Monty Python's Life of Brian

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Monty Python's Life of Brian
Directed by Terry Jones
Produced by John Goldstone
Written by Graham Chapman
John Cleese
Terry Gilliam
Eric Idle
Terry Jones
Michael Palin
Starring Graham Chapman
John Cleese
Terry Gilliam
Eric Idle
Terry Jones
Michael Palin
Music by Geoffrey Burgon
Distributed by Warner Bros./
Orion Pictures Corporation (USA)
Handmade Films (UK)
Release date(s) August 17, 1979
Running time 94 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Preceded by Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Followed by Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 Comedy film written and performed by the Monty Python comedy team. It tells the story of Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman), a young man born at the same time as Jesus Christ, who is mistaken for the Messiah.

The film was controversial because of its combination of comedy and religious themes. However, it has also been popular with viewers: in 2000, readers of the British Total Film magazine voted it the greatest comedy film of all time;[1] in 2004, the same magazine named it the 5th greatest British film of all time; in 2006 it was voted the best comedy movie of all time on two separate polls conducted by the British TV channels Channel 4 and Five.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Brian Cohen is born in a stable a few doors from the one in which Jesus is born, a fact which initially confuses the three wise men who come to praise the baby Jesus, as they must put up with Brian's boorish mother Mandy until they realize their mistake. Brian grows up an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea, even after learning his father was a Roman Centurion - Naughtius Maximus - who may have raped Brian's mother initially, with her claiming "well, at first, yes". While attending Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he becomes infatuated with the attractive young female rebel, Judith. His desire for Judith and hatred for the Romans lead him to join the People's Front of Judea, one of many factious and bickering separatist movements who spend more time fighting each other than the Romans. The group's cynical leader Reg gives Brian his first assignment as a rebel: an attempt at scrawling some graffiti ("Romanes eunt domus", poorly translated Latin for "Romans Go Home") on the wall of the governor's palace. He is soon confronted by a passing centurion who, in disgust at Brian's faulty Latin grammar, forces him to write the grammatically correct message ("Romani ite domum") 100 times. The walls of the fortress are covered in text by dawn. When the Roman guards change shift at daybreak, the new guards try to arrest Brian, but he manages to slip away with the help of Judith.

Brian then agrees to participate in a kidnapping plot by the resistance, which fails miserably (due to a clash with an "enemy" separatist faction intent on the same mission) and forces him to go on the run again. After a series of misadventures, the fugitive winds up in a motley group of mystics and prophets who harangue the passing crowd in a plaza. Forced to come up with something plausible in order to blend in, he babbles pseudo-religious nonsense which quickly attracts a small but intrigued audience. Once the Roman guards have left, Brian tries to put the episode behind him, but has unintentionally inspired a movement; and a crowd begins to follow him around, with even the slightest unusual occurrence being hailed as a "miracle." After slipping away from the mob (who are busy persecuting a "heretic") and spending the night with Judith, he discovers that an enormous crowd proclaiming him the Messiah has formed outside his Mother's house. Appalled, Brian is helpless to change the people's minds, as his every word and action are immediately seized as a point of doctrine.

The Romans finally catch the hapless Brian and he is scheduled to be crucified. Pontius Pilate asks the crowd who he should pardon, but is fed various "fake" names intended to highlight his speech disorder e.g. pronouncing Roger as Woger, much to their amusement. Pilate eventually orders Brian's release, but in a moment parodying the climax of the film Spartacus, the various crucified people all claim to be "Brian of Nazareth", and the wrong man is released. Abandoned by anyone who might be able to help him, the actual Brian remains hanging in the hot sun, and is told by his fellow sufferers, in song, to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".

[edit] Cast and characters

Chapman as Brian Cohen in Life of Brian
Chapman as Brian Cohen in Life of Brian

The following is a list of all the characters given actual names in the script, or with a spoken role. All names and character descriptions are taken from the published script.[2] Each Python (especially Terry Gilliam) 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.

Several characters are never named during the film but do have names which are used in the tracklisting for the soundtrack album and elsewhere. There is no mention in the film of the fact that Eric Idle's ever-cheerful joker is called 'Mr. Cheeky', or that the terribly well-meaning Roman guard played by Michael Palin is named 'Nisus Wettus'.

