Quo Vadis (DVD)

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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 we never 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 him 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, Christians facing ravenous lions, and heavyweight prizefighter Buddy Baer wrestling a bull? I just wish it wasn't so long.

Video:
The movie's original 1.37:1 aspect ratio shows up well in 1.33:1 standard definition, the newly restored picture looking reasonably crisp and clear, and the Technicolor looking glorious. Delineation and detailing are as good as anything in standard def, and about the only minor concern I had with the new digital transfer is that hues sometimes showed some very slight fluctuation.

Audio:
The keep case says that WB engineers restored the audio as well as the picture, but I'm afraid it still isn't as warm or natural as a modern sound recording. Instead, the Dolby Digital 1.0 monaural is a bit harsh and raspy at times, with a touch of background noise. Dialogue is OK, but Miklos Rozsa's musical score suffers somewhat, appearing a little lean and thin.

Extras:
Warners have split the film over two discs for maximum picture quality, leaving little room for extras. On both discs we find an audio commentary by critic and film historian F.X. Feeney; English and French spoken languages; French, Spanish, and Japanese subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. In addition, disc one contains a theatrical trailer and a teaser trailer, and disc two contains a new, 2008 documentary, "In the Beginning: Quo Vadis and the Genesis of the Biblical Epic," forty-four minutes on the history of Biblical movies from silent days to the present, with comments from film historians, critics, and filmmakers. The discs split up the scene selections, too, with chapters 1-23 on disc one and 24-46 on disc two.

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 it's fun to watch, thanks to its pageantry and color.

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