Spartacus
Spartacus represents the pinnacle of the epic film trend which included spectaculars such as Cleopatra, Ben Hur, and Fall of the Roman Empire. It was acclaimed as the first truly intelligent epic, but its director, the highly acclaimed Stanley Kubrick, has largely disowned it. Kubrick took the assignment, partially as a way of escaping the ill-fated One-Eyed Jacks project he was working on with Marlon Brando (Brando himself took over direction and went heavily overbudget with the film).
Kubrick was belatedly brought aboard by producer/star Kirk Douglas, who was impressed with their classic collaboration on Paths of Glory. Initial director Anthony Mann resigned after only a week's shooting, only completing the opening scenes at the rock quarry. Kubrick picked up the project from the gladiator school on.
Kubrick objected to the script for Spartacus on the grounds that it was dumb and rarely faithful to what is known about the actual Spartacus. The former slave in reality twice led his victorious slave army to the northern borders of Italy and could have easily gotten out of the country, but instead he led his army back to pillage Roman cities. Instead of exploring the question of why he chose to do this or whether the intentions of the rebellion changed, whether Spartacus lost the control of his followers who became more interested in the spoils of war rather than in freedom, Trumbo's script simply has Spartacus prevented from escaping by a silly contrivance in which a pirate leader (played by Herbert Lom) renegs on a deal to take the slave army away in his ships.
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