"ANNOUNCER:" "Because of the nature of tonight's program." "Westinghouse does not wish to interrupt the story with commercial messages." "Therefore, our product demonstrations will precede and follow the play." "Now that you've seen part one of Westinghouse studio one, let's turn to our program." "Come to the fair." "Say, what fair is this?" "It's the Westinghouse Freedom Fair." "You'll find it in every Westinghouse dealer store in every town in the United States." "So go to the fair at your dealer's." "See these seven great Westinghouse appliances and learn how they bring you hours of freedom from drudgery every day." "For instance, here's freedom from all the nuisance and mess of defrosting." "When you own a frost-free refrigerator, your defrosting chores are gone forever." "And here's the reason." "It's the magic counter button, the sign of the frost-free system." "You never touch it." "Every time you close the door, this knob pushes this button." "And the moment the frost forms on the freeze chest, the button automatically gives a signal that starts the frost-free system working." "And it defrosts so fast that your frozen foods always stay safely, firmly frozen." "And if you look in the frost-free for a drip-pan or a jar to empty, you won't find one." "The frost-free doesn't need any, because the defrost water evaporates automatically." "And just look at the capacity in this great refrigerator." "It frees you from unnecessary shopping trips, because it holds a whole week's supply of food for an average family." "Just look at the room in the freeze chest, for instance." "And here is a real big meat keeper." "And down here are two humid drawers." "They keep almost a bushel of green things garden fresh for days." "These sturdy door shelves come in mighty handy too." "They're easy to reach, and they're built right in the door." "All the room you need to free you from unnecessary shopping trips and defrosting that is completely automatic to free you from all defrosting chores." "No other refrigerator gives you so much freedom as the frost-free." "Go to the Freedom." "Fair are at your Westinghouse dealers and see it." "And remember, you can be sure if it's Westinghouse." "NARRATOR:" "This Is a cross." "To most of us it is a symbol of infinite love and infinite humility." "To some, it is a symbol of infinite suffering." "1,900 years ago, the cross meant something very different." "It was a symbol of the power of Rome." "It was a Roman instrument of execution and torture for criminals and for subject peoples." "The Jews were one of these peoples." "Their own laws forbade the use of the cross, but that did not stop its use against them under the overlordship of Rome." "And so one day, one among them was taken by Roman guards to the crest of a hill, whereby orders of Rome he was nailed to such a cross." "It was a season of the Passover in the Roman year 783." "And on that day, a certain man was brought to trial before Pontius Pilate." "My lady." "What is happening?" "The court is waiting in recess, my lady." "The prisoner's been delivered over to King Herod." "To Herod?" "Was this by order of my husband?" "Yes." "But why?" "The man's a Galilean." "And since his crimes were not against the rule of Rome, there was no cause to hold him any longer." "But if he were innocent, why was he not set free?" "The decision was not easy, my lady." "The man appeared completely different to the outcome of the trial." "Why have they turned against him?" "The followed him in droves into the city." "Why are they howling like that now?" "[HOWLING]" "There's some fatality to all of us in this trial." "Manlius, see that we are not disturbed." "The high priest has requested audience, and I've said I will see him." "Yes, my lord." "The commander tells me that you've turned the man over to Herod." "Yes." "Why?" "More to gain time than anything else." "I have little faith in Herod's their willingness to bear the burden." "He'll slither out of it." "In time, it'll give me a chance to think what I should do." "And is it so hard to decide?" "The man is a mystery." "He will not struggle against events, not even against death." "I could save him even now if he'd make the slightest effort of cooperation." "Does he still insist that he is the rightful king?" "I said to him, are you the king of the Jews?" "And he answered, you say I am." "And then he added that his kingdom is not of this world, that he came to fulfill the law of his father, whatever that may mean." "He's a mystic." "He's made the people believe that he's fighting for a new idea, for the truth." "My dear, do you suppose for one moment that that mob of malcontents and beggars that follow him are even remotely interested in the truth?" "What they would like to do is to storm this palace, string Herod and me up by the neck and put up some crazy revolutionary government of their own." "Oh Pontius, how little you understand these people, least of all him." "Why, he's no more capable of starting a revolution than I am." "Perhaps." "The high priest is here, Your Excellency." "Do not send me away." "Allow me to stay." "I would wish you to stay." "Good morning, Your Excellency." "I hope you do not object to my having brought my father's along with me." "It never occurred to me that you would not, Caiaphas." "My lady..." "Caiaphas, Annas." "You made your request for audience most urgent." "The matter is most urgent, Your Excellency." "The releasing of this man to Herod