It’s a pretty sure bet that Spartacus (1960) is not the first title that comes to mind when you think about the greatest films ever made. Directed by Stanley Kubrick (who replaced Anthony Mann after one week of production), it’s the only one of his movies over which he didn’t have complete control. Nonetheless, his legendary touch is on vast display. Spartacus contains some of the most incredible large-scale set pieces ever seen.
Suitable to its ambitions, it was photographed by Russell Metty, ASC in Super Technirama 70, a Technicolor process in which 35mm color negative traveled horizontally through the camera, recording an oversize image in a 2:1 aspect ratio. The large frames were then contact-printed in vertical sequence on 70mm film for release. It also used anamorphic lenses, which squeezed the image, making possible a projected picture similar to CinemaScope, with an aspect ratio of 2.55:1.
For the record, Metty credited 2nd Unit cinematographer Clifford Stine, ASC for his work on the big battle scenes. This material was shot in Spain and made up the lone segment not captured in Hollywood or other locales in Southern California. The only other film of recent memory that might compare in breadth would be Braveheart (1995; Mel Gibson\John Toll, ASC), but keep in mind that Kubrick and Metty were doing their work with much more cumbersome equipment some thirty-five years earlier.
Though I marvel at the grandness of the abbreviated clip posted below, the practitioner in me can’t help but wonder how long it took to wrangle all those people and horses back to the number one position after a busted take. How did they travel them to set? How did they dress them, equip them, house them, feed them? It’s a good thing I’m not an assistant director. The extras would still be wandering around looking for their marks. I suppose nipping off for a cup of tea between set-ups was never a problem for the crew on this show.
Thanks (?) to digital technology, we’ll never see this sort of real-life grandstanding onscreen again. And that’s a loss for audiences everywhere. The genuine human touch so vitally present in Spartacus has been all but obliterated from big-budget action movies for a very long time.
By the way, Metty picked up an Academy Award for his color work in this sword-and-sandal epic. Well done all around!
Wonderful post, Richard!
Technically the aspect ratio of full aperture on 8-perf 35mm (36mm x 24mm) is the same as for 35mm still photographs, 3:2 or 1.5 : 1. Then with the 1.5X Technirama anamorphic lens, you’d end with a 2.25 : 1 image. But VistaVision & Technirama didn’t use the top edge of the negative because there was some hope to put a soundtrack there and show 8-perf prints, which never caught on. So Technirama was commonly released in 35mm CinemaScope (2.55 or 2.35 depending on the type of soundtrack) and then soon after on 70mm.
Some 8-perf 35mm info here:
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/vvspecs.htm
I think where the idea that some 8-perf 35mm VistaVision movies were 2:1 comes from the specs for 8-perf 35mm print projection, which as I said, didn’t really catch on for theatrical releases.
David – It was hard to find consistent information about the Technirama format. What I wrote in the blog was copied almost verbatim from Herb Lightman’s article in the January 1961 issue of American Cinematographer, which explained the filming of “Spartacus.” It sounded a little shaky to me, but it’s funny…as I was writing this post, I could hear your voice setting the record straight in the background!