|
One of MGM’s biggest successes in the early 50’s, the
epic “Quo Vadis” makes its Blu-ray debut with mixed results.
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy “Quo Vadis” documents the early
days of Christianity as the Roman Empire began its gradual
decline. Set during the days of Nero (Peter Ustinov) as
Emperor the who “fiddled” on his violin while Rome burned
(it didn’t happen that way at all-the violin wasn’t introduced
until the 16th century and Nero although he did sing a dirge
lamenting the destruction of Rome was actually active initially
in saving people and eventually rebuilding Rome. The rumor
that he started it started because there were many in the
Senate—if I recall correctly—that believed he was the pyromaniac
because he had proposed rebuilding older sections of Rome
that were in disrepair something that was rejected by the
Senate). Although Nero could be characterized as mad (he
did, after all, have his mother assassinated but she was
plotting against him), many of the things that he did the
Roman Empire at the time were beneficial. Despite some liberties
taken with history, “Quo Vidas” remains an enjoyable epic
film. ***
Robert Taylor plays Marcus Vinicius a weary soldier
returning to Rome after a long military career. He finds
himself at odds with many of his other Roman citizens when
he falls in love with Lygia (Deborah Kerr beautiful as always)
a devote of the new Christian religion. Rome burns, there
are a lot of interesting fights and some wonderful scenery
(shot in Italy at Cinecitta Studios by Robert Surtees)captured
for the film. While the pacing of the film is a bit clumsy,
the visual spectacle more than makes up for the stumbling
gait of the film and I should note that the editing /feel
of the film is pretty typical for the time it was made.
---
Image & Sound:
I haven’t seen the DVD to compare it to but “Quo Vadis”
looks pretty good in its Blu-ray transfer. There are some
issues here—the print still has damage to it in spots and
there are white splotches and other analog artifacts that
crop up from time-to-time which surprised me given that
this was digitally restored by Warner however there is only
so much you can do with a damaged print even in the digital
age. The image quality is so sharp that some of the dated
visual effects are even more obvious at times and makes
the flaws inherent in the surviving prints, interpositives
and negative very clear. ***
Detail is remarkably clear and textures are extremely
sharp looking as well. The transfer doesn't over do the
digital noise reduction by eliminating the film-like quality
of the film. Be aware there is film grain evident but that's
how the film was MEANT to look. This isn't going to be a
pasty digitally smoothed out looking film. I'm glad of that
because you lose detail and, quite honestly, it wasn't meant
to look digitally smoothed out. *** Audio sounds very nice
with a rich score by the late Miklos Rozsa front and center
in the mix during the action scenes. It’s a warm, beautiful
sounding score. Dialog is nice and clear throughout the
film. -
|
