Spartacus

The film is based on the novel by Howard fast.

Stanley Kubrick took over the production after the actor kirk Douglas clashed with Director Anthony Mann. According to Peter Ustinov, a scene at the salt mines was the only one that managed to remove the Mann.

From setting refused David lean and Laurence Olivier did not want to combine acting and directing functions.

Being a co-producer of the film, kirk Douglas was able to insist that work on the painting was brought who was at that time in the "black list" screenwriter Dalton TRUMBO and actor Peter Brocon. TRUMBO's name appeared in the credits of the picture, was the first official recognition of the disgraced writer since 1947 and a de facto termination of the "black list".

Kubrick was not given control of the script, which he considered "silly moralism". Since then, Kubrick had full control of the production of his paintings.

Of the 167 days spent in the Cockpit for the filming, six weeks left to stage large-scale battle scenes in which 8500 of extras recreating the battle between the Roman troops and the army of Spartacus.

The role of Varin declined by Ingrid Bergman, Jeanne Moreau, Elsa Martinelli and Jean Simmons. In the end it was supposed to play Sabine Bethmann, however, when Kubrick came to the project, he fired the actress and again invited Simmons, who this time accepted his offer.

Screenwriter Dalton TRUMBO wanted the role of a pirate was given to Orson Welles. But it was eventually played by Herbert Lom.

To attract stars in supporting roles, kirk Douglas gave them different versions of the script in which the heroes looked the most preferable.

According to rumors, Tony Curtis, tired of the long and exhausting filming, asked Jean Simmons, "who need to sleep with to get off this picture?" This Simmons replied: "When you find out let me know."

Operator Russell Matty left of the shooting, complaining that Kubrick does not allow it to work. When Matty came back to the set, Kubrick continued to push at him, but still took up most of the camera work. Matty was very unhappy with this and even wanted his name removed from the credits.

In the film, Spartacus was a slave from birth. In fact, he served in the auxiliary troops of the Roman army, deserted, but were caught and sold into slavery. This was known to Kubrick, but he denied such a plot twist insufficiently heroic.

In reality Crassus was not eager to pursue the army of Spartacus. It is believed that the decisive battle began with the attempts of slaves to lure the Romans into a trap. In addition, Crassus actually won the battle alone — the role of Pompey was limited to the destruction of 5,000 had fled from the field slaves.

The events of the scene "I am Spartacus!", as all subsequent ones, are fiction writers and have no historical basis: most sources agree that Spartacus was killed in battle.

The film was re-released in the Soviet hire in 1984, and watched by 28.2 million viewers to the series by the circulation 1171 copy. The total number of tickets sold to Spartak in the USSR was (with two episodes) 178.4 million, Even with an average price of 30 kopecks. box office the film at the Soviet box office could be in the amount of 53.5 million rubles at the then official exchange rate would equal $86,3 million

The film is the first release in theaters of the Soviet 5-th place in attendance among the foreign films.

With a budget of $ 12 million, the picture became the most expensive project of Universal in 1960.

At the end of 1957 Edward Lewis, partner of Kirk Douglas Bryna production company, offered him to buy the film rights to the book by Howard fast. Kirk became interested in the book, but large values are not given with the buy-out pin. Douglas was already a successful experience in historical topics with United Artists in the film "the Vikings", but at the time to go back to her he had not planned. The situation changed when, in early 1958 Douglas learned about the new big-budget project MGM "Ben-Hur". Douglas, believing that the type is well suited for the lead role, started the "process" by William Wyler. Wyler, in response to proposed Douglas is Ben Hur the role of the second plan Messali. Kirk refused and planned response actions appropriate scale, returning to postponed the idea. At his own expense he purchased an option on the adaptation of the novel FASTA. The actor then began negotiations with United Artists about the movie on the rebellion of the gladiators.

The head of United Artists, Arthur Krim refused to accept the painting in production. The company has already announced a film with the working name "Gladiator," on the eponymous book by Arthur Koestler. The Director of the project was to be Martin Ritt, screenwriter, Abraham Polonsky, and Yul Brynner agreed to play the main role. The cover of one of the then issues of Variety magazine was adorned with a photograph of Brynner dressed as a Gladiator. Douglas proposed to merge the two projects into one, but Brynner declined the offer. Everything else, United Artists owned the copyright to the name "Gladiator" and "Spartacus." However, Douglas decided that his competitors are bluffing, and it needs to bring its idea to its maximum readiness. Douglas learned from informants that the team of "Gladiators" is going to film entirely in Europe, and therefore, they will begin only in the spring of 1959. "Spartak" also it is suggested to remove completely in the US, and start immediately in January 1959.

