List Price: $19.98Price: $7.00 You Save: $12.98 (65%)as of 03/20/2010 14:45 EDT
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: HD DVD
Brand: Universal
EAN: 0025193129222
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Item Dimensions: 300
Label: Universal Studios
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageEnglishSubtitledFrenchSubtitledSpanishSubtitledFrenchDubbedSpanishDubbed
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
MPN: HD31292
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: October 24, 2006
Running Time: 197 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: October 07, 1960
Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Universal Spartacus - HD-DVD
This presentation of the powerful film classic features an additional five minutes of footage cut from the film's original release, plus the original overture and extended soundtrack. Director Stanley Kubrick tells the tale of Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), the bold gladiator slave,and Varinia (Jean Simmons), the woman who believed in his cause. Challenged by the power-hungry General Crassus (Laurence Olivier), Spartacus is forced to face his convictions and the power of the Roman Empire at its glorious height. The inspirational true account of man's eternal struggle for freedom, Spartacus combines history with spectacle to create a moving drama of love and commitment.
Amazon.com essential video:
Stanley Kubrick was only 31 years old when Kirk Douglas (star of Kubrick's classic Paths of Glory) recruited the young director to pilot this epic saga, in which the rebellious slave Spartacus (played by Douglas) leads a freedom revolt against the decadent Roman Empire. Kubrick would later disown the film because it was not a personal project--he was merely a director-for-hire--but Spartacus remains one of the best of Hollywood's grand historical epics. With an intelligent screenplay by then-blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo (from a novel by Howard Fast), its message of moral integrity and courageous conviction is still quite powerful, and the all-star cast (including Charles Laughton in full toga) is full of entertaining surprises. Fully restored in 1991 to include scenes deleted from the original 1960 release, the full-length Spartacus is a grand-scale cinematic marvel, offering some of the most awesome battles ever filmed and a central performance by Douglas that's as sensitively emotional as it is intensely heroic. Jean Simmons plays the slave woman who becomes Spartacus's wife, and Peter Ustinov steals the show with his frequently hilarious, Oscar-winning performance as a slave trader who shamelessly curries favor with his Roman superiors. The restored version also includes a formerly deleted bathhouse scene in which Laurence Olivier plays a bisexual Roman senator (with restored dialogue dubbed by Anthony Hopkins) who gets hot and bothered over a slave servant played by Tony Curtis. These and other restored scenes expand the film to just over three hours in length. Despite some forgivable lulls, this is a rousing and substantial drama that grabs and holds your attention. Breaking tradition with sophisticated themes and a downbeat (yet eminently noble) conclusion, Spartacus is a thinking person's epic, rising above mere spectacle with a story as impressive as its widescreen action and Oscar-winning sets. --Jeff Shannon
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS A GREAT MOVIE. GREAT ACTING ALL AROUND, THE WHOLE CAST. IT ISN'T COMPUTERIZED & C.G.'d AS ALOT OF MOVIES NOW ARE. YOU GET A SENSE, ESPECIALLY IN THE BATTLE SCENE, FOR THE SHEER OVERWHELMING NUMBERS THAT WAS THROWN AT JUST ONE MAN. PLUS, KIRK DOUGLAS & JEAN SIMMONS GAVE A REAL SENSE OF THE KIND OF DEEP SOMETIMES NO WORDS CAN EXPRESS IT LOVE THAT I JUST DONT SEE IN MOVIES ANYMORE ( AND BELIEVE).
Rating: -
Here is a Kubrick film many people don't know he had anything to do with. It is 1 of my All Time Best films. The stars include Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, Jean Simmons as his lover (she rivals any Hollywood star for beauty & excelled at playing the openly honest yet properly smouldering female guys like), Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov, Charles Laughton (Mutiny on the Bounty), John Ireland, Herbert Lom, not to mention Tony Curtis & George Kennedy. Sorry, I ran on a bit. The cast is actually matched by the screen play. Combined with Kubrick's direction this is over 3 hours of enjoyment.
