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would also play Odysseus in Helen of Troy (1956), Senator Gallio is portrayed
as an old-fashioned patrician Roman who retains his Republican
inclinations in the early days of the Principate, as he tells his son: “I’m
fighting for what’s left of the Republic against the growing tyranny of the
emperors.” To the Senator, Marcellus is irresponsible, interested in nothing
but “dice and women.” Gallio criticizes Marcellus for thoughtlessly
compromising the work of the Senate to return Rome to Republican rule,
fearing his political strategies will appear motivated by personal family
spite against Caligula. In his advice to his son, Gallio articulates the ideal
of noble Roman pragmatism, but the paranoia of empire also creeps into
his words: “Try to endure it, Marcellus. Grow hard. Watch the hand of the
man who walks behind you. Drink in private and sleep with your sword at
your side. Take nothing on faith, bind yourself to no man. Above all, be
a Roman, my son, and be a man of honor.” Although towards the end of
the film Gallio renounces his son and his newfound Christianity, in the
final scene there is a hint of reconciliation when the Senator salutes
Marcellus as he goes off to his death.
The religious premise provides some of the most spectacular, moving
moments and “visual coups” of the film, intensified by Alfred Newman’s
vivid musical score (Elley, 128). Certain episodes in particular evoke early
biblical tradition. The centurion Paulus expects to apprehend the troublemaker,
Jesus, only with money to buy informants, thereby setting up the
scene where Demetrius finds Judas huddled on a doorstep, thirty pieces
of silver richer. A dramatic thunderclap punctuates the utterance of his
infamous name, and his explanation why he betrayed his lord: “Because
men are weak. Because they’re cursed with envy and avarice. Because they
can dream of truth, but cannot live with it.”
Pontius Pilate is depicted in the film as the weary, somewhat bewildered
bureaucrat familiar from the New Testament. In a brief but impressive
role, craggy American actor Richard Boone plays Pilate as a hardened
military man, with the credible air of a sheriff in a backwater town; Boone
would later become a star as Paladin in the television western Have Gun –
Will Travel (1957–63). Pilate is so exhausted and stunned by the night’s
events, the trial and condemnation of Jesus, that he asks to wash his hands
twice, and thus the film powerfully emphasizes the biblical tradition of
Pilate’s surrender of responsibility.
The crucifixion scene, set against a stormy, darkening sky, highlights
the visual contrast between the quiet mourners and the raucous Roman
soldiers, gambling and drinking. In the film, Marcellus wins the robe, just
as all the Gospels record that the soldiers cast lots and divided Jesus’
52 THE ROBE (1953)