One slave leads an uprising in 73 BCE Italy against the Roman Empire. And that’s all we really need to know.
Those who follow this blog know that I put quite a bit of stock in AFI’s “100 Years … 100 Movies” list, which was released in 1997. Those movies (and then some) are all featured on my 170 list. Ten years later, in 2007, AFI decided it was time to revisit its list and reconsider it with a fresh perspective. (View the 10th Anniversary Edition here.) Though Spartacus did not make its way onto the original list, it did find itself placed nicely at #81 on the 2007 list. In fact, several movies off the original list dropped off, making way for several new additions (including Toy Story, Titanic, and The Last Picture Show, among many others). Many of the new additions are on my 170 list, but some are not. I consider those that aren’t as my “170 alternates”: movies that I will watch, but will not include among the others that I intend to watch before my 30th birthday. Spartacus is one of my alternates. (That said, I’ve seen all of my alternates except for Spartacus and Titanic, and I’ve always vowed that Titanic would be the last Best Picture winner that I’d watch.) Titanic aside, by the time of my 30th birthday I would have successfully completed my 170 list and my alternates. Feels good.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Screenwriter: Dalton Trumbo
Producer: Edward Lewis
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, John Gavin, Tony Curtis
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Epic
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 184 min.
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