Who Is Spartacus

In the 1960 film Spartacus, directed by Stanley Kubrick, the character called Spartacus is depicted as a revolutionary who leads an army of slaves against the oppressive forces of Rome during the first century B.C. Though the overall story is true, and most of the main characters are real, the presentation of their character is entirely fictional. Spartacus and the other characters have been split into groups epitomizing good and evil, and the story itself has been vastly romanticized. This essay will address the ways in which the story deviates from reality and finally will show how Kubrick and those before him have used such interpretations as a valuable tool for social change.
The film begins with Spartacus as a working slave and a narration describing him as a man whose only dream is to abolish slavery. He was then bought by the owner of a gladiatorial training facility and consequently taught how to fight as a gladiator before eventually escaping from this place with the help of fellow fighters. Spartacus was portrayed as a great ideological leader as he gathered many followers and won many battles before being defeated by Marcus Licinius Crassus, a character shown to be wealthy, powerful, and heartless. However, this ideology and the good and evil, represented by Spartacus and Crassus respectively in the film, are at best questionable realities when historical transcripts are taken into account. At no point do any historical accounts mention Spartacus’ motivation to overturn the Roman social structure, but do instead suggest that his compatriots and he were merely attempting to rid themselves of this oppression. While the film correctly shows Spartacus’ will to simply leave Italy and not fight against Rome, it contradicts the importance of this by implying his motivation to rid the empire of all slavery and oppression. While the film also shows a scene where Spartacus makes an idealistic speech during a rather hypocritical moment where his followers are