Monty Python's Life of Brian

Monty Python's Life Of Brian is a 1979 comedy by Monty Python, which deals with the life of Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman), a young man born on the same night as Jesus, and right down the street from him as well.

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the greatest comedy film of all time. In 2004 the same magazine named it the 5th greatest British film of all time. On the IMDb, the film is consistently ranked among the top 100 films of all time.

Synopsis

Brian (Graham Chapman) is born in the stable a few doors down from the one in which Jesus was born (a fact which initially confuses the three wise men come to praise him, as they must instead put up with his boorish mother Mandy). He grows up to be an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea. While attending the Sermon on the Mount he becomes infatuated with an attractive young rebel, who persuades him to join one of the many fractious and bickering separatist movements plotting to strike at the Roman occupiers. His first assignment as a rebel is an attempt at scrawling some graffiti on the wall of the governor's palace. This succeeds beyond his wildest dreams when he is caught by a passing Roman guard who, in disgust at Brian's use of improper Latin grammar, reacts in a manner resembling that of an old-fashioned English grammar school teacher, and forces him to copy out the 'correct' message one hundred times as 'punishment'.

Unfortunately, a failed raid on the palace, a resulting series of unfortunate coincidences, and some meaningless babble recited as an attempt to avoid the Roman guards, leads a small army of people to come to regard Brian as the Messiah. Despite his best efforts to convince people that this isn't the case and try and use his influence to get people to embrace their individuality and not rely on authority figures (advice which is merely parrotted unthinkingly back at him), he is arrested, sentenced to death, crucified, and abandoned by anyone who could possibly help him. Still, by the closing credits he is persuaded to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".

Analysis

Monty Python's Life Of Brian is essentially a classic farce and is eloquently summed up by Brian's mother (played by Terry Jones), saying 'He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy.' This notwithstanding, the film is variously seen as a critique of excessive religiosity, a satire depicting organised and popular religion as a racket involving hypocrisy and zealotry, a sacrilegious film 'deserving censorship', or just a very funny movie.

It also pokes fun at revolutionary groups by featuring several factions that are nominally protesting against the Roman occupation of Judea, but are in fact more at loggerheads with one another (examples include 'The Judean People's Front', 'The People's Front of Judea', and (with only one member) 'The Judean Popular People's Front')^*. According to the DVD commentary, this part of the story is a satire on the multiplication of ineffectual left-wing parties in Britain in the 1970s. These revolutionary groups would splinter every few weeks, and be angrier at each other than they were at the British government.

The film contains all of the members of Monty Python in multiple roles, and also features cameos by Spike Milligan(who happened to be on holiday in Tunisia where the filming was taking place) as a Prophet ignored because his Acolytes are chasing after Brian, and George Harrison (without whom the film would not have been made — since Harrison set up Handmade Films to help fund it after the subject matter scared off the original backers, EMI Films). Chris Langham also appears as a centurion.

Either by accident or design, several characters are never named during the film, although they do have names which are used in the tracklisting for the soundtrack album and elsewhere. There is no mention of the fact that Eric Idle's ever-cheerful joker is called 'Mr. Cheeky', that the terribly well-meaning Roman guard played by Michael Palin is (aptly) named 'Nisus Wettus', or that Brian's mother (Terry Jones) is named 'Mandy'.

The movie's critical moment seems to be when Brian speaks to a large crowd of his followers:

Brian: 'Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, you don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for yourselves! You're ALL individuals!'

The Crowd (speaking in unison): 'Yes! We're all individuals!'

Brian: 'You're all different!'

The Crowd (in unison): 'Yes, we ARE all different!'

Man in crowd: 'I'm not...'

The Crowd: 'Shhh!'

Main cast

A listing of all the characters given actual names in the script, or with a spoken role. The Pythons (especially Gilliam) each also played various bystanders and hangers on. The Pythons themselves are listed first (in alphabetical order) followed by the rest of the cast in order of appearance.

