Gladiators in the Living Room
By Chris Carpenter
Kirk Douglas was sexy as the loincloth-clad star of Stanley Kubrick’s epic 1960 film Spartacus. Apart from that loincloth, Douglas can’t hold a candle to the sometimes-nude hunks who populate the Starz series that adds a subtitle (and depth) to its predecessor: Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
Seemingly inspired by the blockbuster 2007 film 300 as much as by historical accounts of a slave uprising in ancient Rome, the series is a stylish, and graphic, soap opera. A lot of money appears to have gone into Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and its high-powered producers include filmmaker Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider-Man); Rob Tapert (The Grudge) and Steven S. DeKnight (Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show).
Newcomer Andy Whitfield plays the title role, although his character doesn’t initially sport the moniker “Spartacus.” Rather, he starts out as an unnamed, happily married Thracian who becomes enslaved, along with his wife, by a treacherous Roman soldier with a vendetta. Subsequently forced to fight four, trained gladiators at once, the Thracian stuns his captors and the audience by singlehandedly slaying all of his opponents. The crowd christens him “Spartacus.”
Spartacus is purchased by the scheming Lentulus Batiatus (played by John Hannah of The Mummy) for formal training at the ludus, or gladiator school, he owns. Batiatus sees his new recruit as having the potential to earn him and his wife (Lucy Lawless of Xena) enough money and prestige to be accepted into the upper echelons of Roman society.
While the main plot and setting of Spartacus: Blood and Sand will seem familiar to anyone who has seen Gladiator or 300, there is enough sex (both romantic and kinky) and full-frontal nudity to keep more than a few LGBT viewers interested. (Gay men, especially, will want to catch the second episode, “Sacramentum Gladiatorum.”)
The series is set in a digitally recreated ancient Rome, where men stand stoic in virtual snow and sunsets, and slow-motion blood sprays out in all directions during fight scenes. The violence is completely over-the-top, with severed heads and limbs similarly flying across the screen. There is also some gratuitous and historically “questionable” use of derogatory terms for sexual acts and anatomy.
What give Spartacus: Blood and Sand some sorely needed credibility are the fine performances of its lead cast. Whitfield makes a fine hero: strong and seething angrily while adding a nuanced softness and everyman quality to his role. Hannah and Lawless are excellent, as is Peter Mensah as Doctore, the gladiators’ domineering head trainer. Mensah deserves special credit, as he keeps his character’s dignity intact while delivering the scripts’ ripest dialogue.
For more information, visit www.starz.com/spartacus.