Spartacus features one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history – but Kirk Douglas had to go to extreme measures to get Stanley Kubrick to film it.
Before Kubrick made 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket and The Shining, he was handed the sword-and-sandal epic after Anthony Mann, known for westerns and noirs, was booted off the 1960 film.
In an episode of Turner Classic Movies podcast The Plot Thickens, it’s explained that Douglas “had grown frustrated with Mann”, who was “encouraging the actors to improvise their lines”. However, this was causing the production to “fall way behind schedule”.
Douglas drafted in Kubrick, who was 31 at the time, and had directed him in Paths of Glory – but the filmmaker didn’t have full creative control over the film. Douglas wrote in his 1988 memoir, Kubrick’s “self-confidence often bordered on arrogance, a quality that could be a help or a hindrance when dealing with hard-to-rein in actors such as Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, and Peter Ustinov”.
As written in Kirk Douglas’s memoir, the director had a run-in with Douglas after ignoring a memo he’d sent him about his removal of the classic “I’m Spartacus!” scene from Dalton Trumbo’s script.
“In the scene, Spartacus and his fellow slaves are rounded up by the Romans,” podcast host Ben Mankiewicz explained. “The slaves are told, ‘Identify Spartacus, and you’ll be spared.’ Spartacus is about to reveal himself when another slave stands up and says, ‘I’m Spartacus.’ Then another slave does the same. And another.”
Douglas, angry at the lack of reply to his memo, “trotted” over to Kubrick on a “big brown horse” and, with his horse “now inches from Stanley’s face”, told him: “When I send you a memo about shooting a scene, I at least expect an answer. I sent you that note about the ‘I am Spartacus’ scene, and you haven’t even bothered to respond.”
Kubrick replied: “That’s because I don’t wanna do it – it’s a stupid idea,” following which Douglas “pushed the horse right up against” Kubrick, and stated: “Listen, you little p***k. This may be a stupid idea, but we’re gonna try it. If it doesn’t work, we’ll cut it out, but we’re gonna shoot it.”
The director agreed to Douglas’s demands and “it became the most famous scene in the movie”.
The scene has become the centre of parody over the years, the most memorable being in Monty Python's Life of Brian in 1979 as well as the US version of The Office.
Spartacus – which follows a slave and gladiator who leads a rebellion against Rome during the events of the Third Servile War – went on to win four Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor for Ustinov, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.
The Plot Thickens dives deep into the life, work, and behind-the-scenes chaos of legendary filmmakers and actors. The new season, focused on Kubrick, uses testimonies from Douglas’s own memoir
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