Spike Milligan had an unplanned cameo as a prophet ignored because his acolytes are chasing after Brian. By coincidence he was visiting World War II battlefields in Tunisia where the film was being made, turned up one morning, was promptly included in the scene that just happened to be being filmed, and disappeared again in the afternoon before he could be included in any of the close-up or publicity shots for the film.[3]

[edit] Production

Cameo by executive producer George Harrison (right)
Cameo by executive producer George Harrison (right)

There are various stories about the origins of Life of Brian. Shortly after the release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Eric Idle suggested that the title of the Pythons' forthcoming feature would be Jesus Christ – Lust for Glory (the title being a joking homage to the UK title for the 1970 American film Patton).[4] It has been variously reported, however, that this idea was merely one of a number abandoned at an early brain-storming stage, when it became clear that a parody of Jesus' life just would not work "because he's not particularly funny, what he's saying isn't mockable, it's very decent stuff..."[5] According to the DVD commentary, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam, while promoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Amsterdam, came up with a sketch in which Jesus' cross was falling apart because of the idiotic carpenters who built it and he angrily tells them how to do it correctly. Another idea considered was that of St. Brian, "the thirteenth disciple".[4] The focus eventually shifted to a separate individual born at a similar time.

Writing began in December 1976, with a first draft completed by mid-1977. The final pre-production draft was ready in January 1978, following "a concentrated two week writing and water-skiing period in Barbados".[6] The film would not have been made without George Harrison, who set up Handmade Films to help fund it at a cost of £3 million, after the subject matter scared off the original backers, EMI Films, and particularly Bernard, Lord Delfont.[4] Terry Gilliam later said, "They pulled out on the Thursday. The crew was supposed to be leaving on the Saturday. Disastrous. It was because they read the script... finally."[7] Harrison appears in a cameo role as Mr. Papadopoulos, owner of "The Mount", who shakes hands with Brian. As a result, the very last words in the film are: "We'll never make our money back on this one, Bernard", teasing Delfont for his lack of faith in the project.

The film was shot on location in Monastir, Tunisia, which allowed the production to reuse sets from Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth (1977).[8] Many locals were employed as extras on Life of Brian. Director Terry Jones noted, "They were all very knowing because they'd all worked for Franco Zeffirelli on Jesus of Nazareth, so I had these elderly Tunisians telling me, 'Well, Mr Zeffirelli wouldn't have done it like that, you know.'"[7] Graham Chapman, an alcoholic, was so determined to play the lead role that he dried out in time for filming.[3] Following shooting between 16 September and 12 November 1978,[6] a two-hour-long rough cut of the film was put together for its first private showing in January 1979. Over the next few months Life of Brian was re-edited and re-screened a number of times for different preview audiences before the final cut was complete, losing a number of filmed sequences entirely (see Lost scenes below).[4]

[edit] Religious satire and blasphemy accusations

The film has been seen as a critique of excessive religiosity, a religious satire depicting organised and popular religion as hypocritical and fanatical. The film's satire on unthinking religious devotion is epitomised by Brian's attempt to persuade an enormous crowd of his followers to think for themselves:

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 (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!

The film also satirises the tendency to interpret banal incidents as "signs from God". For example, when Brian loses his shoe and his over-zealous followers declare it to be a sign.

The representation of Christ alongside comedy proved controversial. 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"). On its initial release in the UK, the film was banned by several town councils – some of which had no cinemas within their boundaries, or had not even seen the film for themselves. A member of Harrogate council, one of those that banned the film, revealed during a television interview that the council had not seen the film, and had based their opinion on what they had been told by the Nationwide Festival of Light, of which they knew nothing.[3] In New York, screenings were picketed by both rabbis and nuns ("Nuns with banners!", contends Michael Palin)[5] while the film was banned outright in some American states.[4] It was also banned for eight years in the Republic of Ireland and for a year in Norway (it was marketed in Sweden as '"The film so funny that it was banned in Norway").[9]

Cleese and Palin defending the film on Friday Night, Saturday Morning.
Cleese and Palin defending the film on Friday Night, Saturday Morning.

In the UK, Mary Whitehouse and other campaigners launched waves of leaflets and picketed at and around cinemas that showed the film, ironically boosting the publicity.[citation needed] Leaflets arguing against the film's representation of the New Testament (for example, suggesting that the Wise Men would not have approached the wrong stable as they do in the opening of the film) were documented in Robert Hewison's book Monty Python: The Case Against. Shortly after the film was released, Cleese and Palin engaged in a debate about it on the BBC2 discussion programme Friday Night, Saturday Morning, in which Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood, the Bishop of Southwark, put the case against the film. Muggeridge and the Bishop had arrived 15 minutes late to see a screening of the picture prior to the debate, missing the establishing scenes which demonstrated that Brian and Jesus were two different characters, and hence contended that it was a send-up of Christ himself.[5]

