Spartacus features Stanley Kubrick (director) and Alex North (music director), who use sound to emphasise the different types of romance their characters offer. Kirk Douglas (gladiator) and Varinia (houseslave) are able to love and live in freedom, which is an indication of Spartacus’s strong legacy. Laurence Olivier plays the jealous, lonely Crassus who tries to stop Spartacus from being a leader in the Third Servile War as well as a great lover. He kills the gladiator and buys Varinia to be his wife. Although the Roman general ends the Third Servile War in 1st Century BC Rome, his dull love life will haunt him. North juxtaposes a Thracian slave and a Roman wealthy Roman in two scenes that start with “Spartacus Love Theme” and “Oysters and Snails.” The film’s pointed soundtrack reveals that the rich and influential may have a lack of basic pleasures. North mocks a wealthy slaveowner’s desire to possess something that a slave does. He also points out the irony inherent in Varinia/Spartacus’s relationship. North uses “Spartacus Love Theme to create a warmth and comforting feeling for the audience. This tune is especially relevant during the enslavement of Varinia. The audience can see Varinia’s and Spartacus intimately through “Spartacus Love Theme,” which allows them to witness their relationship. North creates a song that depicts Varinia and Spartacus in their interactions. It is a stark contrast to the “Spartacus Love Theme”, which focuses on Varinia and Spartacus. The tune uses the same sound as you would expect to hear when someone waves a wand and completes a magical act. The song’s sluggish beat is accompanied by a soft melody and off-tempo chords that create a chilling atmosphere. Varinia, Crassus and Crassus sing the song “Varinia at Crassus’s House”. This song exposes Crassus’s despairing effort to replace Spartacus. The soothing melody of the “Spartacus Love Theme,” highlights an emotional vulnerability that viewers only have access to. The “Spartacus Love Theme,” plays seconds before Spartacus meets Varinia while waiting for breakfast. The audience is given a subconscious insight by the diegetic sound, which suggests Spartacus’s anticipation. Because we hear their song, it is clear that he thinks about her. The guards will see that Spartacus is trying to act nonchalantly to mask his true feelings. These barriers, which have the potential of affecting their song (their relationship), such as Crassus, are reduced to a mere nullity, as we’ve seen in other instances. Varinia is aware that Spartacus’ guards wouldn’t allow them any intimacy, or even any communication at all. The lovers subtly observe each other but eventually begin to talk to one another. The love song is also defiant in this way. Instead of abruptly stopping to make room for the extra sound, the song flows seamlessly around the few words that Varinia shared with Spartacus like lyrics. Spartacus rebelliously whispers to Varinia in concern, disregarding the guards with whips who are ready to attack anyone who breaks their rules. This song’s fluid melody suggests a desire to encourage rebellion. The song signals the beginnings of a long-lasting love affair and the unbreakable boomerang effects of Varinia’s and Spartacus’s romance. The love song is interrupted abruptly by bits of Spartacus’s Training, Part II after the breakfast scene. The contrast between the fast and harsh sounding “Training, Part II”, and the more soothing “Spartacus Love Theme”, suggests that lovers are still symbols of peace. After the training scene, the gladiators head to the kitchen to prepare dinner. The love song resumes. While their painful enslavement continues to be a part of their lives, Varinia is happy for Spartacus. The “Spartacus Love Theme” North deliberately constructs to foreshadow feelings to the audience.
