Spartacus

[coolasfcuk]

Well, i just thought i'd put this here:

Last 2 nights I've watched Spartacus on USA Network (I am reallynot sure its been shown in other countries than USA)... I always enjoy movies like that. Anyway, I had this urge to watch it, I wasnt sure why, it was so weird.... and today I open the bulgarian online newspaper, and there it says: "Spartacus is Serbian (since the guy that plays Spartacus is serbian-note) - the movie that was shot in Bulgaria airs in USA". how weird is this... i mean its not that often that something international gets filmed in bulgaria... i think i might be a phychic ...i knew and felt this connection with the movie, now i know - i was watching the homeland *melts*...

anyways, they are gonna play it some more, its ok movie - i cant tell how 'true; it is really... since i had an understanding that Spartacus was caught.. near what is todays Bulgarian town of Plovdiv....

here is the website of the movie with show times: Spartacus

[Me Am Hulk]

Well technically, Spartacus was Thracian. Thrace was a kingdom of warrior-poets well renowned in ancient times for... well, kicking ass and busting dope rhymez. Thrace was also the legendary birthplace of the musician/demigod Orpheus. After its eventual conquest by Rome and subsequent conquests by other pastoral tribes (with a little intermarriage thrown in,) the land that was Thrace is now in modern times, Serbia. That is... if I'm reading my maps properly...

Ah well, as the great Thracian warrior poet and part-time god Orpheus would say...

I'M GONNA KNOCK YOU OUT!
MOMMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT!
BREAK-DOWWWWWWWWN!

[cirrus]

...i knew and felt this connection with the movie, now i know - i was watching the homeland *melts*...

ah that's funny stuff, cool! you could feel your nation calling you through the cable. I wasn't planning on watching it and didn't, but I think Bulgaria's a beautiful country. and I like those kind of "epic" movies. So maybe i'll see it when it comes on again.
The actor is Goran Visnjic I believe. I can't really spell his name off the top of my head.

[Me Am Hulk]

By the by: As much as I enjoyed the USA channel's version of Spartacus, it doesn't hold a candle to the classic 1960 Spartacus IMHO. Why do I say that, you ask? Is it because it was directed by Stanley Kubrick, the filmmaker's filmaker? Is it the star-studded cast, which featured Kirk Douglas, Sir Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Woody Strode and Tony Curtis? Is it the sweeping vistas, the immaculate set design, the glorioiusly choreographed battle scenes?

Well all those factors play into making it an excellent film, but what makes it truly a standout cinematic experience is that nearly all of the characters are G to tha A to tha Y-M-C-A!!!!

Whoo Momma, Dalai-Lama! Take a good long look at those bare, bronze chests! Those phallic daggers and broadswords! Those tight, tight loincloths that GRIP the actors' gentials like a facehugger alien! Those greased limbs that entangle and STRAAAIIIN against one another! See how Laurence Olivier as the Roman Tyrant Marcus Licinius Crassus ogles sweet young Antoninus (Tony Curtis) and has the lad scrub his despotic shoulders and pecs in his private bath! SEE how Spartacus takes the runaway Antoninus into his fold of rugged rebel slaves and proceeds to violate the blue-eyed youth WITH HIS CRAVING EYES. Witness the pair in a life or death love grapple in the abrasive soil of the arena as covetous Crassus looks on! REVEL in the consumation of the two slaves' desires as Spartacus THRUSTS his bloody blade into Antoninus' gaping gash of a wound and declares: "I love you, Antoninus... like the brother I never had!" Mmm-hmm... brother... yeah, right.

Sadly, amid all this musty man-lovin', Sparatcus' common-law wife Varinia - played by the raven haired, blue eyed Jean Simmons - could enjoy no same-sex romps of her own. There were no tall, leggy, freckle-faced beauties with oiled-down russet tresses for her to liplock with in the torrential rain... the POUNDING, RELENTLESS, DRIVING, INUNDATING RAIN... Oh! Oh me, oh my, GREAT MERCIFUL BLOODSTAINED GODS!!!! I die! I die... oooooouuuhhh...

Uh... uhm...

So anyways... Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus"... 1960... Available on DVD... go to your local retailer and ask for it by name...

And tell them Mr. Loincloth von Spanky-Pantz sent you...

Cheers, you bronzed, bloodied, battle-hardened ruffians!

[cirrus]

Take a good long look at those bare, bronze chests! Those phallic daggers and broadswords! Those tight, tight loincloths that GRIP the actors' gentials like a facehugger alien! Those greased limbs that entangle and STRAAAIIIN against one another! See how Laurence Olivier as the Roman Tyrant Marcus Licinius Crassus ogles sweet young Antoninus (Tony Curtis) and has the lad scrub his despotic shoulders and pecs in his private bath! SEE how Spartacus takes the runaway Antoninus into his fold of rugged rebel slaves and proceeds to violate the blue-eyed youth WITH HIS CRAVING EYES. Witness the pair in a life or death love grapple in the abrasive soil of the arena as covetous Crassus looks on! REVEL in the consumation of the two slaves' desires as Spartacus THRUSTS his bloody blade into Antoninus' gaping gash of a wound and declares: "I love you, Antoninus... like the brother I never had!" Mmm-hmm... brother... yeah, right.

i am..........................

speechless!

