This movie was given a rough ride by historians and we find little fault with their opinions: the persecutions began AFTER the great fire ;Nero needed scapegoats to calm things down among the plebs,and the Christian were ideal .Anyway ,he was not in Rome when the fire started.
The lack of means is obvious and the great fire is not impressive at all:the town which's burning looks like a model .The screenplay is incredibly poor,even for an Italian sword and sandals ;it consists of murders,tortures,orgies and stakes ,without a firm narrative line; Lang Jeffries ,later secret agent Coplan in Riccardo Freda's spy thriller (1967)),does not seem to care about the situation,even about his mom's fate,a cardboard character ;and the heroine's hairdo is horrible.
Historic figures are featured and they easily steal the show from the principals (but is there anything to steal?):the pagans ,Petronius and Seneca ,the latter showing himself to be a wise philosopher;Peter and Paul,preaching in the catacombs;Peter tells about his denial and he urges his flock to return good for evil:which is not easy to do in those troubled times.
The lack of means is obvious and the great fire is not impressive at all:the town which's burning looks like a model .The screenplay is incredibly poor,even for an Italian sword and sandals ;it consists of murders,tortures,orgies and stakes ,without a firm narrative line; Lang Jeffries ,later secret agent Coplan in Riccardo Freda's spy thriller (1967)),does not seem to care about the situation,even about his mom's fate,a cardboard character ;and the heroine's hairdo is horrible.
Historic figures are featured and they easily steal the show from the principals (but is there anything to steal?):the pagans ,Petronius and Seneca ,the latter showing himself to be a wise philosopher;Peter and Paul,preaching in the catacombs;Peter tells about his denial and he urges his flock to return good for evil:which is not easy to do in those troubled times.