Kirk Douglas had chosen screenwriter of the film the author of the book. Howard Fast had no experience in scenario development. 102-page draft of the script FASTA not like anyone. After reading the first 60 pages, Douglas called them "a disaster": the characters came out stilted, and the plot is too "conversational". In General, the narrative was not so much about Spartacus, but about rebellion. However, this draft, for lack of a better, Douglas brought to competitors United Artists — the Studio Universal. The meeting was held on may 27, 1958. The head of the production Department of Universal studios, ed Mule, reading the manuscript, have expressed cautious interest, but the whole idea came to the court. The Studio representatives agreed with the proposal and recommended to finalize the script. The option for the novel ended

Kirk Douglas turned to Dalton TRUMBO for help in writing the script. The company Bryna was a long-term contract with TRUMBO, "Spartacus" was one of their many joint works. Producers have constantly had problems with the payment of the fee "shadow" officer. Part of the deal was the promise I want to include his name in the picture credits, legalization would help, and the employee. In March 1958 Bryna specially hired a PR expert for the study of public opinion in case the name Dalton appears in the credits.

Most of the work on the script came in the period from July to December 1958. During this time, TRUMBO, who wrote under the pseudonym "Sam Jackson", prepared one after the other three versions of the script, the latter of which has granted producers to such an extent that it was possible to plan the filming. Meanwhile, in late 1959 at a meeting of the Commission on UN-American activities (HUAC) raised the question of why convicted by the Committee, the writer continues to cooperate actively with Universal and the Studio representatives had to explain about it.

In October of 1958 at a meeting between United Artists and Universal passed discussion about further actions of the two studios. Executive Director Universal Milton Rackmill suddenly Douglas said that in January (1959), the year the company begins work on the film "Spartacus." Representatives of United Artists responded with laughter. During a break in the negotiations, Douglas approached the representative of United Artists, Arthur Krim and offered to solve all amicably. "We have a long collective journey, and will have many more films", — he said. 27 October 1958, United Artists conceded defeat in project "Gladiators", saying about absence of claims to competitors. To a large extent this was an achievement of the agent Kirk Douglas, a representative of the company on the selection of talents of MCA Inc. Leo Wasserman. The names of Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, established in the peplum, speak for themselves. Negotiations with British actors about the conditions of participation were held in London in July 1958. "Spartacus" was included in the plans for Universal studios for next year.

For the position of Director kirk Douglas was considered for the candidacy of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Stanley Kubrick. But the Studio insisted on their choice of Director. Them was Anthony Mann, who had a reputation as a box office Director, but was known primarily for westerns. Douglas only agreed because the production schedule had already been detained for three months and it was important to start immediately. He believed that Manna would be difficult to show the tragedy of personality in the big-budget peplum with battle scenes.

The selection of artists began in the summer of 1958. When choosing actors Douglas focused on the most famous came from the tested principle: slaves — Americans, the Romans — British performers. Douglas himself immediately identified the main role.

Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton made demands of the script development, since the text does not suit them. In addition, the stars began to suspect that they sent different versions of the script. In the end, during the production of Douglas had to deal with the fact that Olivier, Laughton and Ustinov had begun to intrigue in the manner of the Roman senators. Suspecting each other of foul play, they tried to carve out a greater role and the text longer. Ustinov wrote in his autobiography: "As in the Balkans in the old days, the same intrigue".

Roles for Tony Curtis in the original script, but the actor, persistence, convinced the producer that it was necessary. The role of slave Antoninus was written for him and put it in the script.

The film began on 27 January 1959.

The scenery for the film were mostly built on land owned by Universal in the vicinity of Los Angeles, where the Studio had an area of approximately 422 acres. Part location filming took place in the area of Death Valley. As a Villa of Crassus was used country residence of media Mogul William Randolph Hearst, built in the antique style.

Two weeks after the start of filming, Douglas returned to the selection of the Director and raised the issue in talks with the Studio. According to one version, Anthony Manna had a hard time working with a brilliant British cast. He too was in favor of Peter Ustinov, agreeing with his opinion where it shouldn't have done that razlagalsa affect the team. Douglas and myself had difficult on one platform with Laurence Olivier. Kirk had such a solid performing school, relied more on intuitive understanding of the game and your physique. He needed another person in the Director's chair. Another reason for the disputes was disagreement between the producer and Director about the romantic relationship of Spartacus and Varin, which was to play in the film's key role, which was not attended Mann.

