Spartacus albeit I rank Heston higher than Douglas.
Ich bin kein ausgeklügelt Buch, ich bin ein Mensch mit seinem Widerspruch.
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer

I can not find a flaw in it. Score is magical. Leading actors are superb giving unsurpassed, best performance of bnoth careers. But every single role is well acted.
Multiple scenes are cinematic marvels as stand alones.
This movie ends with such use of space and time. Breathtaking!
There is no question that the themes of ethics and philosophy carry the actions and performances of the actors.
With this story and script. nothing has gone a foul.
Cinematography, set piees, historical facts, emotion,philosophy, all
It is all there. All in balance. All in perfection. And all very humbly serving the story.
If there is a film a master can learn from: This is The Film.

Of course Kubrick is brilliant. at making Kubrick movies problem is
Spartacus
is not a "Kubrick Movie", he was simply hired as essentially a quick-fix replacement journeyman (or hack), which is primarily why Kubrick himself never took ownership for his work on
Spartacus
and did not consider it one of his films.
I personally do not think
Spartacus
is great, it's good but it's lacking in emotion (never Kubrick's strong suit). Before ever realizing it, I always wondered why the opening of
Spartacus
was shot with such grand sweeping romanticism befitting the breath of scope one would desire for such an epic tale, while the rest of the film is composed of clinically cold (and rather boring) static framing of course I later found out it is because the opening was from Anthony Mann's original helming before being unceremoniously dismissed by egomaniac star-producer Kirk Douglas.
Kubrick is undoubtedly one of the great genius auteurs of cinema, but doing rousing historical spectacles is Anthony Mann's bread & butter! Let's not suggest Mann would have made a better
2001: A Space Odyssey
nor suggest Kubrick made a better
Spartacus
than Mann would have because the proof is clearly evident against both arguments. Anthony Mann is simply far better at this type of film than Kubrick. The evidence is deftly on display in just the opening footage as envisioned by Mann for
Spartacus
. But look for no further proof than
El Cid
, because it's superiority is (to me of course) unquestionable.
I personally believe
Spartacus
's retroactive reverence within the quasi-cinephile zeitgeist is mainly because Kubrick's name is attached and it's become pop-hipster-cool to glibly revision it as a classic based more on status affectation rather than actual merit. I'm not saying
Spartacus
is a bad movie it's not it's certainly worthy of watching and crafted adequately but what I am saying is that
El Cid
is mind-blowingly great, and anyone that doesn't know that, doesn't know much!
Everything
Spartacus
lacks is
El Cid
's gain! Anthony Mann owns! Believe that!

Although "Spartacus" is also one of my favourite epics,I like "El Cid" infinitely more. Visually it looks much better and the real locations make it more spectacular, while "Spartacus" was shot mostly at the Universal facilities in Hollywood and that shows in the screen. Also, "El Cid" is benefited with a much more stylish and dynamic direction, while "Spartacus" often looks like filmed theatre. Kubrick had very little artistic freedom and it was Douglas who decided what to do and how, and that shows in the film. Besides, Kubrick was a fish out of water in the epic genre; it didn't go well with his usual style of long static takes with people talking for ages, and slow tracking shots.

Spartacus

I can't and don't want to choose. As my way of copping out of this however, I will give it to "Spartacus" because it hasn't gotten a single vote yet. Though I would also be tempted to give it to "El Cid" based on the fact that it is criminally underrated.

El Cid
"I think we've out-sophisticated ourselves out of some of the pleasures of movies."

El Cid by far!

Between those two films I prefer El Cid. It's become one of my favorite epics.

I simply can't choose cause they are my two favorite epics. I'll put out El Cid simply because it does not get the respect it deserves. Take either over Ben Hur any time though.