spartacus

The moment I recognized this would be a tragedy was during Spartacus’ great final speech to his army, when he tells them that they are better than the Romans, who are fat and surrounded by their slaves. Kubrick immediately cuts to Crassus, the human form of Rome, who is lean, and surrounded by centurions. By an audience’s standards, it’s subtle, but truly it’s a blatant farewell to the hopeful portions of the film, welcoming the long and merciless ending. jun19 07