destroyers the entire purpose of our bringing him to you." "Oh?" "But Herod is ruler of Galilee." "It is proper that he should deal with this case I should think." "This man is no local problem, Your Excellency." "He Is quite as a great a threat to Rome as to us." "In short, you desire his death." "But as your laws do not permit you to inflict the extreme penalty, you wish me to shoulder the burden in the name of Rome." "If... if we could discuss this matter in private." "My wife has followed the career of this man quite closely." "I've asked her to stay." "I trust this does not mean that you are in sympathy with this rebellion, my lady?" "Rebellion nonsense." "He's no more than a simple teacher, a reformer." "I have heard this man, and I say that what he preaches is blasphemy." "Perhaps you do not understand what that means to us, my lady." "I understand very well." "I am half Jewish myself, you may remember." "You should well know what it means to be a subject people." "We are no more than a province of a Roman province." "One thing only we have which no mad imposter, no blasphemer can from us... the laws of our people, the Covenant." "We are the guardians of those laws." "It is our duty..." "Enough!" "By what presumption do you dare come and say these things to me?" "For all your robes and panoply of office, you are not even good Jews nor rightful representatives of your people's faith." "Because you've sold yourselves to Rome." "You come here to demand the death of one of your people." "I represent the law." "Tell me." "By what law does he deserve to die?" "He plots the overthrow of Rome." "Did we not send you countless witnesses to attest this fact?" "Witnesses?" "Do you think I'm a blind fool that you send such people to my court?" "They lied so crudely." "Each denied the other as soon as he could open his mouth." "There is no sentence of death permitted unless the accused men be guilty of treason to Rome." "This you know." "Adhere to it or this audience is at and end." "Has he not publicly affirmed that he's king of the Jews?" "And is this not open admission of rebellion?" "He is priest of Anubis." "When I looked at him in the courtroom," "I saw black wings hovering above him." "There is a terrible evil in his silences." "See the things you've built up in your minds." "I have heard him speak many times, and always with the utmost most calm and gentleness." "You, a Jewess, defend this man?" "Because I am a Jewess, I defend justice." "Every man who is accused has a right to be defended." "During your governorship we have many times been faced with revolts identical to this." "You've never before hesitated to execute their leaders." "Yes." "I have spilled more blood of your countrymen than I care to remember." "And always to your applause." "But during my eight years here I've learned many things." "Not again will you persuade me by false reports or coerce me to passing false sentence for you to get a tighter hold on the coffers of the Temple." "This I had not expected, Your Excellency." "You compel me to believe that you have some personal interest in this man." "Could there be in this rebellion something of advantage to you?" "You dare to suggest, Annas, that this Nazarene is in the pay of Rome?" "What can I think when you so impugn our motives on your own behalf?" "Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, Your Excellency." "Excellency, my lady." "The birds of ill omen gather the prospect of a death sentence." "I suspect that for once we may count you on our side, Herod." "With some shame, I admit it." "Expediency has driven me into your camp." "We need none of us pretend that we have the good of our people at heart." "This I deny!" "Our national heritage, the Covenant itself is threatened." "There's no need to sound so noble." "We are quite aware that this man represents a threat to all of us." "If he proves to be the Messiah, your powers will be considerably curtailed." "If he's the hereditary king, I lose my throne." "And if the people rise and join him as seems most likely, it will lead to a revolutionary war with Rome." "Had you overlooked that possibility," "Pilate, when you sent the man to me?" "Does this mean that you refuse responsibility of one of your own subjects?" "We are all subject to the overlordship of Rome." "I resent that sufficiently to admit that had the man shown evidence of being the true messiah," "I might quite possibly have espoused his cause." "Since he did not, I return him as a matter of precaution to you." "Waste no more time on legalities, Pilate." "Crucify the man now and get it over." "I have no intention of providing you with a martyr, Herod." "I warn you, Pilate!" "Unless this man is sentenced, it will go ill with you both in Judea and in Rome!" "Whatever complaint you care to make to the Emperor will not affect the outcome of this trial." "Good day." "Do not let stubbornness rule you, Your Excellency." "This Nazarene is too dangerous to live." "The unknown is always dangerous, to you as well as to us." "Old mud-eating scavengers." "They have their claws on this country like hawks on a dying mouse." "To every decent Jew they do grave harm." "What do you want with me now, Herod?" "You sent this man back to me to judge." "What more have we to discuss?" "You're taking it very calmly, Pilate." "Very calmly indeed, considering your position." "I'm not aware that my position has changed in any way." "Look at that crowd out there." "How many