Our movie guy, James Finnegan, has the pick of the films on TV today…
Spartacus (Saturday 2.15pm RTE1) is, without doubt, a classic film and a classic story.
The film tells of the Roman slave Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), who toils for the Roman Empire while dreaming of freedom.
He is sentenced to death after biting a Roman guard, but spared by Peter Ustinov, as Batiatus, a trainer of gladiators for the arena fights.
After being forced to a fight to the death merely for the amusement of senators’ wives, Spartacus leads a slave revolt that eventually spreads over half of Italy, taking him to the brink of victory against badly led Roman legions.
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However, the slave rebellion is also being used by senators for their own political and personal ends, against a background of an empire folding in on its decadent lifestyle.
Starring amongst others are Lawrence Olivier, Jean Simmons and Tony Curtis as well as the aforementioned Kirk Douglas (who also produced) and Peter Ustinov, who steals every scene he is in and collected an Oscar for his role.
Directed by the 31 year old Stanley Kubrick, Kirk Douglas effectively broke the Hollywood McCarthy blacklist by giving Dalton Trumbo a screen credit for the screenplay rather than make him hide behind a pseudonym.
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On the other side of the cinematic spectrum comes Scoob! (Saturday 6.35pm RTE1) where Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne face their biggest, most challenging mystery ever — a plot to unleash the ghost dog Cerberus upon the world.
Starring the vocal talents of Will Forte, Mark Wahlberg, Zac Effron and Amanda Seyfried among others, and with characters from all around the Hanna–Barbera world including Dick Dastardly and Muttley, this is a veritable smorgasbord of animation.
The penultimate Daniel Craig Bond film Spectre (Saturday 9.20pm RTE1) is concerning 007 going rouge in an unauthorised mission in Mexico City.
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There is also a final mission from his former Boss that sets him on the trail of a secretive criminal network – the clue is in the title!
While his MI6 colleagues face more threats at home, Bond is on a globetrotting journey in search of the mastermind behind the syndicate, who, it turns out, may have personal links to 007.
Also starring Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, and Lea Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Dave Bautista and Christoph Waltz and directed by Sam Mendes, this is great fun.
There are two biopic films with a crossover in characters and events – Malcolm X (Saturday 9.00pm RTE2) and Ali (Saturday 9.25pm TG4).
Spike Lee directs Denziel Washington as Malcolm X, the controversial militant activist who led the fight for civil rights in America in the 1960’s.
Michael Mann directs Will Smith as Muhammad Ali, covering his life from the 1964 fight with Sonny Liston to the Rumble in the Jungle with George Forman ten years later, as he converts to Islam, has a conflicted friendship with Malcolm X and refuses to fight in the Vietnam War.
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