Spartacus (movie)
Spartacus is a 1960 film directed by
Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay is based on the historical novel of
the same name by Howard Fast. Kirk Douglas (Spartacus) and Laurence Olivier (Marcus
Licinius Crassus) star. John Gavin (Julius Caesar), Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter
Ustinov, Herbert Lom, Woody Strode and Tony Curtis are also featured. Production design by Saul Bass.
The story follows Spartacus from slavery to liberation and, ultimately, his martyrdom.
Spartacus is a classic Hollywood large format epic, with a historicaly important cast and crew despite the fact that it is a severely flawed production. Its
shortcomings were contributed to various elements including the interference of the Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA) which imposed censorial conformity to the Hays Code; a
sparring cast (Laughton vs. Olivier and director Kubrick vs. executive producer/star Douglas); and a distracting and boisterous
orchestral soundtrack.
The film was re-released in 1967, 23 minutes shorter than the original release, and again in 1991, with those 23 minutes
restored, plus an additional 14 minutes that had been cut from the film before its original release. That addition included
several violent battle sequences as well as a bath scene in which the Roman patrician and general Crassus (played by Olivier),
attempting to seduce his slave Antoninus (played by Curtis), uses the analogy of
"eating oysters" and "eating snails" to express his opinion that sexual preference is a matter of taste rather than morality.
When the film was restored, many years after Olivier's death, the original dialogue recording from this scene was missing, and
so it had to be re-dubbed. Tony Curtis was able to re-record his part, but Crassus's voice is actually an Olivier impersonation
by Anthony Hopkins.
- C: Do you steal, Antoninus?
- A: No, master.
- C: Do you lie?
- A: Not if I can avoid it.
- C: Have you ever dishonoured the gods?
- A: No, master.
- C: Do you refrain from these vices out of respect for the moral virtues?
- A: Yes, master.
- C: Do you eat oysters?
- A: When I have them, master.
- C: Do you eat snails?
- A: No, master.
- C: Do you consider the eating of oysters to be moral, and the eating of snails to be immoral?
- A: No, master. Of course not.
- C: It is all a matter of taste, isn't it?
- A: Yes, master.
- C: And taste is not the same as appetite, and therefore not a question of morals, is it?
- A: It could be argued so, master.
- C: That will do. My robe, Antoninus.
- C: My taste includes...both snails and oysters.
In post-production, Douglas was made aware that Kubrick intended to take writing credit for the film, although the script was
adapted from Howard Fast's novel by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo. The powerful Douglas publicly resisted Trumbo's exclusion, and
when Trumbo's name appeared in the credits, the Hollywood blacklist was effectively broken.
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