Quo Vadis

Book.  This was written in Polish by Henryk Sienkiewicz back in 1896.  I was alerted to this by the introduction to the Sears catalog of 1897 which mentioned that this book was popular back then.  Having digested Ben-Hur at length (the original novel by Lew Wallace, the 1959 technicolor masterpiece with Charlton Heston, and the 1925 silent version), I figured this was also worthy of attention.  And fortunately, much unlike The Golden Bough or Dante’s Divine Tragedy, I found it very much compelling reading and watching.

            Plot:  a brash, arrogant young tribune, Marcus Vinicius, returns from campaigns in Turkey or Persia and falls in love at first sight with a stunning German woman, Lygia.  It turns out she is not a slave, but a hostage: her father was a German king with whom Rome had a treaty, and as was custom those days, the sovereign gave up his potential heirs as collateral to ensure the treaty was upheld.  It’s a bit confusing: Lygia is both her name and the name of her “country”, really just a Germanic tribe from an area we’d now know as either eastern Germany or western Poland.  If she was from Germania they could have called her Germania, if from Switzerland, Helvetia, etc. 

            Lygia turns out to be a Christian, which was at that time a radical new sect in Rome.  This was AD 64, under the reign of Nero, long before Emperor Constantine converted the entire Empire to Christianity in the early 300s.  Nero is infamous as yet another of these decadent, corrupt, pompous tyrants we love to hate.

            Vinicius is counseled by his uncle, an elder statesman, the eloquent but cynical Petronius.  Petronius contrives to have Lygia transferred from her caretakers Aulus Plautius (Roman general and a pagan) and Pomponia (his wife, a Christian), with whom she has been living – they are childless themselves and have unofficially adopted her as their own daughter, and certainly treat her as such - to Caesar’s palace.  Somewhat confusingly, Nero is often referred to as “Caesar”; although the name is actually the rank of emperor, generally we associate that in Roman context with one particular Roman ruler, Julius Caesar…who never actually held that rank (the empire began with his adopted son Octavian, aka Caesar Augustus). 

            Nero has an official “mistress”, “Empress” Poppea (bottom left, above, from the 1951 film), but theoretically any woman within the palace is fair game for his affections should he choose to take her.  Lygia briefly experiences life in the imperial palace – witnessing, though not participating in, its extravagances (theme: “It’s good to be the King!”) – before escaping to a more run-down part of Rome.  She is “protected” by a huge German Christian named Ursus.  Poppea herself is particularly attractive but also extremely jaded and unfaithful; she apparently has free reign to fool around as she pleases.  She sets her eyes on Vinicius and is thus especially jealous and antagonistic towards Lygia. 

            Vinicius hires a particularly despicable scumbag, a Greek “soothsayer” (more like scam artist) named Chilon, who manages to track down Lygia and alert Vinicius to a huge gathering of Christians outside town.  Vinicius shows up and hears a sermon given by none other than St. Peter himself.  He is struck by the sincerity and honesty of the Christians and the words of St. Peter, and gradually finds himself becoming a Christian himself.  He later discusses this with Petronius, who is sympathetic to the Christians but rather too old, jaded, and cynical to adopt their religion himself.

            Meanwhile, Nero gives orders to Tigellinus, the commander of the Praetorian Guard (the Emperor’s elite bodyguard detachment) to set fire to Rome.  Much of Rome goes up in flames.  Nero’s motivation herein was (A) “performance art!”, (B) something “big and spectactular” for the Romans to remember him by, and (C) possibly razing the ground so he can rebuild Rome…but mostly (A).  Many Romans died and lost their homes and possessions in the fire.  And most dangerously, the widely spread and believed rumor – quite true, it turns out – that Nero himself was responsible for the blaze, raises the strong likelihood of a popular revolt.  It appears that the city’s population won’t come close to being cynical, or aesthetically discerning, enough to appreciate Nero’s “performance art”.  Seeking to deflect blame from himself, Nero is persuaded to blame the Christians.

