I teach World History to high school students with learning disabilities. Nearly all of my pupils have severe reading deficits. Although this makes it challenging to expose them to a variety of sources (which of course include written material),  I have found several ways around this. There are many ways for students to learn. There are just as many ways for them to practice analyzing a myriad of sources. One of my favorite types of sources to use to facilitate this learning is Hollywood movies. 

Although there are many excellent historical documentaries, those do not have the same impact on my students as ones made to entertain an audience. In other words, documentaries put my teenage students to sleep.

Each year at the end of our unit on ancient Rome, I always show the 1960 movie *Spartacus*.

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Why do invest so much class time in a 56 year old movie with terrible special effects and actors many of my students' *parents* haven’t even heard of?

For one, it is seen as one of the greatest movies ever made. The film routinely finds itself on lists of the top 100 movies of all time. Therefore, I feel I am exposing them to quality art. They can benefit just by thinking about and discussing the challenges that went into making a war movie in 1960… before CGI and green screens.

On the surface, the movie is the true story of a heroic slave who rises up against the all powerful Roman Empire. After viewing this, students discuss the evils of slavery and get to see that many civilizations used slaves to build their “Empire”. For students in the U.S., when someone says the word “slave”, they immediately picture slaves from Africa being brought to the Americas. This movie provides evidence that many different groups have been enslaved through out history.

I also use the movie to spark discussion of heroes. World History can be a very depressing topic. So much of the content is based on war and death. It is good for my students to see examples of people standing up to tyranny and evil. Almost none of them have seen the movie before, so when the slaves each stand up and shout “I am Spartacus!” rather than betray their hero, my students are emotionally moved (and I get teary eyed *every* time).

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*Kirk Douglas as Spartacus*</center><br>

Anything that can emotionally move a teenager has value. Some of the best conversations we have in class occur after this scene. I truly enjoy hearing what my students think about the reason why the slaves did this for Spartacus. I ask what characteristics a person needs to have in order to earn that type of respect. I hope my students consider developing some of these characteristics in themselves and seeking out others who have these traits.

Although I am a huge fan of the hero theme, the true value of watching *Spartacus* is in all of the political intrigue that occurs in the movie. Yes it is a war movie. But the trickery and backstabbing between the members of the government is fascinating. I could try to explain that these types of things happen in government… or I could show them.

*Spartacus* allows me to do just that. It provides a visual and engaging way to demonstrate complicated politics.

In the film, there are two main political rivals. Crassus represents the rich oligarchy, while Gracchus seems to try to stand up for the common man’s freedom (he’s still rich of course). Much of the story is driven by their rivalry.
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*Laurence Olivier  as Crassus*</center><br>
When we are first introduced to Crassus, he brags that he has bribed the Senate in order to make his friend the leader of the garrison of Rome. When I ask my students why Crassus would do this, they immediately make the connection that Crassus wants military power and is using his friend as a puppet.
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*Charles Laughton as Gracchus*</center><br>

Later Gracchus turns the tables on his rival by tricking the puppet to leave Rome in pursuit of Spartacus. Again my students immediately understand that this politician is using flowery words and a public spectacle to gain a political advantage. If they can recognize this in a film, perhaps they will recognize it in real life as well.

These political games continue throughout the movie. Later, Crassus tries to use the threat of Spartacus’s army to force the elected Senate to  appoint him as the dictator of Rome. Throughout the remainder of the World History course, there are several similar real life  examples of leaders gaining total power due to fear. My students are able to relate these more modern examples back to the events of *Spartacus*. The movie helps provide a framework for the students' understanding of these more current examples.

My students also get to see the political rival try to block his enemy's ascension to dictator. Gracchus tries one last effort to block Crassus from gaining power. He tries to assure that the slave army will escape. Some would see this as treason… yet Gracchus attempts this in order to prevent Crassus from taking the power form the people. This part of the story always leads to great discussions on the value of freedom. I challenge my students to *think* about how far they would go to assure their freedom.

Ultimately, Crassus’ wealth and power is simply too much to overcome and he succeeds in his efforts to become the sole leader of Rome. This leads to discussion of how wealth and power can be related. 

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*Being the richest man alive was not enough for Crassus. 
He wanted power as well... and did whatever it took to get it.*</center><br>

My students are able to critically analyze the actions of these political rivals. They are able to see that in politics, not everything is as it seems. A citizen must truly research politicians to see what their real motives are. They must examine their words and determine if they are honest or merely carefully chosen in order to sway the population. In short… people must think.

When we have these conversations, I am very careful never to take sides. It is not my place to say which way of thinking is better. It is my job to challenge my students to think for themselves and then come up with their own opinions. This movie provides them with material on which to practice their thinking skills. I am always impressed by their willingness and ability to try to stretch their minds.

Although it is true that there are many books or other resources that can be used to teach this valuable lesson… I choose to use *Spartacus*.  Whenever I run into former students, we never talk about the text book or notes. We always talk about the movies we watched. So far, none of my students have forgotten the lessons taught by this film.

And besides, watching it also gives me an excuse to show them this…

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*Image Links* [1](http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/spartacus-1991/large_7t2EPfUtou6kl64sj6QSBd0qr6o.jpg), [2](https://media.giphy.com/media/24iYzpYdE5VZu/giphy.gif), [3](https://kyleonfilm.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/spartacus-laughton.jpg), [4](https://kyleonfilm.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/spartacus-laughton.jpg), [5](http://www.cageyfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/spartacus5.jpg)