Spartacus

When I was a young girl my dad would always call me into the family room when Spartacus was on TV in order to see the scene towards the end where all the men stand up and claim that they are Spartacus.  I didn’t really know much else about Spartacus for many years but when I did finally get around to seeing the rest of the film it became clear that the film was important for many reasons.

One of the most important things that Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus did, that has very little to do with how the actual film turned out, is break the blacklist. The credited screenwriter on the film is Dalton Trumbo, who was placed on the blacklist in 1947 for refusing to give information on communists in Hollywood.   In 1960 Kirk Douglas came public with Trumbo’s role on the film and after that the blacklist truly began to crumble. The film also broke ground for having Laurence Olivier play one of the first bi-sexual characters to ever grace the big screen.

Plot-wise the film stars Douglas as a slave named Spartacus who ends up leading a slave revolt. The story is of course larger than life but in its epic nature are ideas concerning organizing and working to overcome oppression.  It is an epic film that uses technicolor, won four Oscars® and blends melodrama with politics in a truly beautiful way.

Watch this film to see how it pushed the envelope and then takepart with the Anne and Kirk Douglas Playground Award.

Oscar(s)® and Academy Award(s)® are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences