the classic sense, like Ben-Hur or the Ten Commandments (two movies I know David also loves), and like all epics, it is also crazy long.
The appeal of an epic film is that you get to experience the entire journey of a character. Unfortunately for Spartacus, I found the character kind of boring. Kirk Douglas’s acting is fine, but Spartacus is almost a Mary Sue — he doesn’t have any flaws. One of the weaknesses of a 3-hour movie as opposed to a television show or mini-series is while you try to span such a long timeframe, you don’t have time to focus on the nuances of your character. Spartacus has the exact kind of story that shows like Game of Thrones have perfected: a new commander of an army has to lead his troops against greater numbers of better trained soldiers, balance his new life as a husband, and worry about soon-to-be fatherhood. All the while, greedy politicians try to twist the rebellion into more power for themselves. This is a plot that deserves 10 hours to play out, not 3. And especially not 3 consecutive hours. That length of time can really wear on the viewer and leave them feeling more exhausted than exhilarated.
There is still a lot to like in this movie. Trumbo’s script’s strength is more so in the dialogue than the story. Any time Kirk Douglas gets to monologue, you tend to forget that he’s so boring doing anything else. His speeches have the kind of gravitas that gets you to believe that he could gather an army of slaves. When Crassus (think ancient Roman Donald Trump, but way more wealthy–you know what, just read about him here) is speaking to other senators, you can hear the disdain as he mocks the republic harder than Darth Vader in a rap battle.
On the scale of Kubrick films, I like this one better than the ones I’ve never understood the appeal of (A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey) but less than the ones I really enjoy (Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Strangelove). The only hint that this is even a Kubrick film — David and others argue it’s not, production was taken over by Douglas and the studio — is that there are two separate movies in this one. At the end of act one, Spartacus rides off into the sunset with the love of his life like the ending of every western ever. Seriously Kubrick, that’s how you end act one?
Next week, David will watch Flirting with Disaster an early film of my favorite director, David O. Russell. It’s a Ben Stiller comedy in all of the best ways. It’s also available to stream on Netflix! Get on it before next week.
cinemateur 