Pontius Pilate on screen : sinner, soldier, superstar / Christopher M. McDonough.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McDonough, Christopher Michael, author.

Series:

Screening antiquity.

Screening antiquity

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pilate, Pontius, active 1st century--In motion pictures.

Pilate, Pontius.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (292 pages) : illustrations (black and white), digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2023.

Summary:

Who is Pontius Pilate? Who do the movies say that he is? What is truth? 'Pontius Pilate on Screen' deals with one of history's most controversial characters. From Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' to Mel Gibson's 'Passion of the Christ', Pontius Pilate is a figure of evidently endless fascination to filmmakers. The Roman prefect is depicted at times as the hapless victim of machinations beyond his control and at other times as the heartless villain of the piece. If in films about the Passion Jesus represents eternal truth, Pilate symbolises the values of the present as filmmakers endeavour again and again to portray in Pontius Pilate a compelling counter-figure to Jesus himself. This book considers portrayals of Pontius Pilate in film from the silent era to the 21st century.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

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

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2022.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on June 29, 2023).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-4744-4691-4

1-4744-4690-6

OCLC:

1374540052