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Contents © 2000
by Jim Holman.
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Quo Vadis

Ernie: More than almost any movie I've seen, it had good lines and good acting for one part -- Peter Ustinov as Nero -- and bad lines and acting for almost everyone else. Unfortunately, all the Christians had pat lines.

Matthew: The guy who interested me most as a person was Nero's advisor Petronius -- a good man in a terrible situation. He elicited my sympathy, because he was more of a person than any of the Christians. They were preachers and messengers of God, but they were barely people.

Ernie: They were able to write Petronius more carefully -- they even gave him a decent moment of conscience. But the link between the Christian side and the Roman side, Marcus Vinicius, was just terrible. We're supposed to see in him the foretelling of Rome being conquered by Christianity, but he's just a dolt....

Matthew: I was disappointed that these people facing death as martyrs didn't talk about Our Lord facing death.

Ernie: Or joining their suffering to Christ's. And it would have been nice if the old Roman general who had become Christian had said something like, "Nero, I forgive you, for you know not what you do." Something a little more reflective of Christ. Instead, he just fires off a condemnation.