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Wish they'd do the same for THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, especially since so many deleted scenes were discovered, apparently too late for inclusion on the fancy DVD...
Oh welll....
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So, is this SPARTACUS "restoration" all about the image, or are there any more scenes found, and added?
(I love deleted scenes, extended scenes, etc...)
I saw this movie as a roadshow in New York City, in November of 1960. I thought it was the DeMille Theater, but, as I recall, someone here corrected that to the Criterion. I do remember it was in Times Square, and I seem to remember a special room with windows, where parents with children could watch the film without disturbing the rest of the audience. (Although, I can't imagine why anyone would want to take children to see SPARTACUS. Though, don't look at me, when I first saw it, I was 11... Go figure.)
One of the chief public responses to it was shock at the then large amount of graphic violence. Tame by today's standards, but gruesome in 1960.
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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2015 - 9:11 AM
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By: |
RoryR
(Member)
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I have the Criterion DVD, approved by restorer Robert A. Harris, and the Universal blu-ray, which he objects to because the grading is wrong. Hopefully he'll get his way this time and everything will be fine. Not a film I watch often but I'll certainly buy it to keep my Kubrick film library complete. Since Criterion doesn't lease its supplements to other companies I suppose I'll hang to their DVD.
Has anyone seen the mini-series Spartacus made in New Zealand by the New Zealanders? Whew ...
Yes, hang onto the Criterion DVD for the extras, but the original Blu-ray? Mine will go right into the trash as soon as I have this new restoration. The current Blu-ray features a fading print from the '90s restoration, same as the current Blu-ray for MY FAIR LADY, but that's gotten a new 4K restoration too, though we're still waiting for its Blu-ray release.
As for the mini-series "Spartacus".... I watched all of it. The first episode of the first season was so horribly bad, that I vowed not to watch the rest of the show, but the next week I had to look. To my surprise it was better, and it just got better and better with each passing episode. The first season was great, but unfortunately it went downhill after that. The series was pretty much violence porn, with crass soft-core porn thrown in for good measure. It had its moments, but for the most part was crap -- and I watched all of it, even the awful prequel series.
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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2015 - 12:45 PM
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By: |
SoundScope
(Member)
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News! Some good! Some frustrating...
So, we old farts that love this stuff just have to keep buying new ones to keep up. How many times do I have to buy MY FAIR LADY, SPARTACUS and THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (if it should ever happen!)? Hmmm? How many?
While I'm all for doing anything the way it needs to be, and should be, done, it gets kind of silly when you buy a disc and then throw it away before even looking at it when the new and imporved version hits the street.
. . .oh well.
(THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE? God, i'd kill for this to be done the proper way from Ultra-Panavision elements and with the intermission cue where it belongs! Well, not kill exactly, but maybe run around my evergreen tree naked, for sure.) 
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Posted: |
Jul 14, 2015 - 8:05 AM
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By: |
CinemaScope
(Member)
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It is a surprisingly good movie, a kind of smarter Hollywood historical epic. It is so much more human and relate-able than a lot of other historical epics that came before, and certainly after. It was an odd fit for Kubrick, but he pulled it off brilliantly. The camera work is pretty fantastic. It is probably sacrilegious to say this to some film freaks, but I find Spartacus is probably a more entertaining movie than Lawrence of Arabia.
It's not my favourite ancient world epic, there's a few I prefer to it: Ben-Hur, The Egyptian, Helen Of Troy & Land Of The Pharaohs, but it's a great movie, & hopefully the restoration will look excellent. I can still remember being taken to see it when I was 13, & still had the souvenir program booklet from that night up to a couple of years ago.
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Posted: |
Jul 14, 2015 - 8:57 AM
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By: |
Ado
(Member)
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It is a surprisingly good movie, a kind of smarter Hollywood historical epic. It is so much more human and relate-able than a lot of other historical epics that came before, and certainly after. It was an odd fit for Kubrick, but he pulled it off brilliantly. The camera work is pretty fantastic. It is probably sacrilegious to say this to some film freaks, but I find Spartacus is probably a more entertaining movie than Lawrence of Arabia.
It's not my favourite ancient world epic, there's a few I prefer to it: Ben-Hur, The Egyptian, Helen Of Troy & Land Of The Pharaohs, but it's a great movie, & hopefully the restoration will look excellent. I can still remember being taken to see it when I was 13, & still had the souvenir program booklet from that night up to a couple of years ago.
I have missed a couple of those you mentioned there. I saw Spartacus in revival, I think it was the first restoration that Robert Harris did. It was really a beautiful picture of scale on the 70mm screen. Jean Simmons was really beautiful woman, and an extremely talented actress as well, playing right up against Kirk Douglas and all his gusto. She exudes an amazing combination of smartness, allure, confidence and vulnerability.
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Loved this one when the Harris restoration was released in 70mm in 1991. Yes, it is a much smarter historical epic. I'm proud to say I own the Varese soundtrack box as well.
The most important question to me: Does anyone know whether this current restoration is a restoration of the film itself? Or, like Lawrence of Arabia, does a fully modern Spartacus exist only as a digital restoration and, ultimately, a digital file?
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