Quo Vadis (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Mervyn Le Roy
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DVD details
Actor: Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn, Patricia Laffan, Peter Ustinov, Robert TaylorDirector: Mervyn Le Roy
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: John Lee Mahin
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Special Edition
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 171 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-11-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Rome burns. Nero fiddles. Christianity rises. And moviegoers turned out in throngs for this years-in-the-making film colossus boasting eight Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and featuring 110 speaking parts, 30,000 participants and a filmed-on-location panoply of marching legions, magisterial pageantry and massive spectacle that includes the martyrdom of Christians thrown to the lions be
DVD Reviews of Quo Vadis (Two-Disc Special Edition)
DVD Review: Hollywood nonsense
Summary: 2 Stars
Too much of Quo Vadis is based on the fabricated apocryphal (not in the canonized bible) Acts of Paul, Acts of Peter, and the Acts of Peter and Paul. These writings contain several miracles and unbelievable stories about Peter and Paul. This is not the Acts of the Apostles from the bible. I'm referring to The Acts of Peter and Paul that never made it into the canonized version. They are filled with miraculous stories and events that never happened. They are stories. This fabricated literature is where Christians get the idea of Peter being crucified upside down, Paul being beheaded in Rome, and the awful exaggerated and fabricated stories of Nero. I'll save my views on the actual movie itself towards the end of my review, but first I would like to state how Quo Vadis is not based on truth.
The first of these apocryphal writings was the Acts of Paul written somewhere around 160 -180 CE. The discovery of a coptic version of the text demonstrated that the text was composed of the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul, the Third Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Martyrdom of Paul - his death at the hand of Nero. Paul is depicted as a miracle worker, as he even is portrayed in Acts of the Apostles in the canonized bible. His miracles in the Acts of Paul include: raising the dead in Antioch and survived a stoning, praying to god to deliver Thecla and god does, bringing down half the temple of Apollo in Sidon with god's help, healing people with god's help, speaking to angles in tongues, taming a lion in an arena, and after being beheaded he appears to Nero and Nero stops persecuting Christians.
The Acts of Peter was originally composed in Greek also towards the end of the 2nd century CE. In this text Peter performs miracles such as flying over Rome with Simon Magus, making a baby talk, and making a dog talk too. The dog is said to hunt down the magician Simon Magus and prophecy to him. Peter even makes a smoked fish come back alive to swim again.
Shortly after the end of the second century CE, the Acts of Peter and Paul was written based on the Acts of Peter. This is where these ideas of Peter being crucified upside down, Paul being beheaded, and the terrible fabricated ideas were being passed on about Nero. The Acts of Peter and Paul concludes describing Peter's martyrdom as upside-down crucifixion and Paul's beheading at the hands of Nero. This is also where the statement Quo vadis? comes from. It is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you going?" or "Whither goest thou?". Peter meets Jesus as Peter is fleeing from likely crucifixion in Rome. Peter asks Jesus the question; Jesus' answer, "I am going to Rome to be crucified again", and this prompts Peter to gain the courage to continue his ministry and eventually become a martyr.
Nero's persecution of the Christians is an invention of the Church. There is no other account of Nero persecuting Christians besides Christian writings and two interpolations into writings of the early historians Tacitus (56-117 CE) and Suetonius (71-135 CE). Tacitus and Suetonius wrote long before the Acts Of Peter and Paul showing that the very few lines interpolated into their works were done by Christians writing during the times after the Acts of Peter and Paul. Tacitus and Suetonius did indeed portray Nero in a negative fashion, as any historian would have done, but neither of these two writers EVER mention Chrisitans in ANY of their writings except for two very out of place interpolations. They do mention Jews at this time as a superstitious religion but they do not mention Christians. The Nero persecution stories start with the fabricated writings of the Acts of Peter and Paul written sometime between 160-190 CE.
Tertullian (160-220 CE) a christian writer, refers to the Acts of Paul several times in his writings. He takes his ideas of Nero persecuting the Christians straight from the fabricated Acts of Paul. This is what Tertullian refers to when he is mentioned in the Church History written by Eusebius:
"The Roman Tertullian is likewise a witness of this. He writes as follows: Examine your records. There you will find that Nero was the first that persecuted this doctrine". Church History Book 2 , chapter 25
The "records" that Tertullian is referring to is the fabricated Acts of Paul. Tertullian was VERY familiar with these fictitious writings but he considered them to be truthful, miracles and all. Eusebius (263-339 CE) another Christian writer considered a father of church history, refers to Tertullian several times. Eusebius took the Nero story even further and he is the one who most likely made the interpolations to the works of Tacitus and Suetonius. Sulpicius Severus (363-425 CE) was another Christian writer who refers to Eusebius and also furthers the fabricated stories about Nero persecuting the Christians.