would you say there were?" "10,000?" "Possibly." "NARRATOR: 10,000." "And you have only a hundred soldiers." "I have been threatened enough for one day." "Have you ever seen how a rebellion starts, Pilate?" "Out of those 10,000, there are perhaps 50 men who are there with a definite purpose." "Some of them are in Annas's hands and pay, and the others in mine." "So what happens?" "One of those 50 men throws a stone." "It hits one of the guards." "To defend himself, the man whacks one of the bystanders over the head with his sword." "Others come to the man's defense." "Suddenly, a lust to destroy sweeps over those people." "After eight years of ruling in Judea," "I do not need you to give me a primer course in mob psychology." "All I'm trying to make you understand, my dear Pilate, is that those 50 men are only waiting for the signal." "A signal that both you and I know you will never dare to give." "You underestimate me, Pilate." "I have been waiting for a long time for an opportunity like this." "One thing is certain... if I strike for myself now, you will fall." "If I fail, we shall fall together." "And if I fall, another governor will be sent to take my place." "My personal career is of no consequence whatsoever." "Isn't it?" "You've already lasted eight years." "Another two years, and it will all be over." "You will return the Roman in triumph with adulation and a bright career before you." "But one serious disturbance now, and all that will be wasted." "In disgust you will be recalled to Rome like so many others before you." "Or worse still... transferred to some barren outpost of empire to live out the bitter years neglected and ignored." "This is your moment, Pilate." "A crowd is a wonderful thing, a terrible thing, the weapon of power, the anvil of the mighty." "Forgive me, Your Excellency, but the court is assembled." "Have the prisoner brought back." "What makes a king, Pilate?" "It is not in a throne, not in an army." "Not even in a crowd." "I have hated you for eight years." "There is nothing in the world more uninspiring than a government official." "Except a king who has not the courage to be a king." "I might find the courage." "Yes." "Quite suddenly I might find it." "Do not listen to him." "It's only words, empty threats." "Yes." "He might be just mad enough to try it." "My head is splitting." "Lie down." "Rest for a moment." "The court can wait." "How does that feel." "I wish Herod hadn't had mentioned those two years." "Well, he was but trying to frighten you." "Yes, but there's a lot of truth in what he said." "I am ambitious." "I've dreamt of our return home and the honor we shall receive and of a house we shall build on the slopes outside of Rome." "The house with the white pillars." "I've seen it so often in my mind." "I know every inch of it." "So do I." "And also what he threatened is true." "That man represents a storm that could, at any moment, burst over us.." "In all this clamor there are only two men who count... you and Jesus of Nazareth." "It is between you two." "Tell me." "Why does the fate of this one man matter so much to you?" "There are time when one has to stand by what one believes, whatever the consequences." "You cannot condemn a man you know in you're hear to be innocent." "It's a denial of all that you are." "What he may be in his intrinsic soul is no concern of mine." "That's the province of the gods." "But I must judge him by his acts, by his statements, and by the necessities of government." "If he insists on killing himself king of the Jews, he is guilty of the act of treason." "If I tolerate treason, I tolerate revolution." "[TRUMPETS SOUND]" "This trial has nothing to do with us, what we feel for one another." "But it does." "Because it's not only he is on trial." "It is you and I. It is everything we stand for." "We both know and without a doubt that this accused man is guiltless." "Yes, but that's not answer enough where violence is threatened." "That didn't concern you until your own future was threatened." "Oh, I have dreamed of the house with the white pillars as much as you." "But I always thought that if I were faced with a crisis," "I could choose what was difficult, even fatal, because I loved you." "You are not called upon to make judgment outside your home." "I am not so fortunate." "The man I am with you, here in my home, is not always the man" "I have to be in my courtroom." "I live in the world." "I am forced to compromise." "But the beginning of all wisdom is compromise." "It's the basis of all success in government." "You judge life with the arbitrary intolerance of a child." "I judge it with the intolerance of a woman who's loved a man and believed in him completely for a long time." "I cannot believe in you in one room and doubt you in another." "I cannot respect you as my husband and question you as a judge." "If it's true that you have indeed fought all these years for the principle of justice, then you should be ready to leave this palace with nothing for the sake of your principle." "Are you daring to suggest that I should give up my career?" "Abandon my position as governor?" "To save the life of an innocent man?" "Yes." "You've never lived through revolution." "I have." "I've seen a city set on fire, buildings burned, and the people pillaged and tortured." "Why, the lives of 400,000 people, of yours and mine may be hanging in the balance at this very moment." "But no right was ever defended without danger