Pontius Pilate on Screen

Abstract

Pontius Pilate On-Screen: Sinner, Soldier, Superstar 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 endless fascination to filmmakers. The Roman prefect is portrayed 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 symbolizes the values of the present. Whether it is the lingering trauma of the Holocaust, the ongoing struggle over Civil Rights, or the polarized politics of the current day, filmmakers endeavour repeatedly to portray in Pontius Pilate a compelling counter-figure to Jesus himself. Insofar as Jesus is a static character in film representing eternal moral integrity, so Pilate is at odds with him, reflecting by contrast the values of the contemporary world. Simply put, the tension in such movies is that between the church and the world outside—between the push of Sunday morning and the pull of Saturday night.