This movie was obviously made to blatantly capitalize on the financial success of Kubrick's "Spartacus." This movie is lighthearted fun in its own right, but obviously can't hold a candle to Kubrick's work.
But how well do you think this works as a follow-up and sequel to Spartacus, whether chronologically, thematically, or whatever?
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shareIt works okay if you don't think about it too hard.
shareNo. But it's still entertaining.
shareSPOILERS AHEAD:
First off I highly recommend the Movie for many reasons. First off what better director to make a Roman movie than an actual Italian?? One reason being it's actually filmed in Egypt and there are 3 set pieces that blew me away. First we see the actual step Pyramid casually in the background. Second shot we see the Great Pyramid and Egypts other giant Pyramids. Finally we see a shot with the Sphinx and they mention something about why does the Sphinx keep smiling. What's interesting is we get a great look at the Sphinx before they did it's restoration in the 1980's and it had a much different appearance than now.
The Movie reminds me of a Tarantino movie with the way it casually plays with Historic facts. The movie is said to take place 25 years after Spartacus which would be year 46BC. By 46BC Crassus was already dead for 7 years by trying to campaign in Partha. He took his army and got lost in the Desert before the Partha Army found them and slowly killed his entire army including Crassus son who proved himself as a smart tactical leader and fought very bravely for Caesar in Gaul. It's been said the Partha Army accepted a request for Crassus to talk terms of surrender. Crassus must have liked his chance at negotiating for his life being the richest man in Rome he should have some bargaining power but instead they killed him by pouring molten gold down his throat (as the movie depicted).
My big gripe with the movie was it's "Hollywood' happy ending. IRL in 46BC Caesar was literally the Dictator for life and he couldn't allow a 4th Serville War to go unpunished. Crassus had 15K slaves crucified after the 3rd Serville War (Spartacus uprising). The son of Spartacus (Randus) should have been put on the Crucifix and make it an allegory for Jesus is what I was hoping for. If Caesar killed Randus he could feasibly allow the other slaves to live. I recommend this film like Kubricks other Sequel 2010:space oddysee. Both get 6.5/10