anywhere, anytime." "I think I am best able to judge what should and what should not be defended." "It's unjust of you to use our marriage as a weapon to sway my judgment." "Oh my darling, it's only because I don't want you to be swayed by anything but your heart that I argue with you." "[SHOUTING]" "I must go in." "Pilate, listen to me." "What's the matter with you?" "You're trembling." "I cannot help it." "There must be no ghost, no rift between us." "Only absolute honesty can face the power of this strange man." "What I can do for him under the law I will do." "Pilate!" "Procula, I've never seen you like this." "I beg you to go inside and rest." "You know that I would never condemn a man without doing everything I could on his behalf." "[SHOUTING]" "This is your moment, Pilate." "It is upon you and upon you alone that the fate of this day depends." "NARRATOR:" "Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over the land until the 9th hour." "The lady is nowhere in the palace, Your Excellency." "Was she not seen to go out?" "No, My Lord." "And yet she's gone." "There's something most strange in the air, my lord." "An unnatural darkness hangs over the city as far as the eye may see." "'Tis but the gathering of a storm." "No doubt, My Lord." "And yet it is so still." "How is it that in such a stillness the veil of the temple should be rent?" "I am not concerned with these superstitious maunderings." "I would know only what's happened to my lady." "It may be that she joined the procession that followed him to Golgotha." "To Golgotha?" "Why, that's impossible." "She shrinks from the very sight of pain." "Maybe, Your Excellency." "And yet when they were leading him forth from the court, a sudden heaviness settled over the palace." "I went to the roof in search of a stirring of wind." "My lady was there before me." "What?" "She was seated on the parapet looking out over the city and weeping, as the women in the streets below were weeping." "This diabolical trial." "And then as the procession disappeared from view," "I heard her utter a cry." "She rose abruptly and went below." "Everything connected with this man leads to discord." "If I might suggest..." "Could I have saved him?" "Could I have done anything but what I did?" "No, My Lord." "You offered him every chance to escape." "Seemed to me that all along he wanted to die." "[SHOUTING]" "See what that disturbance is." "The high priest." "Annas is with him." "Bid them come in." "It was time they were silenced once and for all." "The governor will receive you." "By what right do you dare invade this palace without request?" "We have just learned of the inscription you have seen fit to have placed on the cross of this blasphemer, Pilate!" "Does it offend you?" "You have had written in three languages that he is king of the Jews!" "We demand that this lie, this insult, be torn down." "What respect can we command among our own people if this insult is permitted to remain?" "The respect you command is absurd that best." "It is hollow and without meaning." "I defend the principle of Rome, its law, and its power." "If this man that you describe is the impostor that you claim, then indeed is he guilty of the penalty for blasphemy and no more." "It is only as he was indeed your king that he deserved the penalty of death." "It is so he was judged and condemned." "It is so he was crucified." "Call this lettering an insult if you'd like, but it is for me the justification of the judgement that I have passed down, and as such in the name of Rome it will remain." "May you be cursed for this thing, Pilate, until the end of your days!" "And may the power that is Rome's one day blow like dust through the gutters of Jerusalem." "Heed not my silence, O God." "Send two guards to Golgotha to search for her." "The necromancer is having his revenge on all of us it seems." "Oh, spare us your dreary maledictions." "You've have your way." "You should be satisfied." "We have defended the Covenant." "And betrayed your people." "None of us have cause for gloating at this hour." "There's no need for the four of us to keep on bickering here." "We can do without each other's company till the next crisis of the next crucifixion." "I wonder if it is over." "We are all still here." "The unholy alliance just exactly as we were." "Only he has gained his objective." "What was his objective?" "To fulfill the prophecies by proving that he is a true messiah." "Had you failed to recognize that fact?" "What blasphemy!" "He will die before this day is up on the Hill of the Skull, like thousands of others." "Only the Messiah is above death." "He is not like the others." "I was afraid of him." "I admitted it." "I wanted to destroy him." "But now I wonder." "Was my desire for his death merely a deception?" "Was I and my fear merely a contributing factor to the... to the event?" "The event, do you see, that had to happen." "He was crucified, because you demanded it, the three of you." "You left me no choice." "We left you no choice?" "You knew that Annas and Caiaphas were powerless, and that I would never really start an insurrection." "You condemned him, because he had to be condemned." "You were in the grip of something stronger than you, Pilate." "I am warning you." "Who knows how deeply he may be versed in the arts of magic?" "Suppose he were to be taken down and revived and rise again?" "We should have no means of denying that he is what he pretends to be." "He would have the whole