Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Series Editors’ Preface
- Frontispiece
- Prologue: ‘Do You Enjoy Being a Symbol, Pontius?’ The Trial of Pontius Pilate and Governor Collins
- 1 Quod Scripsi Scripsi
- 2 The Silent Pilate
- 3 The Roman in the Living Room: Pilate on TV in the Early 1950s
- 4 Mrs Pilate: Claudia Procula and Clare Boothe Luce
- 5 Pilate in CinemaScope, or Notes on Roman Camp
- 6 Finding Meaning in the Middlebrow: Pilate in the 1960s
- 7 What Is Truth? Pilate as 1970s Moral Relativist
- 8 Michael Palin’s Accent in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and a Few Others
- 9 Grand and Not-So-Grand Inquisitors of the Reagan Age
- 10 ‘We at War’: Pilate for the New Millennium
- Epilogue: A Time of Handwashing
- Works Cited
- Index
Prologue: ‘Do You Enjoy Being a Symbol, Pontius?’ The Trial of Pontius Pilate and Governor Collins
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Series Editors’ Preface
- Frontispiece
- Prologue: ‘Do You Enjoy Being a Symbol, Pontius?’ The Trial of Pontius Pilate and Governor Collins
- 1 Quod Scripsi Scripsi
- 2 The Silent Pilate
- 3 The Roman in the Living Room: Pilate on TV in the Early 1950s
- 4 Mrs Pilate: Claudia Procula and Clare Boothe Luce
- 5 Pilate in CinemaScope, or Notes on Roman Camp
- 6 Finding Meaning in the Middlebrow: Pilate in the 1960s
- 7 What Is Truth? Pilate as 1970s Moral Relativist
- 8 Michael Palin’s Accent in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and a Few Others
- 9 Grand and Not-So-Grand Inquisitors of the Reagan Age
- 10 ‘We at War’: Pilate for the New Millennium
- Epilogue: A Time of Handwashing
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
DRUSUS:
(LOOKING DOWN)
Are there always such crowds in the streets?
PILATE:
Oh, no – this is a special occasion. … Ordinarily, we see little of these miserable people. We live in Caesarea, where there is a Roman colony, such as it is. But I must be here on their feast days – to remind them of the symbol of Empire.
(HE SMILES AS HE HANDS DRUSUS A CUP OF WINE)
DRUSUS:
Do you enjoy being a symbol, Pontius?
– Robert Sherwood, The Trial of Pontius PilateThe prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, was looking out at an angry mob below, and the governor of Florida, LeRoy Collins, was watching him do so that Easter Monday evening in 1957. He and Mrs Collins had just moved into the new gubernatorial mansion in the state capital, and that weekend they had hosted several hundred locals who had come to tour. The calendar for the next few days was sure to be exhausting as well, with a large midweek reception planned to which numerous state dignitaries had been invited. But that Monday night, thankfully, the governor had some time to relax and so, settling into his new living room, he decided to turn on the television set. Consulting the ‘Entertainment Log’ of the Tallahassee Democrat, he might have chosen to watch the sitcom December Bride, which was playing at 9:30 pm on either WMBR-TV Channel 4 from Jacksonville or Pensacola’s WEAR-TV Channel 3. But WCTV Channel 6 was the local station with the best reception, and besides, the Robert Montgomery Presents programme that evening looked like it would be more appealing, an original Easter-themed drama by the award-winning playwright Robert Sherwood. Governor Collins was glad that he had selected The Trial of Pontius Pilate to watch that night, as it would give him serious food for thought in the years to come – and, make no mistake, the years to come would be challenging ones, not just in Florida, but all over the American South. New ways of thinking would be demanded from the governor, as well as a good deal of courage, for by the spring of 1960 the streets of Tallahassee would be in a state of uproar over race relations such as they had never seen.
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- Pontius Pilate on ScreenSinner, Soldier, Superstar, pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2022