After leaving Mann, kirk Douglas was again nominated Kubrick, with whom he successfully collaborated in "Paths of glory", called him "the future of the Eisenstein" and a "talented shit". This time, the Douglas took all the lead actors and the Studio was forced to agree with collective opinion. Kirk and Stanley was intimately familiar, often played in the company poker. During one of the parties kirk made the offer to lead the production for a fee of five thousand dollars a week. Only Kubrick got for the painting, $ 155 thousand (twice more than the Mann). Stanley agreed, without even reading the script. 30-year-old Director and his production company Harris-Kubrick were then in search of work.

13 Feb 1959 Anthony Mann received the full payment. Shooting was delayed for a single day. 14 Feb Douglas, using the scenery of the arena gladiatorial training school, introduced the team to her new leader. Kirk was aware that in the face of Stanley Kubrick, he gets a talented Director, but his abilities with the appropriate ambition and conceit. More acquainted with the scenario and the situation in "Spartacus", Stanley did not Express optimism. As he later recalled, "the film had everything but a good story." Universal studios and Douglas as Executive producer was in a difficult position. The largest project is based on "Marxist" works headed by 30-year-old little-known Director and screenwriter of "black list". Kubrick also appeared in a controversial situation. On the one hand, he was put in charge of producing one of the most expensive in the history of cinema films, but he was in the position of Studio Director and was limited in many solutions. Have not had the opportunity to flip the script and concept. Douglas carried his resentment to the forced change of Director, which never is good for the picture, but the "ship has sailed", and ago, there was nothing to return.

The first thing that made Kubrick for the posts of Director — refused the services of Sabine Bethmann. In his usual peremptory manner, he has caused a German actress and said that she doubted her acting abilities. Kubrick asked the actress to improvise, depicting a strong emotion, but Sabine by surprise, confused and was fired. Kubrick was invited to the shooting of British actress Jean Simmons.

Stanley Kubrick was required to Refine and shorten the script, which at the beginning of production amounted to about 1600 pages. The fourth and last option was already written for Stanley Kubrick when he took the Director's chair

The picture and the script became the subject of collision of three different approaches and views on "Spartacus." A representative of Universal ed the Mule saw the film was created without a scale, chamber, "intimate" and close to the real facts, with a budget of around 3-4 million dollars. The mule said: "nice deep ideas in the film, but what really matters is the opinion of the audience." It was thought that the point of view of the Studio adhered to kirk Douglas. Dalton TRUMBO has invested in the script left political overtones and tried to convey the message to the viewer. Kubrick saw the tape spectacular and visually perceived. Also he was concerned with the theme of moral decay of the Roman Republic, which undermined it from the inside. Douglas and TRUMBO knew that too political a film it may be of little interest to the public. If it does not pay to hire the largest in the history of the Studio budget, the consequences for them will be unpleasant.

From the beginning of work on the script, we didn't stop trying to save your understanding and your way of Spartacus. In the working version of the script (December, 1958) did not have any battle scenes, including the final. The viewer only saw the aftermath of battles, transmitted figuratively and surreal, such as floating down the river hats, blood in the water and dozens of bodies left on the battlefield. TRUMBO concentrated on the development of scenes taking place in Rome, as they were involved in a costly British actors, and they have to capture first. The scene with the battle of the slaves was in the script once it has been improved during production.

The latest version of the script of the film was created through joint efforts. As noted by TRUMBO in the final version of the painting, its share in the scenario was about 50%. The result of the adaptation of the script by the Director of the first 30 minutes of the movie were removed, all replicas of the protagonist.

Douglas believed that Kubrick will be grateful to him for giving me a chance, but the Director rarely compromises, trying, where possible, to defend their opinion. The Studio and the producer was not satisfied with the speed of production. Kubrick staged the shooting just two scenes a day, while the Studio demanded a much higher pace. He behaved somewhat arrogantly and peremptorily. The actors called the head of production Stanley Hubris ("Arrogant Stanley"). With his usual perfectionism, the Director intervened in the work of the operator in those parts which are usually left at the mercy of the experts. Stanley was his understanding of how to move the camera as necessary to put the light. It required more close-UPS from the faces of the actors, moving the camera, following them. The forecastle carried away and not paying attention to your appearance, working without changing his clothes. Douglas could not stand, came up to him on horses (he appeared in the scene riding) and made the comment that he needs to buy new clothes.