The music is gradually interrupted by the sound Marcellus (Charles McGraw), a gladiator trainer. His sounds are accompanied by darker chords. North reduced the melody’s high pitch to a sad tone, but it lasted only a few seconds. After that, the familiar tune blasts back twice as loudly. This almost negates the entrance of the guard and empowers the lovers. Marcellus is an acute distraction, trying to keep Varinia and Spartacus in a relationship. Marcellus’s cameo appearance suggests that there may be an underlying message. The darker melody seems to have been there all along, but it is hard to pick out under the flowery “Spartacus Love Theme.” The song highlights Spartacus & Varinia’s love as much more than just an escape. Their enslavement is well-known, but the lovers see their love as an added benefit to their lives. This interruption serves two purposes: it reminds the audience of Varinia’s enslavement and lets us know that Marcellus and a greater barrier like slavery can not stop Varinia’s and Spartacus’s relationship. Even though the song contains darker lyrics, its uplifting tone prevails. Their love will continue to prosper no matter what. This sentiment returns in later scenes where Crassus is presented as a barrier for Spartacus and Varinia. A sequence that introduces “Oysters and Snails” is Crassus’s encounter to Antoninus. This scene implicitly states Crassus’s sexual preferences for males and women. Crassus trying to seduce Varinia via Roman life continues this theme. It is the only scene in which North performs “Oysters and Snails.” As Crassus stares at Varinia as he enters the room, “Oysters and Snails” starts creeping slowly under the scene. Crassus also lowers the volume to make Varinia feel more real. Crassus is eying Varinia, and this indicates that he has lust. Crassus makes Varinia take off the shawl covering most of her upper body. He continues to speak about Varinia’s material possessions and how she “of every people should respect slaves’ work. The magical wand’s sound emphasizes Crassus’s role as fairy godfather who freed Varinia from slavery to make her a “rich” Roman queen. He is expecting to be paid for Varinia’s affection and her lust. Varinia doesn’t believe Crassus when he disguises himself as Crassus. The Spartacus Love Theme’s organic, sincere lyrics demonstrates Varinia’s minimalist relationship to Spartacus. “Oysters-and-Snails”, a haunting melody featuring magical swishes, focuses on the extra fortune Crassus puts on to please Varinia. The guards restricted her speech to a minimum during Varinia’s breakfast scene. Her lover and she communicated swiftly using different methods of communication: handholding, eye contact, whispers, and handholding. She can talk as much as she likes during the scene at Crassus’s home. This doesn’t make for a more hostile environment. Varinia doesn’t respond to Crassus talking about the material objects in a small way. Varinia and Spartacus were not in need of luxury items. They actually thrived under the most difficult circumstances. Varinia’s marriage to Crassus doesn’t work, despite all of the wealth Spartacus never had as a slave. North’s second arrangement is very different from the dialogue. The melody sounds like a love song. The song is a humorous parody of Crassus’s attempts to seduce Varinia by offering threats and wealth. Crassus makes fun of Varinia by playing the high-pitched instrument “Varinia In Crassus’s Home”. He insists on offering Varinia food but says he’s not demanding. Crassus believes Varinia is either having feelings for him or his money and is trying to convince Varinia that he is in a relationship with her. Varinia bursts his bubble.
Varinia protests. Crassus is extremely sarcastic, and sympathic in his tone when Varinia threatens her child’s life. This desperate plea for affection epitomizes the song’s central theme, which is loneliness. The song highlights how Crassus can’t even get the girl, despite his efforts to woo her with jewels and beautiful clothes, feed her, and take away all her love. The song beautifully expresses the longings of both Varinia and Crassus. Varinia longs to be loved and cared for, while Crassus desires affection and love. The song “Varinia at Crassus’s House” follows the short arrangement mocking Crassus. The melody is then surrounded by darker notes that choke its natural flow and familiar atmosphere. Crassus tries desperately to destroy the Spartacus legend in Italy, both as a symbol for revolution for slaves and as Varinia’s true love. The most prominent note is the one that sounds like “Spartacus Love Theme”. Varinia’s thoughts are brought to the forefront, along with Crassus’s misunderstanding. Crassus assumes Varinia is unable to talk about her former lover. Varinia however bravely shares her memories and praises the rising sound of the horns. The horns provide an emotional visual for her remembrances by highlighting Spartacus’s bravery and courage. The arrangement opens with high-pitched sympathetic tones as Crassus jealously asks Spartacus his authenticity. Instead, Crassus hides his ignorance and anger. Crassus may have intended to imitate Spartacus in love by adding the “Spartacus Love Theme” song to this scene. According to Crassus, Spartacus was a poor and insecure slave who couldn’t possibly find the love of Varinia. Varinia’s and Spartacus still share a love theme, which is a mocking indication that Crassus won’t be Spartacus. These sequences, though in many ways opposing each other, reinforce a central theme from Spartacus: Varinia-Spartacus’s eternal love. It survives slavery and Varinia’s forced marriage with Crassus. North does not hesitate to make fun of Crassus’s Roman courtship. North debunks the notion that slaves are worthless and long to be like their owners. The truth is that slaves are not of any value and long to be more like their owners. Although Crassus may have the means to capture and crucify Spartacus but North shows that the powerful and wealthy slave owner is less powerful and rich on the battlefields of love. North suggests Varinia & Spartacus have a wealth that no one can rival. Spartacus doubts the worth of material things and likens wealth to love. Kubrick mocks people who are not successful in other areas of their lives and credits them with being wealthy. Kubrick shows how two people fell in love while they were property. Kubrick discredits any notion that money equals happiness, pointing out that people can be loved even if they don’t consider themselves human. Kubrick suggests that honesty is the only way to find true love.
