For those who don’t know, Spartacus was a slave who escaped from a gladiator camp and who eventually became an influential leader of a slave rebellion during the times of ancient Rome. Not much is known about him due to the lack of historical records.
I consider “Spartacus” by Stanley Kubrick to be one of the best films ever made. While I haven’t personally watched the popular TV series of this historical legend, from what I’ve observed, it seems to be hypersexualized and glorifying violence for consumerist entertainment. Watching some of the clips on YouTube, I found the heavy metal music quite a contrast to Kubrick’s use of a romantic ambiance music for his movie. There is a reason why the movie’s main song is called “love theme”. Also, keep in mind that my post will contain spoilers for the Kubrick movie and Braveheart, both the endings being compared later.
Recently, I viewed a clip from the TV series where a slave gladiator is approached by a woman who flirts with him. He eventually tells her that love makes a man too weak to fight before a battle and politely turns down her attempts to seduce him. Of course, the scene is also oversexualized.
Kubrick’s Spartacus is noticeably different from this scene. Similarly, in the movie, slave owners offer Spartacus a woman slave to have sex with, but he outright refuses. He screams to his captors that he is not an animal. Despite her getting undressed, he still refuses and is clearly uncomfortable, causing his captors to laugh at him. The woman slave and him quickly fall in love together later in the story, and she plays an important role in the plot. I can easily see the differences between the movie and the TV series from viewing both scenes.
Aside from that, the series looks inadequate in portraying the message of liberation, it presents a lot of over sexualization and violence that goes beyond what is needed. It is intended for those who do not wish to participate in rebellions in any way in their lives, but would rather watch them while enjoying themselves with violent and sexual scenes. To put it simply, I will never watch the television series. The movie is romantic and inspirational, both qualities lacking in the series. There seems to be no love in the characters’ hearts.
It is as Che Guevara famously said: “The true revolutionaries are guided by the great feelings of love.” He uses the word “true” for a reason. Another legend we can’t help but be inspired by is Che, he was a poet, a doctor, a military leader, and a Marxist theorist. An exemplary communist human being. Love can’t be idealist, as long as it aligns with Marxist dialectics. Despite the material world coming first, we can still be guided by our feelings. In the end, we are still humans with emotions. Che’s life is a testament to the value and necessity of fighting for justice passionately. All that to say the Spartacus TV series looks really bad compared to the movie due to lack of a passion for liberation and being filled with hyper-sexuality and overly violent scenes.
As for the real Spartacus himself, in Karl Marx’s view, he considered him to be heroic and the embodiment of the ancient proletariat’s attempt for liberation. Around World War 1, this legend even influenced the Spartacus League, a communist movement from Germany. It was founded by socialists such as Rosa Luxemburg. Also named after Spartacus is the village of Spartak in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
According to the commonly accepted story about the rebellion, roughly 70 slaves were involved in the initial stages of the revolt. Despite their small numbers, they seized kitchen utensils, fought their way out of the gladiator camp, seized several wagons of weapons and armor, and eventually expanded into an actual army. It was also likely that Spartacus was a Roman soldier before he became a slave. I found it fascinating that they used kitchen stuff to liberate themselves in the very beginning of the revolt. It demonstrates that no matter how dire the situation may be, there is still a way to escape. We should always be inspired to liberate or even just improve ourselves through whatever option is available to us. There is a possibility that it will lead to something that is more effective later on.
The story of Spartacus in Kubrick’s movie is the interpretation I admire the most. The revolt was sparked from the kitchen, as mentioned earlier. It’s hard for me to recall all the details of the story. However, throughout the movie, Spartacus’ motivations are clear: his love for a woman, loyalty to his comrades, and longing for freedom. Quite similar to Braveheart, which I also enjoy, but Mel Gibson’s films are very historically inaccurate even with having reliable historical sources for his stories.
The two films have similar iconic endings. In Braveheart, our protagonist dies after screaming out “freedom” as his final words. His comrades stood silently by as he was executed. While in the movie Spartacus, after a final confrontation that ended in a massacre, the Roman soldiers demanded the remaining surviving rebels to identify Spartacus. It is the real one who identifies himself first. Then, one by one, each claimed to be him by shouting “I’m Spartacus!”. Crassus has them all sentenced to death by crucifixion along the Via Appia, where the revolt began. From the beginning of the revolt until their tragic death, the former slaves were his true revolutionary comrades. They did not remain silent during their final moments as rebels. Love, loyalty, and the desire for freedom were all values shared by Spartacus and all those who fought alongside him.
Spartacus’ story, whether it is real, myth or from a movie, illustrates the necessity of camaraderie and moving forward as one unit. The story inspires us to fight for a better world and to organize, even after centuries, as evidenced by the Spartacus League from Germany.
It is Spartacus’ legacy that shows us that any group of people, no matter how weak at the beginning, can expand to become a force to reckon with, and even after being defeated, their valiant efforts resonated across generations, echoing for centuries, which are still influencing us today and with no end in sight.
Spartacus (the movie, not the show) is probably my favourite movie of all time.
The show though…it’s basically just “Hey, we saw how Game of Thrones was successful because of all the violence and tiddies, so let’s do that. But with something that isn’t copyrighted so we don’t have to pay anyone royalties.”
Spartacus started airing in 2010, and Game of Thrones in 2011, so that’s probably not it. But otherwise, you’re right when you say that Spartacus is very focused on bloody bullet time action scenes, ancient cursing about Jupiter’s cock, and tiddy fiestas and not much on telling an actual story.
Having seen the TV series, I can verify it’s mostly just about revenge. There’s some stuff in the later seasons about liberation and whatnot, but it’s kinda got this weird “we’re stronger than they are” undertones rather than any kind of humanism. It is oversexualized and full of gratuitous violence. I can’t remember much else beyond that, but Spartacus developing into a rebel with any higher motivation than revenge takes a long time. They also reference the “I’m Spartacus!” thing, but in the series it’s a tactic to sow confusion during the rebellion: he and the other gladiator rebels perform raids in different areas, proclaiming themselves Spartacus so the Romans aren’t sure where the leader of the uprising really is.
It’s really tragic comparing the two side by side. I think the series is fine enough for what it is, or a guilty pleasure, but it definitely doesn’t do justice to the film or the man.
