Quo Vadis

Quo Vadis is a grand historical epic based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz running four and a half hours in length. Although this is long by most standards, it really does allow the plot to fully develop and be brought to a conclusion. We get a glimpse of many parts of life in Rome, from wild drunken parties with plenty of topless women, a gruesome close up of lions eating Christians in the coliseum, and even the burning of Rome itself. The story has several elements that are all dovetail each other. We have a young patrician named Marcus Vinicius (Pawel Delag) who falls in love with Lygia (Magdalena Mielcarz), a Christian woman. At first she is not interested in him, but soon returns his love. Petronius (Boguslaw Linda), who is one of Nero's advisors, tries to help him physically capture his love as he has influence with Nero. Matters are complicated as Nero is out of control and is most concerned about his insane self-interests, which leads to trouble for many others. Boguslaw Linda was one of the best performers in the film. As he was the middleman between Marcus and the crazed Nero, his position from the start was precarious. He portrayed the patrician who was calm and collected in moments of confusion, sincere with his feelings, and often had witty remarks. Linda's acting was fantastic. Quo Vadis is perfect for those who enjoy historic epics. Overall, I thought the underlying message was about forgiveness and love, something we can all relate to and topics that would not hurt us to reflect upon. With nearly all of its characters experiencing moments of triumph and suffering, we witness and experience a wide range of emotions in this story that takes place about two thousand years ago.