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That was an excellent one.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

A Disappointing Continuation

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

One of the long 'Epic' films of the 50s and 60s era, Quo Vadis is another one of those colorful Roman flicks from that era. However, it is not nearly as good as the truly wonderful epics such as Ben-Hur or El Cid due to a lot of small issues plaguing this film.The film does ofcourse have beautiful color cinematography and extraordinary and elegant costume design, but this seems like primarily the only way that might impress you. Even though it is at times beautiful to look at, it is ( With the exception of a couple of scenes ) mostly indoors and the couple of outdoor shots we get is usually the same one ( Mostly the one outside Nero's balcony which is shown multiple times ) so it doesn't nearly delight the eyes the way Ben-Hur or El Cid did with their outstanding outdoor cinematography. Yet one cannot deny it still has some beautiful indoor sets. Where the movie falls short is primarily the fact that there is little immersion in it due to a couple of illogical events taking place in the film. These events include Marcus Vinicius and Lygia's sudden forced attraction to eachother which makes little sense. Especially in Lygia's case there is no real reason why she should be attracted to him and STILL be attracted to him after basically purchasing her like she is some kind of slave. The entire romance is forced and is not helped by a pretty mediocre performance by Deborah Kerr who comes over as a literal line reader who delivers her lines very forced. Robert Taylor was a bit better but at the same time he is not the kind of Charlton Heston that basically immerses you into his character due to his fantastic screen presence and demeanor. The biggest problem however, is Nero. Quite possibly not really Peter Ustinov's fault, but the screenplays fault for displaying him like a kind of spoiled little child who somehow still manages to rule the greatest empire the world has ever seen. Once again, immersion take a big hit here because these kind of events just don't make any sense. Directors trying way too hard to try to show us what a psychopath and what an absolute ridiculous maniac Nero is results in him being a wimpy villain that you do not really hate or love, but just despise as a terribly annoying character. The movie has been often criticized for lacking sub text and that is definitely a true fact, as these kind of things basically insult the viewers intelligence.Towards the last hour or so of the film is where the characters are supposed to suffer and bring out an emotional response in the viewer, but since all our main characters are just poorly developed and not very well acted and also seem to do weird things ( Marcus's suddenly seeing that Nero is insane, as if he couldn't tell earlier ), our emotional connection to them isn't that great at this point. We are also supposed to hate on Nero, which is shown shamelessly without any sub text during the entire film by his ridiculous portrayal, yet due to this we do not really hate him but loathe his terrible character. One of the greatest film composers, Miklos Rozsa, did compose the music for this film, yet compared to Ben-Hur or El Cid which he also composed, while not bad, it still seemed to lack a tugging at the heartstrings kind of composition that both of those did have. But i do believe Rozsa really could not have saved the mediocrity of this film, that blame lies by the director and screenwriters.It is a beautiful epic sometimes, with a good ( Yet as said before not one of Rozsa's greatest ) musical score & costume design. But the little sense all of the characters make in their respective world of 'Quo Vadis' makes for an experience that is not as emotionally engaging as it would like to be, resulting in a visually impressive yet emotionally bleak film.

This movie was a fav of my mother's i have a copy on VHS I treasure originally the heroine was tied to the bulls horns not wanting to insure the star option was to tie her to a post Debra Karr is absolutely beautiful and Peter Ustinov is awesome as the flawed Nero

What a colossal bore. I've just spent the thick end of three hours watching at most - and being generous - three minutes of half-decent cinema. Presumably it was 'sold' as spectacle and if that's true then they really SHOULD have gone to Specsavers. What it is is TALK and then MORE talk and nothing worth hearing. It's just possible with two half-decent leads as opposed to the wooden Taylor and the insipid Kerr it might have been watchable, say Lancaster or Douglas opposite Ava Gardner. As it is the only diversion is looking for the uncredited Liz Taylor and/or Sophia Loren. Ustinov walks away with it of course but given the role as written even Arthur Mullard could have made a respectable stab at it. Finlay Currie and Felix Aylmer in one movie is also notable though not enough to make it watchable. Maybe if they'd turned the lions loose at the first pre-production session it would have done us all a fovour.

The biblical epic was one of the most popular movie genres of the 1950s and early 1960s. Unfortunately, most of these films were expensive, Technicolor bores with stiff acting and cheap sensationalism. A few of these films were good/great (Ben-Hur (1959), Barabbas (1961)), some were kitschy fun (The Ten Commandments (1956)), and others were outright awful (The Silver Chalice (1954)). However, most of them were merely average to dull in quality, and that category is where Quo Vadis (1951) falls.The story takes place during Nero's reign and concerns his persecution of Christians after Rome is burned to the ground. The main plot concerns star cross'd lovers Marcus and Lygia, a macho Roman general and a gentle pagan princess-turned-Christian convert. The two encounter historical figures and events as they fall in love and come close to being martyred by the maniacal Nero and his equally vicious wife, Poppaea.The love story is handled poorly. Though Lygia later admits to Marcus that she knew he was the one for her at first sight, their first encounters involve him objectifying her, belittling her intelligence by saying she should not concern herself with philosophy, disgusting her with stories of battlefield gore, and to cap it all off, he forcibly takes her from her adopted family with the hope of legally owning her. Yet Lygia "knew she could come to love him"? She wants to be his wife even though he's shown her no respect? Some would say I'm being too "PC" and that Lygia is representative of 1st century women, but this film is not trying to show a realistic portrait of the 1st century. Many of the events in the film are not historically accurate as it is, so I doubt getting the mindset of 1st century women was on the mind of the screenwriter. It's bad writing, plain and simple.The acting is nothing to brag about (save for two special performances, but we'll get to them soon). Robert Taylor is his stilted, wooden self. Deborah Kerr is stuck in an uninteresting part that she struggles to breathe life into. Patricia Laffan is your standard pagan vamp, shooting bedroom eyes at Taylor while seductively posing on couches.The only two worthy performances come from Leo Glenn as Petronius and Peter Ustinov as Nero. Glenn's sarcastic, smart character is a thousand times more interesting than Taylor's cardboard soldier, and the love between him and his slave girl Eunice is more endearing than the one between Taylor and Kerr. Ustinov is just fantastic, whining and screaming and reciting bad poetry. He steals the show from everyone, making you wish this were a Nero biopic instead.Honestly, if you wanted to watch an old school biblical film concerning the love affair between a Roman soldier and a Christian woman, watch Cecil DeMille's Sign of the Cross (1932). Frederic March is a superior actor to Robert Taylor, and you can never go wrong with Charles Laughton and Claudette Colbert. No, it does not have the budget of this film, but it certainly sustains your interest a great deal more.