In the Time of the First Christians (1910) User Reviews

The suggestions of the film are all too horrible to be pleasing

[deickemeyer · 19 August 2015]

Here is a thousand feet of beautifully tinted and toned film, representing the persecutions in the days of Nero when Christians were disposed of by subjecting them to every species of cruelty which the diabolical mind of the torturers could devise. The story is of a girl who is saved from crucifixion by a self sacrifice which appeals very strongly to the sympathies. It must not be considered that this is a pleasant film to look upon. Quite the contrary. But it does convey a reasonably accurate impression of what it meant to be a Christian in those times, and it reproduces ancient Roman scenes with a fair degree of accuracy. Much good work has been done upon it, but after one has seen it, the impression is so strong that one almost wishes one had never seen it. The suggestions of the film are all too horrible to be pleasing. - The Moving Picture World, September 17, 1910