Episode 36: Spartacus, the Movie that (Debatably) Broke the Blacklist!

We all are Spartacus this week. Sara and Rena watch this astonishing epic that masterfully Trojan-horses a bunch of crazy messages about communism, righteousness, and self-sacrifice in a movie that pretends to be about toxic masculinity and oiled-up, 1950s-fit men gladiating.  

Of course we love this movie: So much Peter Ustinov, so much Stanley Kubrick being forced to work within the rubric of the studio system, so much Dalton Trumbo getting to use his name after HUAC, so much Kirk Douglas with an anachronistic buzzcut that we don’t care about, so much Tony Curtis being the world’s most unskilled slave laborer, so much folklore about Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton hating each other's guts. 

Also: Are crucifixions ineffective? How did Sara ruin her chances to be recruited into the army? How many babies played Spartacus Jr.? How on earth did UK citizen Varinia become a slave in Rome? 

Spartacus was directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Dalton Trumbo, and stars Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, Laurence Olivier as Crassus, Jean Simmons as Varinia, Charles Laughton as Gracchus, Peter Ustinov as Batiatus, John Gavin as Julius Caesar, Woody Strode as Draba, and Tony Curtis as Antonius. 

Sources: Sources used in the episode include…

The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike Duncan.

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland.

Spartacus and the Slave Wars: A Brief History with Documents Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by Brent D. Shaw.

Crassus: The First Tycoon by Peter Stothard.

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

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