Graham Chapman - Brian, Biggus Dickus, 1st wise man
John Cleese - Reg, Jewish official at stoning, Centurion of the Yard, Deadly Dirk, Arthur, 3rd wise man.
Terry Gilliam - Blood and Thunder prophet, Geoffrey, Jailer
Eric Idle - Mr Cheeky, Stan called Loretta, Harry the Haggler, Culprit woman who casts first stone, Intensely dull youth, Otto, Jailer's assistant, Mr Frisbee IIIrd
Terry Jones - The Virgin Mandy, Colin, Simon the Holy Man, Bob Hoskins, Saintly passer by.
Michael Palin - Mr Big Nose, Francis, Mrs A, Ex-leper, Ben, Pontius Pilate, Boring Prophet, Eddie, Nisus Wettus, 2nd wise man.
Ken Colley - Jesus the Christ
Gwen Taylor - Mrs Big Nose, Woman with sick donkey, young girl
Terence Baylor - Gregory, Dennis
Carol Cleveland - Mrs Gregory, Elsie
Charles McKeown - Man further forward (at Mount), Stig, Blind Man
Sue Jones-Davis - Judith
John Young - Matthias
Bernard McKenna - Stoner's Helper, Parvus
Spike Milligan - Spike
George Harrison - Mr Papadopoulis

Lost scenes

A number of scenes were cut from the movie after filming. Most of these were lost in 1998 when the Canadian company that bought Handmade Films destroyed them. However, a number of lost scenes (of varying quality) were shown in 1999 on Paramount Comedy 1 in the UK. It wasn't disclosed how these scenes were saved or where they came from. Presenter, Jonathan Ross merely claiming they had been found "in a black bin bag".

The scenes shown included a Shepherds' scene which would have been at the very start of the movie, a segment showing the kidnap of Pilate's wife (a huge mountain of a woman played by John Case), a scene introducing Otto, the leader of a squad of the Judean People's Front (played by Eric Idle) and a scene in which Pilate's wife alerts Otto to Brian's capture. The Shepherds' scene had badly distorted sound and the kidnap scene had poor colour quality. ^*.

The most controversial cutting was Otto's various scenes. Otto, the leader of the Judean People's Front Crack Suicide Squad was to have been a recurring character. Otto had a thin moustache and spoke with a German accent. The logo of the Judean People's Front was a Star of David with a small line coming from each point as in a swastika. The official reason for the cutting was that Otto's dialogue slowed down the narrative, however, Terry Gilliam writing later for the Monty Python Autobiography said he thought it should have stayed, saying "Listen we've alienated the Christians, let's get the Jews now". Eric Idle was said to have been uncomfortable with the character. He said that Otto could be perceived as "a rabid attack on Zionism, suggesting it's rather akin to Nazism, which is a bit strong to take, but certainly a point of view". The only scene of Otto's remaining in the film is during the crucifixion scene. Otto arrives with his squad, sending the Roman soldiers fleeing in terror. Instead of doing anything useful, they commit suicide in front of the cross, ending Brian's last hope of rescue.

Otto's scenes, and the scenes with Pilate's wife, were cut from the film after the script had gone to the publishers and so they can be found in the published version. Also in this script, after Brian has lead the Fifth Legion to the HQ of the Peoples Front of Judea, Reg (John Cleese) says "You cunt!! You stupid, bird brained, flat headed...". The profanity was overdubbed to "you klutz" before the film was released. John approved of this editing as he felt the reaction to the four letter word would "get in the way of the comedy".

Blasphemy allegations

The film initially attracted some complaints about Michael Palin and Graham Chapman's portrayals of characters with speech impediments (e.g. Biggus Dickus), but Palin insisted that this was solely for humorous purposes. Indeed, his father had a stammer, and he has since both given his name to and supported 'The Michael Palin Centre'^*, which offers 'specialist assessment and therapy service in stammering'. However, what caused the most contention was the film's supposed blasphemous content.

Protests against the film were organised based on its perceived blasphemy, not the least of which because the film ends with a comical song sung by the victims of a mass crucifixion ("Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"). Ironically, this song was later re-released with great success, after being sung by British football fans. The increase in popularity, though, became evident in 1982 during the Falklands War when British sailors, injured in an Argentine attack, started singing it. Indeed, many people have come to see the song as a life-affirming ode to optimism. ("Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" is also featured in Eric Idle's Spamalot, a Broadway musical loosely based upon Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and was sung by the rest of the Monty Python Gang at Graham Chapman's Funeral.)