One of the most controversial scenes was Brian's Crucifixion; most Christian protestors said that it was mocking as it was supposed to be when Jesus suffered and forgave sins and they turned it into a "Boys Day Out" (such as when Mr Cheeky turns to Brian and says: "See, It's not so bad when you get up here") and into a further sing-song. Director Terry Jones said in an interview as a reply to this scene: "Any religion that makes a form of torture into an icon that they worship seems to me a pretty sick sort of religion quite honestly".[3]

The Pythons contend on the DVD audio commentary that the film is heretical because it lampoons the practices of modern organised religion, but that it does not blasphemously lampoon the God that Christians worship. When Jesus does appear in the film – as he does on two occasions, in the stable and speaking the Beatitudes (Gospel of Matthew 5:1-48) – he is portrayed according to Christian beliefs and distinct from the character of Brian. The comedy occurs as members of the crowd mishear his statement "Blessed are the peacemakers…": "I think he said, 'Blessed are the cheesemakers'". Later, there is some debate on whether "the Greek" should inherit the earth.

There was a brief exchange that occurred when the surviving Pythons reunited in Aspen, Colorado in 1998 for a show that was broadcast on HBO and has since become available on video. The appearance was billed as the “U.S. Comedy Arts Festival Tribute to Monty Python,” although video releases have gone by varying titles, including “Monty Python Live at Aspen (1998).” The program mostly consists of an interview, on stage, by U.S. comedian Robert Klein. In the section where Life of Brian is being discussed, Terry Jones says, “I think the film is heretical, but it’s not blasphemous.” Eric Idle can be heard to concur, adding, “It’s a heresy.” However, John Cleese, disagreeing, counters, “I don’t think it’s a heresy. It’s making fun of the way that people misunderstand the teaching.” Jones responds, “Of course it’s a heresy, John! It’s attacking the Church! And that has to be heretical.” Cleese replies, “No, it’s not attacking the Church, necessarily. It’s about people who cannot agree with each other.”

The film continues to cause controversy; in February 2007 the Church of St Thomas the Martyr in Newcastle upon Tyne held a public screening in the church itself, with song-sheets, organ accompaniment, stewards in costume and false beards for female members of the audience to wear (alluding to a scene in the film where a group of women disguise themselves as men so that they are able to take part in a stoning). Whilst the screening was a sell-out, some Christian groups, notably Christian Voice, were highly critical of the decision to show it. The Revd. Jonathan Adams, one of the church's clergy, defended the showing of the film, saying that it did not mock Jesus, and that it raised important issues about the hypocrisy and stupidity that can affect religion. Stephen Green of Christian Voice, however, insisted that "You don't promote Christ to the community by taking the mick out of him".[10]

The film also pokes fun at revolutionary groups opposing the Roman occupation of Judea, who are in fact more at odds with one another, trying to out-do each other in charisma and infamy, and calling each other "splitters" – examples include "The Judean People's Front", "The Peoples' Front of Judea", and (with only one member) "The Popular Front of Judea". According to the DVD commentary, this part of the story is a satire on the multiplication of ineffectual left-wing parties in Britain during the 1970s: these revolutionary groups would splinter every few weeks, and be angrier at each other than they were at the British government.

[edit] Lost scenes

A number of scenes were cut from the movie after filming. Most of these were lost in 1998 when they were destroyed by the company that bought Handmade Films. However, a number of lost scenes (of varying quality) were shown in 1999 on Paramount Comedy Channel in the UK; it has not been 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". [11]

The scenes shown included the shepherds' gathering, 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, leader 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 has badly distorted sound, and the kidnap scene has poor colour quality.[12] All can now be found on the Criterion Collection DVD.

The most controversial cuts were the scenes involving Otto, the leader of the Judean People's Front Crack Suicide Squad, who had a thin moustache and spoke with a German accent. Otto was to have been a recurring character. 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 in The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons, 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 pretty savage attack on rabid Zionism, suggesting it's rather akin to Nazism, which is a bit strong to take, but certainly a point of view".[5] Michael Palin's personal journal entries from the period when various edits of "Brian" were being test-screened consistently reference the Pythons' and filmmakers' concerns that the "Otto" scenes were slowing the film down and thus were ripe for cutting.[13]

The only scene with Otto that remains 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 mass suicide in front of the cross, ending Brian's last hope of rescue. They do however show some signs of life during the famous rendition of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" when they are seen waving their toes in unison in time to the music.

Otto's scenes, and those 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 of the script. Also present is a scene where, after Brian has led the Fifth Legion to the headquarters of the People's Front of Judea, Reg (John Cleese) says "You cunt!! You stupid, bird brained, flat headed..."[14] The profanity was overdubbed to "you klutz" before the film was released. Cleese approved of this editing as he felt the reaction to the four-letter word would 'get in the way of the comedy'.[5]

[edit] Box office

Life of Brian opened on August 17, 1979 in five North American theatres, and grossed an impressive $140,034 USD ($28,007 per screen) in its opening weekend. Its total gross was a strong $19,398,164 USD. It was the highest-grossing British film in North America that year. In addition, the film was the fourth highest-grossing film in Britain in 1979.

