“Stanley Kubrick hated this scene”: Spartacus as told by Kirk Douglas

Stanley Kubrick’s classic returns this Sunday on Arte.

In 2014, Kirk Douglas agreed to comment on the best of his film for the Huffington Post. This is what he said about Spartacus (to be seen again this Sunday evening on Arte and in streaming on Arte.TV), peplum directed by Stanley Kubrick, who won 4 Oscars in 1961:

“‘I am Spartacus’ is the most famous line from the film and is often parodied. It even became the title of my 2012 book about the making of the film. Well, imagine that Stanley Kubrick hated that scene. He didn’t want to shoot it but I insisted. After all, I was the star and producer of the film, I was the one signing his check. Our screenwriter was Dalton Trumbo, he wrote under the pseudonym Sam Jackson because that he was on the Hollywood blacklist. A shameful time, especially since we were all hypocrites who hired blacklisted talent at lower salaries. I wanted Dalton to write The Untamed but asked him to write Spartacus first because I urgently needed to show a script to the British cast I dreamed of (Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov and Charles Laughton) before Yul Brynner presented them with one. competing project, The Gladiators was a demanding film, for which I was crucified not only on the screen but in the newspapers, for having adapted the book by a communist (Howard Fast) and crediting Dalton Trumbo in the credits. But the public was there, including our new president John F. Kennedy who praised it.

The best Kirk Douglas films, by Kirk Douglas

The story of Spartacus: Kirk Douglas is Spartacus, the rebel gladiator who escaped slavery. The young man imagines a God for slaves and dares to think of a son who will be born free. After breaking his chains, Spartacus quickly finds himself at the head of an army of slaves determined to make themselves heard. But the Roman Empire does not intend to let them revolt and quickly sets out in pursuit.