When he was president, John F. Kennedy wanted to see this film so much he went to it in a local cinema wearing a disguise.
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The weaponry of the Romans and their use is wrong (as they are in all Hollywood movies playing in the Ancient Mediterranean that I know): Instead of one spear, each legionary would carry two weighted javelins, called Pila (singular: Pilum), which had a long narrow iron head. The purpose of these were to throw them at the enemy before melee; if they did not kill their targets, the pila would get stuck in their shields. The head shaft would bend, making the pila useless for 'return' to their original owners, and with the added weight of the javelin, the enemies' shields were rendered useless as well. Following this, the Romans attacked with short swords (the Gladii; singular Gladius). See more...
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When he was president, John F. Kennedy wanted to see this film so much he went to it in a local cinema wearing a disguise.
The infamous "seduction" scene between Crassus and his servant Antoninus was deleted in original prints because of objections by censors who felt it showed a homosexual scene. It was finally restored in 1991, but Anthony Hopkins had to dub Crassus' lines (the soundtrack was lost) because Laurence Olivier (Crassus) died in 1989.
Marcus Publius Glabrus is accused of neglecting to erect moats and stockades for his camp - a fatal mistake no Roman commander would have normally committed. The standard procedure was to build a camp with these defense measures at any stop, even if no enemy contact was expected. In order to forestall lack of wood for the stockade, each legionary carried two stockade poles with him.
There were some battle scenes which were filmed with real amputees and maimed extras, as Kubrick was keen to give them authenticity and convey the brutality of war, but these were removed when preview audiences were disgusted by them.
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