This was apparently taped ten or more years ago, but I knew right away that Steven Spielberg was again misremembering. He’s right about the vibe inside the wooden pen before Kirk Douglas‘s fight to the death in the Capua arena, but the unsettled expressions are exchanged not so much between Douglas and John Ireland, as Spielberg recalls, but Douglas and Woody Strode. Strode’s face conveys a certain dark resignation and even a kind of morbid amusement whereas Douglas…well, his expression isn’t quite as layered.