Douglas was considered a Hollywood pretty difficult person to work with and, according to the testimony of Charles McGraw, often poorly controlled. In the movie not without injuries. In one of the episodes of the uprising at the school of Batiatus Spartacus took the lanista Marcellus (McGraw) in the full Nelson and dropped the head into the pot of soup. Due to negligence of Douglas broke his jaw, Charles McGraw. The injured actor, however, courageously finished the brace to the end. In another episode, during a fight on wooden swords, Douglas broke a stuntman's edge. The crucifixion of Spartacus was quite difficult, required a lot of takes. When test screenings of Douglas found that the stage is considerably reduced at the installation, he made a big fuss. Grabbing assistant Director Bob Lawrence's Breasts, he began to shout: "do You know how much I had hanging on the damn cross!? And now all cut? You're fired!". Enraged, the actor tore a shirt of Lawrence, and with great difficulty dragged the producer Edward Lewis.

During the production of the paintings for one month fell out of work gene Simmons — she needed an emergency operation in connection with problems in gynecology. Curtis, received a leg injury while playing tennis, significant time passed in a cast. These and other disease delayed the progress of work on the painting for more than a month, which is extremely concerned for Douglas, who tried in every way to save.

The shooting was completed on 1 August 1959. 14 September we held a preview of the technical installation copies at the Studio. Results satisfied just Kubrick. All the rest were dissatisfied, especially TRUMBO. On responses of eyewitnesses, from what he saw, he was furious. Usually the writers do not intervene in the production process, and it is particularly difficult to do in the position I want, but he left. For the next three days, TRUMBO wrote an 80-page Memorandum, which analyzed the materials of the paintings and subjected them to deep criticism.

After complaining about Dalton TRUMBO mounting a copy of the film, kirk Douglas and Edward Lewis acknowledged the criticism is legitimate and supported writer. The Studio has allocated a half million dollars on improvements and have agreed to continue filming. For reasons of economy, Douglas proposed to postpone the battle scenes in Europe. The Studio insisted on carrying out the entire production in the United States. In the end, we came to an agreement to transfer part of the production to Spain. In October, the crew spent in the outskirts of Madrid about 20 days. In the negotiations about participation in the crowd, soldiers of the Spanish army was attended by the dictator Franco. 8 thousand soldiers depicted of the Roman legions and the army of gladiators. Were built three towers about a hundred feet (30 meters) in order to set the camera on a vantage point and capture rebuild the Roman army in all the details from a distance of about 800 metres. As the operator in this part worked for Clifford Stine. Spectacular maneuvers of the Roman cohorts on the battlefield, made sketches Saul bass. As stated by the artist, he created them under the influence of the battle scenes from "Alexander Nevsky". Shooting skills made such an impression on the representatives of the Studio and the entire staff of the film that after the Spanish part of the picture of talk behind the young filmmaker stopped.

Dalton TRUMBO tried to convince the Studio that you need to add more battle scenes with the victories of slaves, but could not. The Studio referred to the budget overruns of the picture. Douglas tried to implement a compromise the idea of showing the animated maps showing the sequence of battles and the scale of the victories of the rebels. Saul bass prepared several sketches of the map. They even were going to insert into the picture, but they are stylistically was out of visual range.

The final painting has undergone changes just before release. The representative of the MPAA, Jeffrey Scurlock made some comments censorial character. He demanded a cut scene with the crucifixion as it has, in his opinion, overly relished the torment of the protagonist. He doesn't like the scene where Gracchus and Caesar visit the Roman slums. The representative of the MPAA demanded to process scenes with a naked gene Simmons. He also saw the ambiguity in the phrase Spartacus "I have never been with a woman", which was also asked to change. Kubrick cut these scenes. However, the main loss of the film is ambiguous "homoerotic" scene of Crassus and Antonius. After many trials scene in the rolling variant in 1960 was not hit at all and was only restored in 1991.

The premiere of the film took place in new York's theater De Mille Theatre on 6 October 1960. Before the rental, the representatives of the conservative organization the American Legion has sent about 17,000 emails to residents urging them to boycott the picture, which was associated with "commies". After all the changes caused by censorship, the Legion of decency awarded the film a rating of A3 (the original was installed an even more rigorous B), which affected the indicators. For the audience-Catholics, this evaluation had a certain weight. Great value for rolling the fate of the paintings had a visit to the John F. Kennedy theater in November 1960. Recently elected President of the United States passed through the pickets of the American Legion and attended a session of pictures at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC.

The Studio was so confident in the commercial success of the film that have pre-set a fixed price for your tickets online roadshow that was practiced only the second time in the history of Universal.

Ultra Hollywood figures of Hedda Hopper and John Wayne influenced by the fact that the picture was not nominated for "Oscar" in the nomination "the Best film".

