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Spartacus

1960

Stanley Kubrick

Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov ...

8.0

69,573

Adventure. Action. Drama Based on the homonymous novel by Howard Fast about the historical life of Spartacus and the Third Servile War. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is a rebellious slave who leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman empire. Word of the rebellion spreads like wildfire, and soon Spartacus' army numbers in the hundreds. They will try to reach the south of Italy so they can go back to their homes.

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"'Spartacus' still plays like an extraordinary epic, and its intellectual strength is still there (...) Perhaps the most interesting element of 'Spartacus' is its buried political assumptions (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"It is a spotty, uneven drama in which the entire opening phase (...) is exciting and expressive (...) and the middle phase is pretentious and tedious"	NEU
United Kingdom	Kim Newman Empire	"Douglas was always great in movies that required suffering (...) The greatness of 'Spartacus' is in the stretches everyone remembers (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"Kirk Douglas and Jean Simmons are appealing (...) This may be the most literate of all the spectacles set in antiquity"	POS
United Kingdom	Derek Adams Time Out	"[It] has aged amazingly well (...) Kubrick himself handles the film’s mechanics of corruption with skill (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Telegraph	"[It] is full of majestic, mind-blowing sequences (...) Kirk Douglas gives a rugged performance"	POS
United States	Jesse Hassenger AV Club	"If Kubrick couldn’t win for 'Spartacus', Best Director was never in the cards (...) An expertly crafted crowdpleaser"	POS
United Kingdom	Adrian Turner Radio Times	"The action leading up to the revolt of the gladiators is brilliantly re-created (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	BBC	"Of all the historical epics, this pretty much takes the biscuit, with an unbelievable cast, incredible cinematography and plenty of quotable scenes (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Digital Spy	"It remains proof that he could handle a big budget and deliver a hit movie without dumbing down (...) Genuinely thoughtful in its cynical study of power and politics"	POS
United States	Time	"It's entertaining as hell. (...) as cinematic landmark and popular entertainment, Spartacus still delivers."	POS

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