nation behind him." "If he were indeed the Messiah, why did he not save himself?" "If he were the Son of God, he would've come down from the cross!" "My soldiers will remain at Golgotha until death is proved according to law." "I will discuss it no further." "That is not enough." "Order you men, after he is taken down, to cut off his head, like I did to John the Baptist." "That is the only way to ensure that death is indeed the end of everything." "[THUNDER CRACKS]" "Lady Herodias." "What are you doing here?" "Go back to your room at once!" "Have you forgotten?" "This is the say I stay awake to watch the triumph of the man you cannot kill." "Go back to your room." "You thought you'd killed him at Galilee, but he came back, John the Prophet." "And he always will." "You'll kill him again and again all your life, and he'll still be there with that same smile on his lips." "You poor, frightened puppet." "Hold your red tongue!" "Do you think you can kill him by nailing him to a cross?" "He's here in this room, behind every door." "He's standing by every chair." "He's inside us, in our brain, in our blood." "He'll never leave us... never!" "Till death and after." "I warned you, Herodias." "I have heard enough." "You thought you'd be a king, a great king." "But a prophet smiled at you, and all the glory of a Herod shrank to the whisper of rats in a rifled tomb." "My lady, go back to your apartments." "I beg of you." "I salute you, king of nothing." "[THUNDER CRACKS]" "That was unforgivable." "You may sleep tonight in my room." "At least you will be alone there." "Is he dead yet?" "These are my apartments, King Herod." "I ask you to leave them." "Is he dead yet, I asked you!" "Is he dead, the king of the Jews?" "No death in this world can wipe out the smile on his lips, not even the everlasting dark." "[THUNDER CRACKS]" "I shall go up to the roof and wait." "You'd do better to hide in the cellars." "I shall wait for you to bring me the head of this man." "Well, if you are wise in your own interests, you will do..." "We must go and pray." "Yes, pray." "For we are all guilty, all of us." "You may examine your own consciences." "I am satisfied." "I have done my duty." "It is fitting that you who have sold out to Caesar should feel no shame." "You gave me your word you would not leave the palace." "I'm very angry with you." "Why have you done this?" "I had to find out why he had to die." "I told you again and again." "He was condemned, because he would not save himself." "He did not want to be saved." "And what has he gained?" "He died a convicted felon, no more." "No." "It is we who are condemned as felons." "You said that we must live in the world." "I think I've seen for the first time what the world is and what the world can do." "The world can hang a body on a cross and drive nails through the quaking flesh and sit and jeer and play dice, while a man's heart is torn out and tortured." "It can dip a sponge in vinegar and thrust it between the bleeding lips made meaningless by pain." "And that is all." "That is the world's only answer to the riddle of what we are." "I would have given anything to prevent you from seeing this." "But I saw something else in the midst of this horror." "Suddenly, he was beyond your soldiers with their gleaming breastplates and their spears." "There was nothing they could do to him, nothing." "He'd passed beyond the thunder and the wind into a... a silence... splendid, terrible, and perfect." "I should have watched over you and kept you near me." "You're cold." "You're like ice." "Listen." "What you've seen today is a vision of the world's brutality." "But it has no more meaning to it than that." "You must now try with all your courage and your trust in me to face the shock of this realistically." "It will help you and pass from you sooner." "Will the truth pass so quickly?" "I will tell you what the truth is." "It is our life together." "Do you understand?" "The walls of our house that shut out the anger and the pain." "If I have wrestled with the intrigues and bitter, twisted wickedness of this city the so long, it is only that we should retire sooner and lead the life that we've dreamed of." "Oh." "So it is for me that you let him die." "I did not let him die." "It was a political necessity." "Do you imagine that careers in politics are achieved without incidents?" "Many incidents like this?" "But I never wanted a career for you at such a cost." "I would rather we had nothing and wore nothing." "My Lord." "What?" "A man named Joseph of Arimathea is here." "He begs to see you." "Do I now him?" "He says you do not, My Lord." "What does he want?" "He would not say more than that it is urgent." "He shows at an ill moment." "My wife and I..." "No." "See him." "I beg you." "Show him in." "The governor will see you know." "Well, what reason have you to demand audience at this time?" "None, Except that I have nowhere else to appeal, Your Excellency." "Appeal?" "For what?" "I cannot expect you to respect what I have to say, yet I must say it." "I have come but now from Golgotha." "I have stood and I have seen, and no matter what anger I may arouse, I must say to you that I believe you and we have done a monstrous thing." "What?" "No, let him say what is in his mind." "Go on." "Thank you, my lady." "Your Excellency had reason, I am sure, to command that this man should die." "You are Roman." "I am a Jew." "He faced you with silence." "To me, he said, if you would be perfect, sell