Douglas sadly joked about the fact that work on "Spartacus" took more time than the insurrection itself. The production lasted more than two years, which, by the standards of the American film industry, far beyond the unspoken standards. Assessing the pattern, TRUMBO had mixed feelings. He was unhappy that the final installation of the tape were not implemented all his plans, although spoke about the film positively and were concerned about the fact that the scandal around his name and titles hurt the cash indices. Final Assembly, as is considered consistent with the views of the Studio and Executive producer (Douglas). The company and Bryna kirk Douglas after "Spartak" has continued to cooperate with TRUMBO and have created together a series of paintings. Charles Laughton was not satisfied with the installation, change their scenes, and threatened with lawsuits.

"Spartak" — the only work of Kubrick, where he was hired by the Studio Director. Some researchers of his work does not even include the "Spartacus" among its author's works.

Stanley Kubrick said of the film: "Spartak — the only movie that I couldn't control and which, I think, was that weak. It happened because of the need of making thousands of decisions, and if you don't take them yourself, if you don't tune into the same wave that and receiving their people (process) is becoming very painful as it was. Obviously I directed the actors was the scene of the shooting and edited the film, so that, limited by the weakness of the plot, I tried to do the maximum possible... the Only (my) film, which I don't like is Spartak".

After "Spartacus", bearing in mind all the problems of censorship of nature that had to be postponed, Kubrick moved to England and later worked mostly overseas. The transition from "Spartacus" to "lolita" is considered one of the most unorthodox in history of directing, and so different these two pictures. It is believed that this unexpected appeal to the controversial and "netransliruemoi" prose of Nabokov, sounded a challenge Director of the Hollywood system and all unrealized in "Spartacus".

Favorite Kubrick theme repeated in many of his films: chess. In the picture you can see them in the form of black and white tiles on the floor in the Roman Senate, where there are difficult political combinations. Also rehearsed rebuilding cohorts of the Roman army in the checkerboard pattern on the field of the decisive battle with the rebels.

The invitation to write the music for the film "Spartacus" caught Alex North in France. Usual time working on the soundtrack in Hollywood about 10 weeks, including arrangement and orchestration. The composer has provided about 13 months. The North has the opportunity to contact sources and get a clearer idea about ancient Roman music. North also recognized the great influence that had on his music by Prokofiev, from "Alexander Nevsky". The duration of the soundtrack was about 2 hours. Just for the picture was written around 70 musical themes. For the first time in the practice of Kubrick's music sounded in the background on the set, creating the necessary atmosphere.

Evaluating the results of his work, Kubrick talked about the fact that he was not going to make another "costume epic", and focused on the most avant-garde viewer. "I was more influenced by "Alexander Nevsky"Eisenstein than "Ben-Hur" and any picture of Cecil DeMille," recalled the Director.

In 1967 the picture was published in a re-hire with a much reduced duration of 162 minutes. The case was not censored, and in practice: the picture was too long for re-hire with the current showtimes. About the same duration of the painting was in a television shows of the time. In 1991, Universal studios decided to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the picture and it turned out that copies of satisfactory quality in the archives were not preserved. The company's management decided to restore the picture to its original duration of the rental copies, 1960 in 197 minutes.

In October 1989, Robert Harris began the restoration of the film. The engineers spent several months in search of preserved working materials of the paintings in the vaults of the studios in Los Angeles. They found approximately 2,000 boxes of film in which there was a complete negative picture. Colour negative was found to be unsuitable for recovery due to the complete degradation of the film quality. But I managed to find 65 mm black and white negatives, is used as the intermediate materials for film development. With the help of the filter, each copy recorded its color, so that after exposure to print final full-color copy. Usually this kind of replacement materials Studio long hold, and in the case of "Spartacus" they survived by chance. For operations are also partly used a 35 mm copy with a duration of 182 minutes, courtesy of a private collector, and, partly, the version of the picture used to show on television. Battle scenes of the rebel editor of the restoration Harris and failed to find, as the Studio had destroyed most of the archival drafts and fragments. It is known that these scenes existed. A few seconds from the scene of the battle of the Metapontum (Spartacus, giving the signal to start the attack) are preserved in the trailer. In total, this operation was spent about a year of effort, the budget was about $ 1 million. Premiere of the restored version took place on 21 April 1991 in new York at the Ziegfeld theater.

Famous scene and the phrase "I am Spartacus" was invented by kirk Douglas and described in note to the writer that kirk was sent on 7 may 1959. "I am Spartacus" was to shout out thousands of people and the desired effect, the usual methods of recording could not be achieved. The soundtrack was recorded at the stadium "Spartan", a phrase chanted by the choir of the 73 000 fans of the local football team.