write4change
17th April 2012, 19:31
I got really swept up in the sinful pleasure of the Spartacus series on cable. Not my usual cup of tea but talk about a series that really let it all hang out.
I initially watched it to see what Lucy Lawless was up to---ooolala. LOL
It had been a long time since the Kirk Douglas movie came out and when I saw that in my 20s I was really disappointed it did not get the oscars it deserved.
So I started researching Spartacus and was amazed to find out how much biographical and historical material came out since the 60s.
Researching it I found an excellent movie on top documentary films on Spartacus that was genuinely historically documented. This is a really entertaining and enlightening film for free.
My point in writing this is about what goes on politically in movements; as Spartacus was a genuine movement.
What is not well known is the middle part of the story. Spartacus and about 70,000 people escaped and got all the way to the bottom of the Alps. He promised to bring them there and then did. The original plan was then to break up in small bands and everyone go back where they came from.
But the big fly in the ointment was the people. Once they got there, they did not want to do the hard work of crossing the Alps. They had come to love plundering and pillaging. Many of them thought they could hold Rome at bay.
They even insisted that since Spartacus brought them there that he lead them back. He told them they were going to certain death and they did not care. In some ways the people became corrupted by power. What was honorable about Spartacus is that he could have survived and more or less chose to go down with the people.
It is a great story but it is also a great warning and it is the warning that has been removed from conscious recall.
I initially watched it to see what Lucy Lawless was up to---ooolala. LOL
It had been a long time since the Kirk Douglas movie came out and when I saw that in my 20s I was really disappointed it did not get the oscars it deserved.
So I started researching Spartacus and was amazed to find out how much biographical and historical material came out since the 60s.
Researching it I found an excellent movie on top documentary films on Spartacus that was genuinely historically documented. This is a really entertaining and enlightening film for free.
My point in writing this is about what goes on politically in movements; as Spartacus was a genuine movement.
What is not well known is the middle part of the story. Spartacus and about 70,000 people escaped and got all the way to the bottom of the Alps. He promised to bring them there and then did. The original plan was then to break up in small bands and everyone go back where they came from.
But the big fly in the ointment was the people. Once they got there, they did not want to do the hard work of crossing the Alps. They had come to love plundering and pillaging. Many of them thought they could hold Rome at bay.
They even insisted that since Spartacus brought them there that he lead them back. He told them they were going to certain death and they did not care. In some ways the people became corrupted by power. What was honorable about Spartacus is that he could have survived and more or less chose to go down with the people.
It is a great story but it is also a great warning and it is the warning that has been removed from conscious recall.