During the arduous, long shoot, Tony Curtis allegedly asked Jean Simmons, "Who do I have to screw to get off this film?" Some versions of the interaction include Simmons shouting back, "When you find out, let me know."
During the scene where Gracchus was found guilty of orchestrating the revolt against the Roman, Crassus (Laurence Olivier) said, "In every city and province, the list of the disloyal have been compiled." The line is actually a sly dig at Joseph McCarthyism by writer Dalton Trumbo (one of the 10 blacklisted). It was intended to be a jab at the watchdogs, since at that time prior to the film's release, Hollywood blacklisting was not over yet.
Film preservationist Robert A. Harris has said that by 1991 the camera negative for this film was totally faded and unusable. Nothing could be done to produce any printing material from that element. Color separation elements made on black and white film in the early 1960s were used instead.
For a while the studio did not want to give the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo screen credit for his work. Stanley Kubrick said that he would accept the credit. Kirk Douglas was so appalled by Kubrick's attempt to claim credit for someone else's work that he used his clout to ensure that Trumbo received his due credit - and in doing so effectively ended the Hollywood blacklist.
In order to get so many big stars to play supporting roles, Kirk Douglas showed each a different script in which their character was emphasized.
June 2008 Ranked #5 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Epic".
Of the 167 days it took Stanley Kubrick to shoot this film, six weeks were spent directing an elaborate battle sequence in which 8,500 extras re-created the clash between the Roman troops and Spartacus' slave army. Several scenes in the battle drew the ire of the Legion of Decency and were therefore cut. These include shots of men being dismembered (dwarfs with false torsos and an actor with only one arm Bill Raisch, the "One-Armed Man" of The Fugitive fame with a phony breakaway limb as a Roman soldier who has his arm cut off in battle were used to give authenticity). Seven years later, when the Oscar-winning film was reissued, an additional 22 minutes were chopped out, including a scene in which Varinia watches Spartacus writhe in agony on a cross. Her line, "Oh, please die, my darling" was excised, and the scene was cut to make it appear that Spartacus was already dead.
One of only three films to win Best Picture: Drama at the Golden Globes and not receive a Best Picture nomination from the Academy Awards. The other two are East of Eden and The Cardinal.
Oscar-winning actor George Kennedy made his (unbilled) screen debut playing one of the soldiers who announces "I am Spartacus!" towards the end of the film.
Part of the film was shot at William Randolph Hearst's castle, San Simeon, where the horsemen ride up the marble stairs. Several scenes from The Godfather were also filmed there.
Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo originally wanted Universal to get Orson Welles to play the character of the pirate, Tigranes Levantus. It was eventually played by Herbert Lom.
The 1991 restoration contains exactly four more minutes of footage than the version that ran in theaters in 1960. Two of those minutes are taken up by the famous "snails and oysters" scene. The rest are scenes of gore and violence - including a more explicit version of the death of Draba, and a shot of the amputation of the arm of a soldier (played by real-life amputee Bill Raisch during the climactic battle scene. The remainder of the longer running time of the restored version is taken up by the Overture, Entr'acte, and Exit Music.
The 1991 version was restored by Robert A. Harris who produced a new 65mm preservation negative from original color separations. The original camera negative had lost too much of its yellow layer to be usable.
The movie's line "I am Spartacus." was voted as the #64 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
The original version included a scene where Marcus Licinius (Laurence Olivier) attempts to seduce Antoninus (Tony Curtis). The Production Code Administration and the Legion of Decency both objected. At one point Geoffrey Shurlock, representing the censors, suggested it would help if the reference in the scene to a preference for oysters or snails was changed to truffles and artichokes. In the end the scene was cut, but it was put back in for the 1991 restoration. However, the soundtrack had been lost in the meantime and the dialogue had to be dubbed. Curtis was able to redo his lines, but Olivier had died. Joan Plowright, his widow, remembered that Anthony Hopkins had done a dead-on impression of Olivier and she mentioned this to the restoration team. They approached Hopkins and he agreed to voice in Olivier's lines in that scene. Hopkins is thanked in the credits for the restored version.
The slaves' final battle was originally to be intercut with Varinia giving birth to her child, to give a contrast of destruction and creation. This idea was scrapped for running time purposes.
The sound of the crowd cheering "Spartacus! Spartacus!" was actually recorded at a 1959 football game in Spartan Stadium, home of the Michigan State University Spartans in East Lansing, Michigan. Michigan State beat Notre Dame in that game, 19-0.
Though it is highly unlikely that Marcus Crassus and Spartacus ever spoke in real life, as depicted in the movie, Plutarch's biography mentions that in the last battle of the Third Servile War, Spartacus attempted to single-handedly take Crassus' life before being taken down by Crassus' personal guards. Therefore, it is likely that the two did see each other in person at one point.
When Laurence Olivier as Crassus issues the order "Crucify him!", after Spartacus has killed Antoninus, the two figures who move out of shot behind Kirk Douglas, ostensibly Olivier and John Gavin, are in fact a couple of brightly-lit extras of similar build and height.