all that you have and give to the poor." "Come then and follow me." "I had neither the faith nor the courage then to give up so much." "I slid away." "Well?" "What do you wish?" "To make amends." "I denied him once while he was alive." "I would not deny him a second time." "If I have given nothing to the poor till now, at least I can give to him a place to rest." "This man will be dead by morning." "It is ended." "Is it, Your Excellency?" "I have no time for these meaningless questionings." "Forgive me." "I'll be direct." "I have a tomb, freshly hewn in the garden of Gethsemane, which I've kept in readiness for myself." "Let me take down the body of Jesus and bury it." "Let me bury it well and with respect." "He must hang on the cross until he is dead." "He is dead already, Your Excellency." "Not possible." "He's been on the cross less than five hours." "My lady, you were there." "I saw you." "You know that I speak the truth." "Procula, is this true?" "Yes, it is true." "He died while I was on the hill." "Give me the permission, Pilate." "It is so small an atonement." "Very well." "Take down the body and see that it is laid properly in the tomb, and a stone rolled before the door, and sealed." "And let's have an end to this unlucky business." "Manlius?" "At least he'll be guarantee a decent burial... burial." "Your Excellency." "See that my horse is saddled." "I shall use a taper of wax and my big seal to set upon the door of the tomb." "And I want six guards to watch the place until the Passover is finished." "And let there be no rumor of resurrection to plague us further." "Very well, My Lord." "I will see you outside." "I will await you, My Lord." "Do not let this come between us." "NARRATOR: 15 years later, in the Roman year 798," "Pontius Pilate was Roman governor of Cappadocia with headquarters in Tyana at the foot of the Taurus Mountains." "This was many miles from Judea, but the shadow of that incident in Jerusalem had begun to spread far beyond the olive groves of Golgotha." "More?" "These mothers are hydra-headed." "For each crucifixion we perform, there are 10 ready to die tomorrow." "It's endless." "No, not endless, just long and tedious." "How many more?" "Only five, Your Excellency." "When I have finished, bring the leaders from the prison." "I wish to examine them." "Yes, Your Excellency." "Is my wife in the garden?" "No, she and Lucius Lepidus are in the next room." "He wishes to bid you farewell before returning to Rome." "We must hasten then." "I've kept them waiting an hour already." "So you see, Lucius, being his Second wife has not been easy." "He's greatly changed, I'm sure." "Whenever he has to try these Christians, one can see it settling over him like a thunder cloud." "I dread these arrests." "It means for two or three weeks he'll wander around in a terrible silence, down by the lake, under the pines... gloom!" "It's like being married to the collected works of Euripedes." "This is a terrible thing to say, Lucius." "But I don't believe he wants these Christians to recant." "He likes to see them crucified." "He thinks that by sentencing them to death that he could stamp out some obsession in himself." "But he can't." "Well, Lucius, so you're leaving us, after all?" "I'm afraid so." "Yes." "We shall miss you." "Been like a breath of spring having you here." "I must go and see if everything is in readiness for your departure." "Forgive me." "These Christians seem to be taking up a great deal of your time." "Yes, but I think we can say we're past the flood." "As long as we continue to be strong, they will soon lose their love of martyrdom." "It's amazing how it spreads though." "The demonstrations are breaking out everywhere." "The longer I live, the more I detest religious fanatics." "We'd struggled to bring these barbarians in countries the best the civilization has to offer, and along come these lunatics who deny reason and attack the very structure of rational living." "And then after finally sowing discord and sedition everywhere, march to their death caterwauling their hymns as though they were going to a festival." "You know, in a way I admire them." "At least they have the courage of their convictions." "Man has a unique birthright..." "The faculty of reason." "To deny the existence of God is the one honest tribute one can pay him." "Tell me." "I've always wanted to ask you if I dared." "What really happened to Procula?" "I never knew." "Without warning, without a word to anyone, she left everything..." "Her home, her family, her future, everything." "This Nazarene must have had some extraordinary power to have appealed to her so strongly." "It was not his strength." "It was her weakness, a woman's indescribable desirable for immolation." "Well, whatever else you've lost, you've certainly kept your reputation for legal rectitude, the incorruptible Pilate." "I put my trust in the law." "The law's the only thing that survives without betrayal." "Your litter's in the courtyard, Lucius." "I can't bear to see you go." "It's been such a relief for Pontius to have some civilized to talk you." "Goodbye, Lucius." "Salute the Eternal City for me." "I shall hold you to your promise to come and stay with me next year." "We will, the gods be willing." "I shall convey your respects to the Emperor." "Most of the ringleaders have been caught, Your Excellency." "Do you know something, Manlius?" "It is tomorrow." "15 years ago, tomorrow." "I know, My Lord." "The trial