Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960)
This film is not like Kubrick’s later cult classics that would define his career. Spartacus falls right into the same mode as Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959) and The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956) just replace Charlton Heston with Kirk Douglas, so if one enjoyed those films Spartacus should be just as enjoyable. The film makes great use of the scope aspect ratio delivering some wonderful shots. Color is also used great in this film to, like many of Kubrick color films the colors are enhanced to really make them pop.
There were some aspects of the old Hollywood style that are incorporated in this film that I found distraction. Such as the use of manmade Hollywood sets over actual locations. I know it was a standard for films in this time period to be filmed almost entirely on sound stages but I have been spoiled with modern cinema and enjoy films that are shot on location. That is way out of the many epics that came from this time period Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) is one of the only ones that I go back and watch, because the location adds so much to the story, something that is lost here. Overall Spartacus was a good film but not one that I will probably watch again.