Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Spartacus: Blood and Sand is a 2010 television series, which focuses on the Roman Empire at the time of the slave rebellion, the series looks at the life of a slave who is forced to be a Gladiator, where he must fight to stay alive, and continue to kill opponents in the hope that one day he can gain his freedom, the series is filled with gruesome violence as well as scenes of a sexual nature and the theme of corruption within this world of Gladiators and the great Arena, where crowds cheer for blood.

The series reveals the issues and troubles during this period in history, revealing how slaves had little choice, that they tended to be forced in to slavery and that they must do what their Dominus commands or else face being forced to work in the mines, a deadly place, even deadlier than having to fight in an arena that is filled with blood and sand.

The violence in the series tends to be highly animated to exaggerate the amount of blood shed that occurs in the arena, however this animation tends to create a rather over the top effect and this creates a certain amount of distance which has the knock on effect that the violence isn't real and that therefore does not seek to push audience boundaries and thresholds, however things like throat slitting tend to be overly graphic and linger for a time period that makes the audience uncomfortable and leads to many averting their eyes from the image.

When looking at whether the violent acts are justified, with relation to the gladiators themselves, they are fighting for survival most arena fights are to the death and mean that there is only one victor, in the arena it is either kill or be killed, which makes the audience cheer for Spartacus when he stands victorious especially in situations where he is outnumbered, and becomes a symbol of an underdog rising up to become the victor. However when looking at the people such as the Magistrate and the Dominus they make these slaves fight for entertainment and their motivations, to the audience are unjustified.

At the end of the series when the Dominus and Domina are killed it feels justified, a physical representation of justice for the slaves who no longer want to be enslaved so that the couple can continue to reap the rewards of bloodshed.