L[I]ke the corrupt and venal Rome it portrays, Spartacus was borne from the struggle of many creative and powerful people working against and in collaboration with each other. It’s an epic in every sense of the word, and it arrived in a period when the epic motion picture dominated American movie-going much as the summer blockbuster does today. For a Hollywood film, Spartacus has an unusually high artistic pedigree, including not just director Stanley Kubrick, but ... its supporting cast (mostly British stage actors turned movie stars) and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, a blacklisted writer. All of this makes what went on behind the camera as interesting if not more so than the movie itself. The Criterion Collection has recently released Spartacus in a two-disc DVD set; the movie has been digitally transferred from the restored print used in the 1991 re-release. As breathtaking as the movie is, it’s fair to say that the extra features, which include several audio commentaries, interviews, and short documentaries, are the main attraction here.