Sparticus (1960)

The epic's first director, Anthony Mann, was fired by star Kirk Douglas not long after shooting began, although some early scenes he shot in the desert remain in the final film. It feel to a pre-2001: A Space Odyssey Stanley Kubrick to bring Howard Fast's tale of a slave revolt in Ancient Rome to life, and he rose to the task brilliantly, mixing scenes of the power struggle in the senate with ones of brotherhood between the slaves.

Spartacus (Douglas) is the slave at the center of the action, who inspires many like him to rise up against their oppressors, including young Antoninus (Tony Curtis), a favorite of Roman Marcus Crassus (Laurence Olivier) who is none too pleased when his pretty boy goes AWOL. When the film was restored three decades after it was made, a bath scene explaining more of the relationship between master and slave, cut in 1960 because of its homosexual references, was edited in, with Anthony Hopkins rerecording the late Olivier's lost dialogue.

Kubrick stages the slave revolt and battle sequences brilliantly, but the biggest surprise from the director not known for his emotional scenes is the way he films the final, heart-wrenching moments as Spartacus's love Varinia (Jean Simmons) holds up their child for him to see as he dies, crucified alongside the men who followed him. Superb.

Quote of the day - Antoninus - "I am Spartacus!"

Tomorrow: Full Metal Jacket (1987)