Spartacus (1960)
//Summary - Level-B2//
Spartacus, a Thracian enslaved person, is taken to a gladiator school where he endures hardships but finds love with Varinia. After witnessing her being sold, he leads a revolt, escaping to Mount Vesuvius with other enslaved people. His army grows, defeating Roman forces. However, Crassus, a powerful senator, blocks their escape. Spartacus fights bravely but is defeated. Refusing to betray him, his followers are crucified. Crassus takes Varinia and their son, but she escapes. Spartacus is forced to fight his friend and is crucified. Before dying, he sees Varinia and their free son, fulfilling his dream of freedom.
1)
Synopsis:
1)
In the Libyan mines of the late Roman Republic, a burly Thracian enslaved person named Spartacus ( Kirk Douglas ) rebels against the guards while trying to help a fallen enslaved person and is sentenced to starvation.
However, he is discovered by Batiatus ( Peter Ustinov ), the owner of a gladiator training school who has come to the mines to look for aspiring gladiators. He is taken to his training school in Capua.
2)
At the training school, Spartacus is noticed by Batiatus and his former gladiator instructor, Marcellus. He suffers humiliation several times, but he and an enslaved woman working there, Varinia ( Jean Simmons ), develop feelings for each other.
One day, Crassus ( Laurence Olivier ), a big shot in the Roman senate ( Optimates ), visits Batiatus' training school with his best friend Marcus Publius Glabrus ( John Dall ) and Glabrus' sister Helena Glabrus ( Nina Foch ) and requests a real gladiator fight.
3)
Batiatus refuses, fearing the negative impact of a real fight on the gladiators, but Crassus forces him to do so by offering a large sum of money. Spartacus fights against the black gladiator Drava ( Woody Strode ), and after a fierce battle, Spartacus loses his sword and is killed by Drava.
4)
However, Drava does not follow Crassus' orders, and instead of finishing him off, he attacks Crassus and his men with his spear but is stopped and killed by the guards. Drava's body is hung upside down in the training centre to warn others.
Afterwards, Crassus sees Varinia, who is entertaining, and leaves after promising to buy her from Batiatus.
5)
The next day, Spartacus witnessed Varinia being sold off. In a fit of rage, he attacked Marcellus and the guards, killing him and the other gladiators.
6)
The gladiators took control of the training facility and eventually barricaded themselves inside Mount Vesuvius. There, they quickly swelled in number by recruiting other enslaved people. Among them was Varinia, who escaped on the way to Rome and ended up marrying Spartacus.
7)
In response to a slave revolt in Rome, Gracchus ( Charles Laughton ), a leading figure in the populist senatorial faction in the Senate, incites Crassus's close friend Glabrus to send the Roman civic guard under his command to suppress the revolt.
He succeeds in appointing Julius Caesar ( John Gavin ), a fellow populist, to command the Roman garrison.
8)
At the same time, Crassus purchases a young Sicilian enslaved person, Antonius ( Tony Curtis ), who specializes in reciting poetry and tries to keep him by his side, but Antonius flees to Spartacus. Glabrus was caught off guard by the fact that he was fighting slaves, and Spartacus defeated his troops in a surprise attack.
<Intermission>
9)
Under the command of Spartacus, the rebels headed south to Brindisi in southern Italy to try to escape Italy on a ship of Cilician pirates from the east. The regular Roman legions were sent in to stop this, but Spartacus' rebel army, which had now swelled to tens of thousands, defeated them one by one.
10)
Gracchus, fearing that his enemy Crassus would be appointed commander-in-chief of the slave suppression army and seize power, conspired with the pirates to help Spartacus escape safely but failed. Finally, the Senate appointed Crassus as prime minister and commander-in-chief of the entire army and set out to suppress Spartacus with eight legions.
11)
Spartacus's forces reached Brindisi just before the Cilician pirates, but Crassus bribed them, and they retreated. In addition, the legions of Pompey from Spain and Lucullus from Asia Minor ( Anatolia ) arrived as Crassus' reinforcements.
In a desperate situation, Spartacus decides to end the war by marching his army into Rome and defeating Crassus's main force. Crassus leaves Batiatus in the camp and orders him to find Spartacus, dead or alive.
12)
The decisive battle ended with the rebels wholly defeated. Only a few thousand people, including Spartacus, survived with reinforcements from Pompey and Lucullus.
Crassus promised to spare the lives of the other enslaved peoples if they handed over Spartacus, but the enslaved people unanimously said they were Spartacus.
13)
As a result, all of them were crucified along the Appian Way. On the way, Crassus remembered Spartacus's face, which he had seen at Batiatus' training school, and decided to leave the two at the end of the line to be crucified, along with Antony.
14)
Crassus found Varinia along with Spartacus' newborn son and took her under his wing, but he could not win her heart.
Batiatus, who was asked by Gracchus, who hated Crassus, secretly took Varinia away. However, Caesar, who Crassus ordered, arrested Gracchus and exiled him from Rome.
15)
Meanwhile, Crassus ordered Antony and Spartacus to fight a serious match outside the Roman castle and the winner to be crucified. Not wanting to crucify either of them, the two fought desperately, and eventually, Spartacus was victorious and crucified.
16)
Having lost the political battle, Gracchus decided to commit suicide, but just before that, he prepared documents to make Varinia and her child free and entrusted them to Batiatus.
17)
Batiatus escaped from Rome with Varinia, but when she found Spartacus crucified outside the city's gates, the city gates got off the carriage, carrying her son, and ran to Spartacus to tell him that her son was free.
Spartacus nodded quietly and eventually died. Urged by Batiatus, Varinia returned to the carriage and left.
Spartacus (film) - Wikipedia
Spartacus is a 1960 American film. It is a historical spectacle film based on the novel by Howard Fast about the Spartacus rebellion and was produced and starred Kirk Douglas himself.
In 2017, the Library of Congress deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and was preserved in the National Film Registry.
Spartacus (1960)
https://precious.jp/articles/-/52843
Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Kirk Douglas. Laurence Olivier played Crassus and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Synopsis: 1st century BC, Roman Republic. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), an enslaved person who became a gladiator, decides to start a rebellion after the death of his companions. Spartacus bands together with other enslaved people and gladiators to fight against the Roman army led by Crassus (Laurence Olivier). Spartacus and his companions head for southern Italy for freedom, but...
Spartacus (film) (1960) IMDb 7.9/10
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/
Spartacus (film)
Stanley Kubrick's first full-length colour film, a great epic set in the Roman Empire. To gain freedom, the enslaved person Spartacus incites an army of gladiators and enslaved people to launch a large-scale rebellion against the Roman nobleman Crassus. Following on from his previous film, Spartacus, Kirk Douglas plays the lead role, and Academy Award-winning actor Laurence Olivier plays the villain Crassus. The film won four awards at the 33rd Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Peter Ustinov.
1960 production / 190 minutes / USA
Theatrical release date: December 15, 1960
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