Spartacus filled the bill for an epic spectacular with thoughtful overtones, and in 1960 became a phenomenally successful film, with a screenplay written by Fast and Dalton Trumbo, produced by Kirk Douglas, who played Spartacus, and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The star-studded cast included Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, and Peter Ustinov, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of the repellant gladiatorial manager Batiatus, Spartacus' owner. The violence, romance, and spectacle of the action fulfilled a taste for heroic good guys and vile villains, perhaps filling as well a national need to atone for McCarthyist excesses.

However, it seems that much of Fast's historical "message" may have been lost in the spectacle.