Changes

The Roman characters in the movie are often historical. Crassus, arguably the villain of the story was a real-life general and politician and was for a time one of the most powerful men in Rome. Julius Caesar is also a character in the movie but he is shown as commander in Rome which was not the case. In Kubrick’s work, Graccus is shown as the opponent of Crassus and a Democrat who was secretly sympathetic to the slaves, there was no such character and Graccus who was played by the great British actor Charles Laughton was a purely fictitious character. The movie portrayal of the great rivalry between members of the Roman elite was largely accurate, the Republic was very divided and was riven by factions. The movie portrays Spartacus and his followers as essentially humane and even noble. The ex-gladiators and the other former slaves committed atrocities and were every bit as brutal as their former masters .<ref> Shaw, p. 87</ref>. Once Spartacus forced 300 captured Romans to fight to the death. The movie does not acknowledge the many innocent Romans, who suffered at the hands of the rebellious slaves.