On its initial release in the UK, the film was banned by several town councils (some of which had no cinemas within their boundaries). The film was also banned for eight years in the Republic of Ireland and for a year in Norway (it was marketed in Sweden as 'the movie that is so funny, it was banned in Norway!'). The film was not released in Italy until 1990, eleven years after it was made. The film was not shown in Jersey until 2001. The Bailiff of Jersey, Frank Ereaut's government, wanted it to be watched only by adults, even though the BBFC rated it suitable for those aged 14 or over.

Accusations of blasphemy also centred on an off-the-cuff comment by Eric Idle who, when asked about the name of the Pythons' forthcoming feature before it had been made, replied "Jesus Christ: Lust For Glory". It has been variously reported, however, that this idea was merely one of a number abandoned at an early brain-storming stage, mainly when it became clear that a parody of Jesus' life just would not work or, as the Pythons put it, 'we discovered (after extensive research) that Jesus's ways are unknockable' .

The focus shifted to a separate individual born at a similar time, and a legend was born. When Jesus does appear in the film (as he does on two occasions — in the stable and speaking the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-48)), he is portrayed according to Christian beliefs. The comedy only begins when members of the crowd mishear his statement 'Blessed are the Peacemakers...' ('I think he said, "blessed are the cheesemakers"'; also, later, there is some debate on whether the 'Greek' should inherit the Earth).

Mary Whitehouse and other campaigners launched waves of leaflets and picketing at and around cinemas that showed the film, ironically boosting the publicity. Leaflets suggesting that the Wise Men would not have approached the wrong stable (as they do in the opening of the film), and similar arguments are documented in the Robert Hewison book Monty Python: The Case Against. Shortly after the film was released, Cleese and Palin engaged in a debate over it on the BBC2 discussion programme Friday Night, Saturday Morning, in which Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark put the case against the film. Cleese has frequently said that he enjoyed the debate, since he felt that the film was 'completely intellectually defensible'. (The debate itself was then sent up, the following week, in a classic sketch from Not the Nine O'Clock News, entitled "General Synod's Life Of Christ".)

For their part, the Pythons contend on the DVD commentary that the film is heretical because it lampoons the practices of modern organised religion, but does not blasphemously lampoon the God that Christians worship.

Re-releases

On 24 March 2004, CNN reported that the film distributor Rainbow Film Company would be issuing a re-release (marketed as a "Second Coming") of Monty Python's Life Of Brian on April 30 2004, in Los Angeles and New York before expanding to other cities across the USA through May 2004. This was variously reported to be a direct result of the release of Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, or the 25th anniversary of the original theatrical release of Life Of Brian.

Spin-offs

Spin-offs include a script-book The Life Of Brian Of Nazareth, which is backed by the aptly named MONTYPYTHONSCRAPBOOK... (The printing of this book also caused problems, since there are rarely-used technical laws in the UK against 'blasphemy' dictating what can and cannot be written about religion—the publisher refused to print both halves of the book, and original prints were by two companies).

An album of the songs sung in Monty Python's Life of Brian has been released on the Disky label.

Cultural references

Naughtius Maximus, the supposed name of Brian's father which is given by his mother Mandy, is also the name of a Malaysian hip hop band.

Outsider musician Del Rivers' single Second in Line is a tribute to the character of Brian.

References

External links

Entire movie script
Transcript of the sketch The General Synod's Life of Christ
Keith Short - Film Sculptor Image of giant feet sculpted for this film
George Perry essay at criterionco.com
An explanation of the Latin used in the "Romans Go Home" scene

Reviews

Literature

Hewison, Robert. Monty Python: The Case Against. New York: Grove, 1981. (ISBN 0413486605) This book discusses at length the censorship and controversy surrounding the film.

1979 films | Dramatic portrayals of Jesus | Monty Python films | English-language films

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