In my ongoing attempts at becoming fluent in popular culture I’ve been subjecting myself to movies that have had a marked influence on current Western culture. Frequently I do not enjoy these movies. Spartacus was one such film.
I was surprised to discover it was directed by Stanley Kubrick. Most of his other films are so closely tied to his name in my consciousness that it is almost impressive this one could hold a place in my head and I could not know that he directed. I wonder what it is that makes this film less strongly associated with Kubrick. I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that it is less weird and sci-fi than the films I immediately think of when I hear Kubrick. 2001 or Clockwork Orange for example.
Another thing I was struck by while watching this film is that, uh, Kirk Douglas is kind of funny looking. I think it’s his chin that does me in. People could trip and fall to their deaths in that cleft.
Two pieces of American pop culture the film did influence my understanding of were Star Trek and 300. The ‘Bread and Circuses‘ episode of The Original Series makes a lot more sense after seeing this film, not that the episode wasn’t already awesome. In fact, fifty percent of the adventures of the original Enterprise, and all those planets they ran into where ancient earth people or gods were running around make more sense now that I know Spartacus came out at the very beginning of the sixties. And in regards to 300 I bet this film’s costume design may have in some way been an inspiration for the Spartans.
Really, did all the revolutionary change Spartacus supposedly instigate happen because he liked a girl? I guess that might have been easier to stomach if their love theme hadn’t been so damn annoying. (It’s almost palatable in the recording I linked to, but it’s fully orchestrated there, and you haven’t heard it approximately one hundred and seven times already. Seriously, it’s as pervasive as The Raider’s March is in the first Indiana Jones movie, but far less awesome.) It’s just, I was kind of hoping the massive slave revolt would happen because, you know, they didn’t like being slaves, and not because the protagonist was separated from his love interest.
I would be remiss I suppose if I didn’t mention the homoerotoic scene in the bath, behind a guazy curtain, with a weird soundtrack, with a double-entrende conversation about snails and oysters, because that was a whole pile of crazy. In fact, I think that scene may be partly responsible for me watching this film, as I know it’s one of the moments in cinema history discussed in The Celluloid Closet (which was far more entertaining than this film despite being a documentary that features a bunch of talking heads.) But all I can really do is mention it. I can’t think of anything interesting or clever to say about as it was a pile of crazy and I’d mostly given up by this point in the movie anyway.
In summation I think Randal Graves most clearly captures my sentiments at the end of this film: all it was, was a bunch of people walking.
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