Photo of the Day

Field of dead slaves/rebels as far as the eye can see in SPARTACUS

Powerful scene.

But...

(and I know what you're thinking..."he can't critique this scene"...)

...something like this is totally improbable. It's a powerful scene in a painterly way but a film is not a painting and a little realism should still exist. First, there are almost no Roman soldiers lying around. I see one. Did the Romans pick out their dead? If they did then there would be empty spots here and there. Because every square inch is filled with a body this means that the last ones standing fought while stepping on corpses. For something like this to appear like this only a tsunami-like disaster would have gathered all the corpses and laid them like that. The lack of blood and dismembered limbs is unrealistic but I understand that they couldn't show that back then so it's not much of an issue but the corpses look to peaceful...too at ease...the few faces we get to see should have been frozen in pain. The clothes are not ripped or riddled with cuts or stab wounds. There are no arrows or spears sticking out the dead men. And lastly, this scene reminds me of another scene in the silent film SALAMBO. It's almost identical. It's still a powerful moment but with a few quibbles.