Spartacus

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• Although some reviews noted the story's unreliable correlation to history, many of the film's characters were derived from real figures, including Spartacus (d. 71 B.C.), Marcus Licinius Crassus (d. 53 B.C.) and Caius Sempronius Gracchus (d. 121 B.C.). As accurately depicted in the film, Spartacus was a Thracian slave who broke out of a Capuan gladiators' school to lead a revolt that was eventually suppressed by Crassus, who then crucified his captives by the hundreds. Spartacus was killed in battle - not, as stated in the film, captured and then crucified - after which Crassus ruled Rome in a triumvirate with Pompey and Gaius Julius Caesar. Gracchus lived decades earlier, and helped organize a social reform movement that lasted only a few years before its reforms were repealed. He was killed in a series of riots protesting the repeals.
• The movie's line "I am Spartacus." was voted as the #64 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
• 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.
• Movie Goof (anachronisms): Slave extras wearing wristwatches and sandshoes.