In the movie, Quo Vadis, the biblical Paul is shown as repeatedly preaching about the physical historical Jesus. The epistles as attributed to Paul describe a very different type of Jesus than the gospels. In the Epistles, Paul's Jesus is only a spiritual channel to God as revealed only to Paul. The Jesus of the gospels is literally a miracle working man teaching others and living actually on earth. In Paul's Epistles, there is no mention of Jesus being born of a virgin in Bethlehem, living in Nazareth (which was not even in existence until the 2nd century CE), John the Baptist, a trial before Pilate, Judas, miracles or teachings like the sermon on the mount, outside the gates of Jerusalem as the place of crucifixion, or a lineage to David.
Marcion, was the first to present the epistles of Paul in the 120-140s CE which would have been about 100 years after their supposed writing date according to the New Testament. Marcion was the widely popular Gnostic heretic preacher who denounced the Old Testament God, saw Paul as the only apostle. The story of Paul is based in legend. By studying Marcion and his dual gods this becomes clear. There is little doubt that the teachings of Marcion and his followers represented a greater threat to Orthodox Christianity than any other heresy in the second century. Marcion's churches were widespread and competed heavily with the Catholic church. Marcion struggled with the problem of evil in the world. He couldn't understand how God would allow evil in the world. He concluded that there must be two Gods: the Creator God of the OT, who was characteristically a God of Law, who involved himself in contradictory courses of action, who was fickle, ignorant, despotic and cruel. The Supreme God, Marcion held, was wholly a God of Love who had remained completely hidden until he was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Marcion believed, as the Gnostics, that all matter was an impure creation of the creator god. Jesus as a human represented a theological challenge. Marcion was of the view that Jesus only appeared to have a physical body, but was in reality pure spirit. After doing a lot or research into Marcion it becomes obvious that Marcion had his own edited versions (if not entirely written by him and his followers) of the Pauline letters and the Catholic church created their own edited versions of the Pauline letters which are the ones in the bible today. There very well could have been a historical Paul at one time but his letters (actually more like books) were very possibly created by Marcion and his followers based on the legend of Paul.
Paul's letters contain everything that Marcion and his followers believed in. In Romans 8:3 (resembled sinful flesh), Phil 2:7 (likeness of man), 1 Cor 15:50 ( flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God , 2 Cor 5:16 (if we knew christ in flesh, we know thus no longer) and a lot more in the epistles all have the same belief as Marcion that Jesus was not of flesh and blood. Marcion said "our lord was found as man in form and appearance and likeness, but without our body." In the bible, Paul's Jesus is purely a spiritual one preaching the "christ within" and he never mentions anything about any miracles of Jesus, any teachings of a man from Nazareth, and he never tries to establish a lineage to David.
As for the movie itself, I am aware that this is Hollywood in the 50's. But still this is what people could see as the truth when it is not. Among some of the ludicrous things in this movie are scenes of Paul preaching with Peter sitting at his feet and the fact that these people place crosses in their houses. Keep in mind that this was the 60's CE. It is a known fact that the cross was NOT used as a Christian symbol until much, much later. At one point in Quo Vadis, the Roman general takes the cross that is hanging on the wall and smashes it over his knee. Paul says in Quo Vadis "Jesus wishes no man to be in bondage" in reference to slavery. In the bible, Jesus mentions NOTHING about the institution of slavery. In fact, he never condemns it at all. He even refers to slaves but never says that it is wrong. Then Paul says that God says that we can't buy human beings. It is a known fact that the God in the bible supports slavery over and over again. My point is that what is shown in this movie with Paul and Peter is just plain wrong. But, the real problem is that this is what most Christians believe. The whole Quo Vadis movie is very, very pro-Christian, just like many 1950's movies were, with even the main Roman general converting to Christianity.
Quo Vadis is almost three hours long and it gets bogged down into a typical 1950's love story. Robert Taylor is obnoxious and dominating too. The romance becomes ridiculous with Deborah Kerr hating him for so long until she completely makes an about face on a whim and immediately falls in love with him. It really is strange to watch. As long as this frame of mind is maintained that it is a typical 1950's Hollywood movie not based in reality at all then could see how people could find it entertaining in parts. I will say that Peter Ustinov is absolutely wonderful as Nero. He was a truly talented actor who is basically the only thing holding this movie together.
Description of Quo Vadis (Two-Disc Special Edition)
QUO VADIS SPECIAL EDITION - DVD Movie"Welcome to Nero's House of Women" greets a concubine to a slave girl, Lygia (Deborah Kerr). Later this self-same greeter reveals that she, too, like Lygia, is really a fellow Christian neophyte. And it's that mixture of tawdry Hollywood sex and a strong Christian message that makes this film an enjoyable "gentiles and gladiators" flick. Marcus Vinicius returns home after conquering the Britons to find that Rome is infected with a crazy new sect called Christians and that his beloved emperor Nero (Peter Ustinov, roly-poly and wicked) has become increasingly wacky. Marcus tries his centurion wiles on Lygia, and she's smitten, but she's also a Christian convert and begs Marcus not to force her to choose between him and her god. The Christians have a tough go of it, with martyrdom in the Coliseum as punishment for belonging to the new religion in town. Though three hours long, director Mervyn LeRoy's film always has something going on. It could help you enjoyably kill any rainy Sunday afternoon. --Keith Simanton
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