Quo Vadis (Blu-ray)

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While stars Taylor and Kerr do their best with what the script hands them, we never care much about them; they're basically shallow people, and as an audience it's hard to relate much to them. They are without much charisma, limiting our personal involvement in their plight. What the story lacks is a strong central character like Moses or Ben-Hur or Spartacus for whom we can root. With Vinicious, we find almost a cipher.

Thank heaven, then, for Peter Ustinov as the Emperor Nero. He saves the day. Indeed, the movie is as much about him as it is about Vinicious or Lygia or the Christians. Ustinov is so over-the-top in the role, he easily steals the show. His Nero is pompous, vain, preening, peevish, petulant, childish, foolish, murderous (he orders the executions of his own mother and his wife, to say nothing of throwing thousands of Christians to the lions), and not a little nuts (according to the film, and based on popular rumor, he burned down the entire city of Rome in order to rebuild it to his own specifications). What's more, he insists that his subjects worship him as a god, the master of the world. It's no wonder Nero turned out the way he did; his uncle was the Emperor Caligula. Ustinov takes this colorful character of legend and runs with it. Any time the actor is on screen, the story lights up.

Likewise, we get a good performance from Leo Genn as Gaius Petronius, Nero's wise, suave counselor (and Vinicius's uncle). If it had been a few years later, James Mason might have played the role, since Mason and Genn have similar looks and speak in a similar manner. Interestingly, Genn's career slowly faded into obscurity just as Mason's began to ascend. Apart from that trivia, Genn is fine, inserting a note of reason, sanity, and security into the proceedings.

Despite my reservations, how could I not like a movie that shows us the spectacle of Rome burning (rivaling the burning of Atlanta in "Gone With the Wind"), Christians facing ravenous lions, and former heavyweight prizefighter Buddy Baer wrestling a bull? I just wish the movie wasn't so long.

Video:
The movie's original 1.37:1 aspect ratio shows up well in 1.33:1 high-definition Blu-ray, the newly restored picture elements looking reasonably good, and the Technicolor looking glorious. Delineation and detailing in this VC-1, BD50 affair are a little soft for high def, and one notices occasional age flecks and specks along the way, but any such issues are all quite minor.

Audio:
The keep case says that WB engineers restored the audio as well as the picture, but it's still not quite as warm or natural as a modern sound recording would be. Instead, the Dolby Digital 1.0 monaural is a bit coarse at times, with a touch of background noise, although, for reasons unknown, it sounded better to me this time around, a little smoother, than it did on regular DVD. Dialogue comes through fine, but Miklos Rozsa's musical score appears a trifle thin and lean.

Extras:
It's a long film, so there aren't many bonus items on the disc. The main things are an audio commentary by film historian and critic F.X. Feeney that is quite informative and a 2008 documentary. "In the Beginning: Quo Vadis and the Genesis of the Biblical Epic," forty-four minutes, recounts the filming of "Quo Vadis" and the history of Biblical movies from silent days to the present, with comments from authors, historians, critics, and filmmakers. For instance, they say that MGM originally wanted to make "Quo Vadis" in the 1930s with Orson Welles, and later they tried to cast Gregory Peck and Elizabeth Taylor in the leading roles, with John Houston directing. Those things fell through, yet they still managed to create a blockbuster.

In addition, the disc contains forty-five scene selections; the movie's original roadshow overture and exit music reinstated for the first time in fifty-six years; a theatrical and teaser trailer; English, French, Spanish, and Italian spoken languages; French, Spanish, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese; and Swedish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Thoughts:
Sitting through "Quo Vadis" is a little like being in a Sunday School class, with the filmmakers presenting the story of early Christianity as a solemn procession of martyrdom and salvation. It's heavy-handed, to be sure, but much of it is fun to watch, thanks to the color, pageantry, and Ustinov, and, as I say, it all shows up quite nicely in high definition.