Spartacus (HD DVD)

The comparisons of Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus to Ridley Scott's Gladiator are easy to make, and while I know there are people out there that will say Spartacus is the better of the two, I still fall on the side of Gladiator when it comes to a head-to-head comparison. I still think Spartacus is a fantastic film, and this was actually my first time seeing it. What better way than on HD DVD eh? However, as for comparisons, a better comparison for Spartacus, or at least a group of films to accompany it in theme and scope would be The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, two films I absolutely love. While many adore the Oscar-winning Spartacus, it just isn't quite up to the caliber of those two films.

Spartacus stars Kirk Douglas as the title character and we are first introduced to him as a slave, but only a few minutes into the film he is sold to Batiatus (Peter Ustinov), a man who trains gladiators to be sold to the highest bidder. Inside of Batiatus' training camps Spartacus learns how to fight, but he also finds something he did not expect - love. Jean Simmons plays Varinia, a slave girl in Batiatus' camp, and while he is initially awkward in love his affection grows. The love story manages to weave its way through the entire picture and some may consider it a departure of what is really important, particularly during the final moments of the film.

Outside of the love story, the central plot thread follows Spartacus as he leads a Roman-slave revolt, a revolt that culminates with a massive battle against Marcus Licinius Crassus played by Laurence Olivier. The film is very good, and as I mentioned earlier the epic scope and feel of the costume drama can be compared to The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, even though it isn't quite as good as those two pictures.

Stanley Kubrick's mark is certainly on the film as the, at-the-time, 31-year-old director was the youngest director ever put in charge of a $12 million production, a number that is astonishing when compared to films of its kind now days. Oliver Stone's Alexander was made for a reported $155 million, Gladiator reports a budget around $103 million and Ridley Scott's latest medieval epic Kingdom of Heaven was made for $130 million. Of course the monetary differences can be seen on screen, but it certainly goes to show why studios place so much emphasis on opening day box-office numbers. The comparisons are astounding.

As for this HD DVD presentation of Spartacus it isn't exactly anything to brag about. The transfer is from the 1991 restored DVD edition, which serves fine for a DVD but on HD DVD it just means that we get a less-compressed version of a film that isn't up to HD standards. This is something to consider when building your high definition collection. While studios are releasing high definition versions of some of their classics it isn't really anything special unless they have cleaned up the transfers. One thing to note with HD DVD is that the clarity will almost certainly always be amplified. Close-ups will look extraordinary and edges will be much crisper, but when the print is littered with dust and the black levels aren't up to par it can be a bit distracting.

Special feature wise this disc is barren aside from the book marking "My Scenes" feature which allows you to save your favorite scenes for future playback.

On a whole I would not recommend this disc as a purchase, especially if you own prior DVD versions and especially if you own the Criterion Collection version. You aren't getting that much better of a picture and there are no features to speak of. While the film will always go down in history as one of the greater Roman epics, this disc just doesn't match the splendor.