Spartacus

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer (1.85:1, non-16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0) Production Notes Cast & Crew Biographies
Rating
Year Released	1960
Running Time	188:33 Minutes
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (91:57)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	Stanley Kubrick
Studio Distributor	Columbia Tristar Home Video	Starring	Kirk Douglas Laurence Olivier Jean Simmons Charles Laughton Peter Ustinov John Gavin
Case	Soft Brackley
RPI	$36.95	Music	Alex North

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s) German (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s) Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Original Aspect Ratio	2.20:1/2.35:1 (1991 Restoration)	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	English French Portuguese Danish Finnish Swedish Norwegian German Dutch Czech Polish Turkish Hungarian Bulgarian	Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Based on the novel by Howard Fast, Spartacus is the story of a man named Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) who was sold into slavery at birth, and the film begins with him working at a mine in Libya. After he is beaten for trying to help one of his fellow slaves, Spartacus bites one of the guards on the ankle before being condemned to die of starvation as an example to slaves who might get similar ideas. I guess things got a little messy when the local inn stopped serving food. In any case, when gladiator trainer Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov) arrives with a supply of gold to wave around, the masters decide to sell Spartacus to him for a tidy profit. From there, Spartacus is trained as a gladiator by a group of sadistic, uncaring creeps who aren't above rewarding their charges for their progress with prostitutes. Spartacus' progress as a gladiator is rewarded with Varinia (Jean Simmons), but he refuses to lower himself to the standards of those who would use him for profit. I'm sure you can figure out the rest of the details regarding the relationship between Spartacus and Varinia.

    When Spartacus grows tired of being abused for having a conscience, he turns upon his owners and leads the other slaves in a rebellion. As his army moves from town to town, its size swells as other escaped slaves join their ranks. This is met with mixed reactions from the powers that be in Rome, particularly senators such as Sempronius Gracchus (Charles Laughton) and Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier). The former is a republican who seeks to use the rebellion as a means to restore freedom and democracy to Rome, while the latter seeks to use the rebellion to further his imperialist cause. Soon, Spartacus sees his own triumph or failure as being secondary to a much greater cause: the abolition of slavery. This is where I am going to leave the plot synopsis, but I think anyone who has seen any entrant in this well-worn genre before or since can tell you what happens without needing to have seen the film before.

    Of course, the entire Christ theme has been done to death both before and since this film came out, and so the real question is not what the story is but how well the film does it. It seems that lately, a film cannot come out of the woodpile without some sort of basis in this popular fixture of Pagan literature, and the story suffers somewhat as a basis. The fact of the matter is that a film based on this legend cannot survive on its own merits unless it offers something completely new (e.g.. RoboCop) or does the story better than all other entrants in its sub-genre (e.g.. Gladiator). While Spartacus works well as a story about the posthumous triumph of the human spirit, I feel it is pretty much superseded by Ridley Scott's recent masterwork. However, if you want to see a classic piece of storytelling that stands as a good example of a well-worn genre, then this is worth a look.

Video

    The aspect ratio of the original 1960 release of this film was 2.20:1, while thirty-five millimetre prints were framed in the ratio of 2.35:1, for reasons I can only guess at. This transfer is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 Enhanced.

    The sharpness of the transfer is mostly impeccable, showing only half the film's age for the most part. The only shot that truly shows the film's age is at 12:30, where an abundance of scratches and film artefacts mar what should have been a beautiful exterior shot. Aside from this one lapse that appears to be fairly and squarely the fault of the source material, the transfer is sharp enough to look as if it were of a film shot in 1980 rather than 1960. The shadow detail is somewhat poor, but this can be overlooked since only about ten percent of the film takes place in anything resembling darkness. Low-level noise is not an issue in this transfer, but as I have hinted earlier, grain is slightly problematic from time to time.

    The colour saturation of this transfer is muted and dull in the same way that can be attributed to other transfers of films from this era, such as Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. This is simply a characteristic of the photographic process as it was in this era, and while the hues are represented in a functional way, that is probably the best thing that can be said for them. Having said all of that, you will not find any evidence of colour bleeding, oversaturation, or misregistration in this transfer. Just don't expect the same kind of lush, vibrant colour that can be seen in Braveheart or Gladiator.

    MPEG artefacts were not an issue in this transfer, although the grain and film artefacts in this transfer push the compression to its very limits. When these factors are taken into account, one can really say that Columbia Tristar Home Video and Warner Advanced Media Operations have pulled a very big rabbit out of a very small hat here. Film-to-video artefacts did not appear to be a specific issue in this transfer, with no shimmering immediately apparent, although some misaligned frames are apparent from time to time. Film artefacts are also a minor issue in this transfer, but aside from the aforementioned shot early in the film, they are much less of an issue than is normally to be expected for a forty-year-old film.

    This disc is presented in the RSDL format, with the layer change taking place during a natural fade-to-black at 91:57. Although it is a noticeable layer change, the placement could not possibly be better, even if there is an intermission after the next scene.

Audio

    As a result of the restoration work on this film, we are treated to a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, although this is faint praise because a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack with surround-encoding, also referred to as a Dolby Pro-Logic soundtrack, could have done the job just as well in my opinion. There are a total of five soundtracks in this audio transfer: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1, with dubs in German, French, Italian, and Spanish rendered in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. I listened to the default soundtrack, the English dialogue, while sampling the infamous (and hilariously referenced in Herman's Head) "I am Spartacus!" scene in Spanish.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, which is vitally important for a film such as this one. There were no apparent problems with audio sync, even in the infamous bathing scene that had to be redubbed by Tony Curtis and Anthony Hopkins due to the loss of the soundtrack. It is a pity that Laurence Olivier had died before the 1991 restoration, but Hopkins does an admirable job of dubbing the scene in his place. Even this scene fails to turn up any serious problems with audio sync, even of the kind that can be blamed upon the production techniques.

    The score music is credited to Alex North, and does a good job of enhancing the onscreen action. The fidelity of the score music is somewhat lacking due to the recording techniques, but it acts as a powerful substitute to narration when needed. This is a competent and well-matched score without being anything of great value.

    The surround presence of the soundtrack is probably its most disappointing aspect, with just barely enough coming out of the rear channels to qualify as being discretely placed. The surround channels are used to support the music and some very quiet ambient sounds, but the soundtrack is very front-heavy and what does come out of the surrounds is so subdued that one has to press one's ear against the speakers to make sure they are actually doing something a lot of the time. The subwoofer was used to support the music and some sounds of battle, but there are long periods in which it is not used at all. When the subwoofer is called into action, however, it supports the rest of the soundtrack without making itself conspicuous.

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew Biographies

Production Notes

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• 16x9 Enhancement

    The video quality is very good for a film this age.

    The audio quality is good, but could have been better.

    The extras are basic.
 

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall