Spartacus

It’s a wonder that this heroic story of a slave uprising against the Roman Empire—led by gladiator-cum-rebel general Kirk Douglas—was such an enormous critical and commercial success. With a screenplay by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, the film was hailed as the first intellectual epic since the silent era. Its numerous homoerotic motifs caused Spartacus to be censored; this restored version more fully explores both the pathos and intimacy of combat and camaraderie with a star-studded cast featuring Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, and Tony Curtis.