            Now a huge orgy of violence and terror captures the Christians.  They are arrested en masse and plunged into dungeons and jails, to serve as sport for the audiences of the gladiatorial games.  A series of decadent and elaborate punishments are devised for the poor martyrs:

            1.         Hungry lions devour the Christians

            2.         Other carnivorous animals devour Christians who have been themselves disguised as wild animals by the Romans

            3.         Another series of Christians are crucified on crosses (nailed up, not burned)

            4.         A night-time spectacle of Christians burned alive on pillars

            5.         Finally, Lygia herself is chained to a bull, which Ursus manages to defeat through sheer strength.  The crowd loves the Lygia & Vinicius romance element, and is stunned and impressed by Ursus’ defeat of the animal, and insists on sparing their lives despite Nero’s strong inclination that they be executed anyway.  In fact, the Christians’ extreme patience and acceptance of death persuades the otherwise bloodthirsty Roman audiences that these people could not possibly have started the fires and most likely were innocent, which Chilon himself proclaims to the crowd, much to Nero’s embarrassment. 

            Meanwhile, Petronius falls out of favor with Nero and decides to kill himself – his slave, Eunice joins him in this – while dictating a particularly insulting final statement to be delivered posthumously to Nero.  He invites his closest friends and relatives to a “farewell banquet” where he addresses them; his doctor has slit his wrist and he and his “wife” slowly but peacefully expire among their friends and loved ones, depriving Nero of the opportunity to have him murdered on his own terms.  For his part Nero himself is eventually deposed and forced to stab himself to death.

 Quo Vadis vs. Ben Hur.  Those of us more familiar with Ben Hur might be tempted to consider Quo Vadis a poor relation, rip-off, or copycat.  I have to admit, BH gets a slight edge, emphasis on slight.  But here is why QV is not so bad.  First off, QV takes place about 30 years after BH, so historically it’s a sequel.  Peter, who was clearly alive when Jesus was crucified, is now an old man; Paul is his successor.  BH has its major elements: the sea battle with the pirates and the dramatic chariot race; plus the “redemption” of his mother and sister cured of leprosy by their faith in Jesus.  QV has the Fire of Rome, the persecution of the Christians in the arena, and both Chilon’s redemption and Vinicius’ conversion.  What QV has that BH most clearly lacks, though, is a central love story.  As touching as the Ben Hur & Esther story was, it was not front-center; in the book, Ben Hur gets sidetracked to Iras the Egyptian, a character completely absent in the 1959 movie.  The love story between Vinicius and Lygia is at the center of QV and really sets it apart from BH.  This is why it deserves attention on its own merits.

 1951 Film.  This came out several years before the 1959 version of Ben Hur and has since been almost entirely eclipsed thereby.  The movie was fairly faithful to the book.  The major differences: Vinicius is considerably more resistant to Christianity and converts much later than in the book; much of the subplots and characters, some incidental scenes, and a few of the nastier Christian persecutions are edited out, and Chilon’s role is considerably reduced.  Even pared down here and streamlined, the movie still clocks in at just under 3 hours.  Aside from Deborah Kerr (from “The King and I”) as Lygia and Peter Ustinov as Nero, I didn’t recognize anyone else in the movie.

 2001 Film.  In honor of the author, Sienkiewicz, who was Polish and originally published the book in Polish, Polish TV made a made-for-TV miniseries with fairly high production values.  Unfortunately it’s in Polish (with English subtitles) and all the actors and actresses are Polish; they appear competent, attractive, and appropriately cast, just unknown to anyone not familiar with Polish TV or cinema.  It’s longer than the 1951 film – about 4.5 hours - and is considerably more faithful to the story and dialogue of the original book.  I was initially tempted to consider the earlier film as more of the “definitive” movie adaptation of the story, until I watched the complete miniseries.  Despite its greater length, I can honestly recommend the Polish version to anyone interested in film adaptations, but simply be warned as to its duration.

            Having said that, there are a few elements of the Polish version I’d like to address.

1.         Chilon’s role is greatly reduced in the 1951 movie but just where it should be in the Polish version.  This is important because he has a major change of heart when he sees the Christians crucified.  As the nastiest and most cynical character, the change is dramatic.

2.         The Polish actor who portrayed Vinicius (Pawel Delag) is much younger than the Petronius actor (Boguslaw Linda) and in fact, quite handsome.  He was far more convincing than Robert Taylor, from the 1951 film, who bears no resemblance to Leo Genn (Petronius) and appears the same age as him.

3.         The Polish actor who portrays Nero (Michal Bajor) bears an unfortunate resemblance to Rainn Wilson, best known as “Dwight” from “The Office”.   While he does a decent enough job, I couldn’t help but thinking of him as a Roman version of Dwight.

4.         My guess is that modern Polish TV is more tolerant of nudity than US theaters were in 1951, because the miniseries shows much more skin than the movie.  Chalk that up to times, though; a contemporary American remake would probably be just as naughty, provided it was on cable and not network TV.