never ended, really." "And yet it was the end of everything." "Well, if there has to be... how many are here?" "Four, My Lord." "His Excellency, the Proconsul." "You, I understand, are the confessed ringleaders who have enjoined the populace to defy the authority of Rome." "You are also responsible for inciting them the mob to desecrate the statue of Jupiter in the public square." "Well, please answer my questions." "Are you aware of the penalties incurred by these acts?" "I would ask you to answer individually." "Yes." "We knew the penalty, yes." "Yes." "Yes, I knew." "I would... i would wish the prisoners taken back to their cells." "I would talk to..." "Examine this one only." "Yes, Your Excellency." "You wish to be alone, My Lord?" "Yes." "Procula, what are you doing here with this band of rebels?" "I was arrested." "Your hair?" "It's been white for years." "Fate certainly played a supreme jest, bringing us together here like this." "I think it is very fitting that you should judge me." "At least I'm certain of a fair trial." "Why did you never send me word?" "There were no words." "It seems that I was deceived in placing so high a value on the bond of marriage." "I never loved you more than when I left you." "I had to give up what I loved most in order to learn to love more." "It was little enough beside Golgotha." "And what precisely did he give up?" "He endured no doubt a few terrible hours on the cross, but he was sufficiently recovered to vacate the tomb two mornings later." "He had risen." "Don't tell me that you of all people support this incredible belief in this resurrection?" "It's no myth." "You have the temerity to believe this incredible fabrication?" "He rose from the dead as he had promised, as all men may leave the prisons of their mortality." "Do you not think that I examine enough prisoners not to know what happened?" "I've collected proofs for the last 15 years." "They're in my files a thousandfold." "And still the final proof always escapes you." "Because the final proof isn't in him, but in you." "And the truth that he stood for..." "All you Christians babble about the truth." "And yet in the courtroom, when I asked him the question, what is truth, he made no answer." "What could he say?" "What could he have said that you would've accepted?" "I knew that you hated me, but I didn't realize how much." "This is no time to settle our personal differences." "There is the oath of allegiance." "Read it." "There is only one oath, and I have already taken it." "You will take the oath of Rome, or I will force you to it." "Force?" "You have none left to call on, and yet you go on trying Jesus and every man and woman who is brought before you." "Will you stop this pernicious quibbling?" "It is your own trial, and I... this is reality, not a quest to remodel abstractions." "You face the penalty of death by crucifixion." "Yes, I know." "You fool." "You blind, drugged, self-deceiving fool." "Can't you understand?" "There'll be no Joseph to take you down, no tomb for you to recover in." "You'll lie out there for two days until they break the joints in your legs, and your heart bursts with the rush of blood." "And they will throw your body into the common grave." "There's no indignity in being buried with one's friends." "Oh, I wish I could make you understand how... how unimportant the act of dying is." "This is your whole life, and it hangs on one word... one word of denial." "What else is what dying or living for but to give witness to the truth?" "So this is the end that your pernicious faith has brought us to?" "You prefer to die?" "Death is your ultimate insolence," "Your final gesture of outrageous egotism?" "Damn it!" "March to your death tomorrow, singing and praising the divine mercy while they batter the nails into your hands and feet!" "There's no need to describe it." "I've seen it often enough." "And what will I do?" "Resign my post to stop signing your death warrant?" "You can try to understand if I can find words that you will understand." "You asked me what I found on my journey." "I have found that in very truth, Jesus is the Son of God, but he's also the search." "He's the thirst for freedom and the hunger for knowledge." "He's an infinite number of resurrections over the deaths of outlived ideas." "He moves in the restless mind and in the heart that cannot be satisfied." "He's the storm of hope and the center of change." "He's everything that is undaunted and passionate and undiscovered." "He was no fireside philosopher that one could follow in ease and comfort." "He offered only the unyielding struggle to become master of one's self and a servant of God." "And so we search." "We leave everything, our families, our homes, our duty to one another, even our respect as human beings." "And for what?" "To pay tribute to a man who performed only one genuine miracle before founding a religion on a miracle that never happened." "No, but it did happen, and it goes on happening every day." "There's a new world coming into being." "I would go doubly happy if I knew that you would be a part of it." "I prefer to stand by the world I know." "I will send you the oath at dawn tomorrow." "You have 12 hours to reconsider your decision." "Then they'll bring the crosses?" "Don't think of me tomorrow." "I shall be well armed and well protected." "And I shall pray for you my darling." "Until my final breath, I shall pray that for you too one day, you will be granted the miracle of