The tale is however a look into the black heart of Roman power & manipulation. Spartacus is a Thracian slave that just don't get it. He won't do as told & doesn't care who knows it. He is willing to endure any pain or punishment in order to live life exactly according to his own code of honor. Rome is the task master that will whip till you surrender or kill if you won't. What a match.
He is purchased & brought to the gladiatorial schools of Rome where he learns to kill efficiently & where his hatred of Roman dominion grows till it fuels a rebellion at the gladiators training school. Once having escaped their keepers the erst while gladiators band together & head for the sea to escape Rome's wrath. As they go they free any slave in their path that wants to be free & their numbers swell to threaten even the security of Rome. Legions are sent out by the Roman Senate against them & are handily defeated by this collection of slaves as the Roman Senate names them.
The rebellion has become rich, mighty & are led by astute minds but how far will their abilities & deep bonds of brotherhood take them. It is the high sense of humanity in this film that I feel drove the actors to buy into every part they were given to play. The performance by the cast is Outstanding by any measure. Yet it is the story that unfolds the tapestry of human beliefs, emotions & loyalties. From the opening of the show to it's unforgettable end this movie enlightens & entertains on a high level. The love story between Spartacus & Virinia is one of the great one's on film. I would of loved to see more but I don't see a place in the show to put it.
5 STARS!
Rating: -
The movie Spartacus takes place during the time of the Roman Republic. The character Spartacus is initially a slave worker out in the desertand then he is conveyed to Italy where he is trained to be a gladiator. Spartacus and the other gladiators rebel and start a slave revolt with him as the leader. They liberate slaves left and right and the Roman Republic sends Crassus with a large force to deal with him.
The movie conveys a strong message about the evils of slavery and gladiatorial combat. It rams in the point that the ancient Rome was oppressive by modern standards. It also has a scene where you see two gladiators walk into the arena and only one walks out. You get to see how the combatants can't get to friendly to each other since they have to fight each other and only one will survive. The battle scene is well done and Spartacus's love relationship is very romantic so I would highly recommend this film.
Rating:  -
Bought this dvd new for my Hubby for Christmas, and after trying it in numerous players only found my money was wasted as it would not play at all. Unfortunately, it was a gift. I have bought 4 products through your site. Two of them where inoperable upon receiving, and in addition, as a result of using your site, my identity was stolen and $450.00 charged to my account. Obviously my bank solved that matter. This means, not only will I no longer be using or supposedly secure site, I will be telling others to do the same.
Sincerely,
P. Ponsiglione
Rating: -
Made in the same year I was born (so it can't be bad, can it?) this is one of the so-called 'classic' films of the genre that were made in this period, along with others such as Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia and El Cid. To those who haven't seen this film - and surely there can't be that many - it portrays the events based on actual incidents of a slave revolt against the Romans in the century before Christ.
Its a long film, over 3 hours, and the version I have oddly has an intermission at around 1 hour 37 minutes. Very strange indeed, but it gave my partner and I ample opportunity for comfort breaks and to make a cuppa. Very thoughtful.
Kirk Douglas plays the title character role and acts the surly, rebellious gladiator very well; its almost a perfect role for him to play. The main opposition comes in the form of the fantastic and much missed Laurence Olivier, who plays the ambitious and ruthless Crassus to the hilt, as one would expect from a character actor of his calibre.
The supporting cast are somewhat hit and miss; Peter Ustinov is good as the cowardly and sycophantic owner of the school where Spartacus breaks out from, and the guy who plays Gracchus, the senator in opposition to Crassus, for me steals the show as the epitome of a corrupt and morally bankrupt politician, something we see too much of in our own time. Herbert Lom, too, as the pirates' emissary was amusing and convincing.
But Tony Curtis as Antoninus and Jean Simmons as Spartacus' love interest? They added nothing really to the story except maybe as convenient padding to a storyline that really didn't need them.
The battle scene towards the end was too brief and without much in the way of realism, but I suppose these days we're used to the more realistic in-close and brutal fighting as portrayed in Gladiator, Alexander and the like. Also I felt the ending, where Hollywood sacrificed historical accuracy (Spartacus died on the battlefield) for the gut turning reunion while he was dying with his woman and child.
|
![: Spartacus [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eel6Inv2L._SL160_.jpg)