Pontius Pilate on Screen

Christopher McDonough is Professor of Classics at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. He is the author of Servius’ Commentary on Aeneid Book Four: An Annotated Translation (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004). He is the author of many articles on a range of topics including Ovid, Latin language and literature, mythology, literature in translation and Classics in cinema.

• List of Illustrations.Prologue."Do You Enjoy Being A Symbol, Pontius?" The Trial of Pontius Pilate and Governor CollinsChapter One.Quod Scripsi ScripsiChapter Two.The Silent Pilate　Chapter Three.The Roman in the Living Room: Pilate on TV in the Early 1950sChapter Four.Mrs. Pilate: Claudia Procula and Clare Boothe LuceChapter Five.Pilate in CinemaScope, or, Notes on Roman CampChapter Six.Finding Meaning in the Middlebrow: Pilate in the SixtiesChapter Seven.What Is Truth? Pilate as Seventies Moral RelativistChapter Eight.Michael Palin’s Accent in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and a Few OthersChapter Nine.Grand and Not-so-Grand Inquisitors of the Reagan AgeChapter Ten."We At War": Pilate for the New MillenniumEpilogue.A Time of Hand-washingWorks Cited.Endnotes.

Certainly the only ancient Roman prefect remembered throughout Western history, Pontius Pilate, the Christmastide/Eastertide "truth" seeker often quoted, maligned, and even "widiculed," fittingly warrants this extremely engaging survey of his notable cinematic representations by Basil Rathbone, Frank Thring, Jean Marais, Rod Steiger, Telly Savalas, Michael Palin, and many, many others.