sight." "They refused to sign the oath, My Lord." "They must learn or they must be taught to learn." "It is the law." "The law." "What does it matter what they believe?" "Let them go, My Lord." "But it does matter, and they know it." "It is all that matters, what you believe." "Caesar or Christ, what you believe." "[SOBBING]" "She was everything I had, everything I ever cared for." "PROCULA (VOICEOVER):" "What else is worth dying for but to give witness to the truth..." "To give witness to the true..." "To give witness to the truth." "Manlius, tell the executioner to stop." "Let them go." "Let them go." "I built my life on my belief in a Roman world and on my love for one woman." "I don't know where I failed." "VOICE:" "What is truth?" "What is truth?" "What is truth?" "This is your answer?" "The answer you never gave?" "I asked you what is truth, and you kept silent." "This is the only answer you ever had." "NARRATOR:" "The crucifixion was done, but nothing was settled." "Nothing was ended." "The agony goes on and has never been stilled." "Roman soldiers drove the first nails through those hands and feet." "Were they the crucifiers?" "No, not alone." "Was it Rome?" "1,900 years ago, yes, in part." "So in part was the emissary of Rome and a few men in high places who were jealous of their position and who were afraid." "But not the people of Rome, who knew nothing about it, nor the people of Judea, many of whom loved and followed the one who had died on the cross." "But this is not answer enough, for the crucifixion still goes on." "Every hour of every day, the agony is reenacted." "This is the season of reminder to look to ourselves." "The guilt or innocence is in our own hearts, for anyone today as then who lives in fear, anyone who would secure his own well-being by sacrificing this principles, anyone who would still his conscience to his own gain, anyone who would" "by false dealing or false report cause hurt to another, anyone who would throw the blame for Jesus' death on another man, another race, or another people, is himself crucifying Christ again." "Look to ourselves." "It is only we every hour of every day who cause the agony to go on." "Now, let's pause a moment, look again at our Westinghouse program with Betty Furness." "Freedom from cooking drudgery." "Say, I guess all women are interested in that." "You bet we are." "And that's why I'm so interested in showing you this Westinghouse Commander electric range." "For instance, here is freedom from wasted time in the kitchen." "What is it?" "It's by far the fastest cooking surface unit on the market today." "It's the sensational Westinghouse Super Corox Unit." "You just turn it on, back here, and it's hot right now, and red hot in 30 seconds." "It gets your cooking off to a faster start." "You can even fry bacon and eggs in just three minutes from a cold start." "And here's something else I want to show you." "It's the wonderful Westinghouse two level speed cooker." "In the well position, like this, it's perfect for stews, deep fat frying, and lots of other cooking jobs." "But suppose you want a fourth surface unit?" "Well, you just lift it up like that, give it a turn to the side, and there." "You have a fourth surface unit." "And each one of these four surface units brings you freedom from watching the pot, because these color glance controls up here each give you five different speeds of heat, and they're measured with absolute scientific accuracy to give you just the right heat for each food." "And this wonderful Westinghouse Commander range gives you freedom from baking troubles too." "And that's because in this miracle sealed oven, you get perfect baking results every time." "That's because the heat is so evenly distributed that you can bake in any rack position." "And look." "All around here there is a seal of fiberglass." "That's a Westinghouse exclusive." "And that seals the heat right in the oven." "Oh, and that remind me." "When you cook the Westinghouse electric way, you're free from an overheated kitchen, and you're free too from all the grease and grime that forms on walls and curtains from other kinds of cooking." "So go to the Freedom Fair at your Westinghouse dealers, and see this most perfect, most modern range that you ever set eyes on." "I know you'll be thrilled with it." "And remember, you can be sure if it's Westinghouse." "NARRATOR:" "And now Betty Furness wants to show you a picture of freedom." "Here they are again, those great Westinghouse appliances that are now on display in the Freedom Fair at your Westinghouse dealers." "They bring you hours of freedom from drudgery every day." "Here's the frost-free refrigerator." "It brings you freedom from the nuisance of defrosting." "And Westinghouse electric sink frees you forever from washing dishes." "And here is freedom from cooking drudgery in the new Westinghouse electric range." "And here are America's favorite laundry twins, the Westinghouse laundromat and the clothes dryer." "They free you from all the work of washing and drying clothes." "And the Westinghouse electric heater frees you from waiting for precious hot water." "It keeps water hot always and at low cost." "And here is real freedom from the messy chore of emptying garbage." "The wonderful Westinghouse Waste-Away." "See for yourself how these great Westinghouse appliances bring new freedom into your home." "And remember, your own Westinghouse dealer invites you to come to the Freedom Fair."