It is 73 BCE, and Spartacus, a Thracian slave, finds himself being trained as a gladiator in the thriving town of Capua, a day's ride from Rome. Dimple-chinned, buff Kirk Douglas plays the proud slave who would soon lead the Third Servile War against the Roman Republic. He would also fall for the limpid Varinia (Jean Simmons), a slave herself, who would bear him a child, born into the freedom that Spartacus victoriously attained. But this modest description conceals the monumental scale of its filmic representation-a three-year undertaking, longer than Spartacus's rebellion. Conceived as a vehicle for Douglas, the epic began with director Anthony Mann at the helm, commanding a cast that included Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, and Tony Curtis as members of the tyrannical Roman Senate. Within weeks, Mann was ditched and replaced by Stanley Kubrick who now had an emperor's ransom, twelve million dollars, to throw at the clash of titan and slave. Epic battle scenes were added to the film's scenario with eight thousand Spanish soldiers playing the brawny Roman legions. The story of Spartacus is much adored-the liberation of the masses, led by a humble man inspired not by ideology, but by righteous ire. When the gathered slave army finally identifies with their de facto leader, each and all decrying “I am Spartacus,” the transformation of the masses is complete. For Kubrick that transformation, artistic and otherwise, was only beginning, as his coming films would attest.