Spartacus was released in 1960 and directed primarily by Stanley Kubrick, though Kirk Douglas originally hired Anthony Mann.

Anthony Mann was fired after about a week of filming due to creative disagreements with Douglas.

Kirk Douglas was not only the star but also the executive producer, giving him unusual creative control for the time.

The film is based on the 1951 novel Spartacus by Howard Fast.

Howard Fast wrote the novel while imprisoned for contempt of Congress after refusing to name names during the Red Scare.

The screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten.

Trumbo was still blacklisted when he was hired, making this one of the first major films to openly credit a blacklisted writer.

Kirk Douglas insisted that Dalton Trumbo receive on screen credit, helping to break the Hollywood blacklist.

The film famously includes the line “I’m Spartacus,” which became one of the most iconic moments in cinema history.

That scene was not in the original novel and was expanded significantly for the film.

Peter Ustinov won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

The film was one of the most expensive productions of its time, costing around $12 million.

Thousands of extras were used in the battle scenes, many of them Spanish soldiers.

The large scale battles were filmed in Spain to reduce costs and to access massive numbers of extras.

Kubrick was unhappy with some aspects of the production he did not fully control. As a result, Kubrick later distanced himself from the film in interviews. Despite this, Spartacus is often considered one of Kubrick’s most accessible films. The film eventually won four Academy Awards.

The famous “oysters and snails” scene between Laurence Olivier and Tony Curtis was controversial at the time.

That scene included coded dialogue referencing homosexuality, which was daring for a mainstream 1960 film. The scene was partially censored in original releases and was later restored in modern cuts of the film.

Tony Curtis’s voice in the restored scene was redubbed decades later due to poor audio quality.

Spartacus is portrayed as a noble freedom fighter, though the real historical Spartacus remains somewhat mysterious.

Historians believe the real Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who led a massive slave revolt against Rome. The film takes many liberties with historical accuracy for dramatic effect. Spartacus’s death is not historically documented, allowing filmmakers creative freedom.

Kirk Douglas later said Spartacus was the film he was most proud of in his career.