God only knows what your "Spartacus" would turn into if you were the director!

[coolasfcuk]

you know how us, Balkan people are... ... no wonder there are always wars in that region... we, the 'barbarian tribes'..... we get fired, since our region has such a complicated history.....so, sorry but i have to say this:

Originally Posted by Me Am Hulk

Well technically, Spartacus was Thracian. [...] the land that was Thrace is now in modern times, Serbia. That is... if I'm reading my maps properly...

yes, Spartacus was a Thracian, and that is exactly why the movie was shot on location in Bulgaria. Because huge part of Thrace is actually todays Bulgaria.

Here is a short and fast lesson:

What the on-line encyclopedia says about 'Thrace'

What the encyclopedia says about Thracian History

here is a lil quote from that, why is it so confusing who, what, where Thrace is.... ha ha... how much and fast the borders change around the Balkans

In 1878, N Thrace was made into the province of Eastern Rumelia ; after the annexation (1885) of Eastern Rumelia by Bulgaria (which had gained independence in 1878), the political meaning of the term Thrace became restricted to its southernmost part, which was still in Turkish hands. The terms Eastern Thrace and Western Thrace were used for the territories east and west of the Maritsa River. In the first of the Balkan Wars (1912-13) Turkey ceded to Bulgaria all Western Thrace and the inland half of Eastern Thrace, including Adrianople, but after its defeat in the Second Balkan War (1913), Bulgaria retroceded all Thrace east of the Maritsa to Turkey.

After World War I, Bulgaria ceded the southern part of its share of Thrace to Greece by the Treaty of Neuilly (1919), thus losing its only outlet to the Aegean. By the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) Greece also obtained most of Eastern Thrace except the zone of the Straits and Constantinople; the treaty, however, was superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which restored to Turkey all Thrace E of the Maritsa. As a result of subsequent population movements, the ethnic composition of the various parts of Thrace now corresponds largely to the national divisions. The Greek-Bulgarian frontier of 1919 and the Turkish-Greek frontier of 1923 were left unchanged after World War II, during which Bulgaria had occupied (1941-44) Greek Thrace.

and finally a Map that might help some

Historians believe the Thracian Tribe from which Spartacus came occupied the lands around what is today the town of Melnik in Bulgaria, which is actually about 10km from the Greek border.... so somewhere around there... where Bulgaria meets Greece within the Pirin and Rhodopi mountains

I havent seen Kubrick's film though... so i will rent it this weekend, thanks ... i really enjoyed your review!

[zebu]

the old spartacus movie is great, i remember watching it when i was little. should go and try to rent it to watch again

i read about this new spartaucs cause goran visnjic is from croatia so everything he does is immediately in all our newspapers, he played in that series ER some doctor

[coolasfcuk]

Originally Posted by zebu

i read about this new spartaucs cause goran visnjic is from croatia so everything he does is immediately in all our newspapers, he played in that series ER some doctor

really? wonder why the Bulgarian news said he is Serbian?! .. but yeah, they said he is in ER and something else. But I wont get you started on that... cause you're also Balkan, and so there will be fire

[teeny]

Other works
mmmmmm

Sorry to say Spartacus haven't aired in Denmark yet. Seen the movie though and it's great.

From the trivia section

The original version included a scene where Marcus Licinius (Laurence Olivier) attempts to seduce Antoninus ('Curtis, Tony' ). The Production Code Administration and the Legion of Decency both objected. At one point Geoffrey Shurlock, representing the censors, suggested it would help if the reference in the scene to a preference for oysters or snails was changed to truffles and artichokes. In the end the scene was cut, but it was was put back in for the 1991 restoration. But since the soundtrack had been lost in the meantime, the dialogue had to be dubbed; and since Olivier had died, Anthony Hopkins read his lines.

Have yet to see that version though.

[russkayatatu]

All this time I was thinking the "Spartacus" you were talking about WAS the 1960 version I didn't realize there was a new one, just that the old one was playing on TV, or something ...

Thanks for setting me straight Me Am Hulk

Great that it's in BG though

[coolasfcuk]

Rach, should've clicked on the link in the first post

am gonna try to rent the 1960 one this weekend

[russkayatatu]

Yes ... well ... my fault I must not have been thinking at all, especially cause I know Kirk Douglas played Spartacus, and even if his birth name was Issur Danielovich Demsky I didn't think he was Serbian, like you mentioned in the first post

So many damn remakes ... AHHHHH. I guess I should check out everything from now on, can't assume I know it cause of the famous title Sorry

Yeah, you should rent it, it's a classic; I haven't seen it for a long time.

[coolasfcuk]

no worries, ends up the guy isnt Serbian either, but Croatian! LoL ...but yeah, never assume anything

to sum it up: Spartacus is da man! I wish I was like him... hahahah...