On April 30, 2004, Life of Brian was re-released on five North American screens to "cash in" (as Terry Jones put it)[9] on the phenomenal box office success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. It grossed $26,376 USD ($5,275 per screen) in its opening weekend. It ran until October 2004, playing at 28 screens at its widest point, eventually grossing $646,124 USD during its re-release. By comparison, a re-release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail had earned $1.8 million USD three years earlier. A DVD of the film was also released that year.

For the original British release, a spoof travelogue narrated by John Cleese Away from It all, was shown before the film itself. It consisted mostly of stock travelogue footage and featured arch comments from Cleese. For instance, a shot of Bulgarian girls in ceremonial dresses was accompanied by the comment "You'd never believe that these girls were plotting the downfall of Western Civilization as we know it!", Communist Bulgaria being a member of the Warsaw Pact at the time. Not only was this a spoof of travelogues per se, it was a protest against the then-common practice in Britain of showing cheaply made banal short features before a main feature.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Spin-offs

Spin-offs include a script-book The Life of Brian of Nazareth, which is backed by 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).[citation needed]

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was later re-released with great success, after being sung by British football fans. The increase in popularity became evident in 1982 during the Falklands War when British sailors, injured in an Argentine attack, started singing it.[citation needed] Indeed, many people have come to see the song as a life-affirming ode to optimism. The song was also adopted by Manchester United supporters in the early 1990s as a chant.[citation needed] "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 memorial service and at the Monty Python Live At Aspen special.

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

[edit] Oratorio

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With the success of Eric Idle's musical retelling of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, called Spamalot, Idle has recently announced that he will be giving Life of Brian a similar treatment. The oratorio, called Not the Messiah, was commissioned to be part of the festival called Luminato in Toronto, Canada in June 2007, and was written/scored by Idle and John Du Prez, who also worked with Idle on Spamalot. Not the Messiah is a spoof of Handel's famous oratorio Messiah. It runs approximately 50 minutes, and was conducted at its World Premiere by Toronto Symphony Orchestra music director Peter Oundjian, who is Idle's cousin.[15]

Not the Messiah will receive its U.S. Premiere at the Caramoor International Music Festival in Katonah, New York. Cousins Peter Oundjian (Caramoor's Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor) and Eric Idle joined forces once again for a double performance of the oratorio in July 2007.[16]

[edit] Appearances in other media

In a Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch, a bishop who has made a scandalous film called "The Life of Christ" is raked over the coals by a representative of the "Church of Python", claiming that the film is an attack on "Our Lord, John Cleese" and on the members of Python, who, in the sketch, are the subjects of Britain's true religious faith. This was a parody of the "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" program, broadcasted a week previously.

A BBC TV series What The Romans Did For Us, written and presented by Adam Hart-Davis and first broadcast in 2000, takes its title from John Cleese's rhetorical question "What have the Romans ever done for us?" in one of the film's scenes.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his Prime Minister's Question Time of 3 May 2006 made a shorthand (and mistaken) reference to the political groups "Judean People's Front" or "People's Front of Judea" lampooned in Life of Brian.[17][18] This was in response to a question from the MP David Clelland, asking "What has the Labour government ever done for us?" – itself a parody of John Cleese's "What have the Romans ever done for us?"

On New Year's Day 2007, and again on New Year's Eve, UK television station Channel 4 dedicated an entire evening to the Monty Python phenomenon during which an hour-long documentary was broadcast called The Secret Life of Brian about the making of The Life of Brian and the controversy that was caused by its release. The Pythons featured in the documentary and reflected upon the events that surrounded the film. This was followed by a screening of the film itself.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Life of Brian tops comedy poll. BBC News (29 September 2000). Retrieved on 2007-04-03.
  2. ^ Chapman, Graham; Cleese, John; Gilliam, Terry; Idle, Eric; Jones, Terry; Palin, Michael (1979). Monty Python's The Life of Brian/MONTYPYTHONSCRAPBOOKOFBRIANOFNAZARETH. London: Eyre Methuen, script p.3. ISBN 0-413-46550-0. 
  3. ^ a b c d e Channel 4 (1 January 2007). The Secret Life of Brian.
  4. ^ a b c d e Wilmut, Roger (1980). From Fringe to Flying Circus. London: Eyre Methuen Ltd, pp.247-250. ISBN 0-413-46950-6. 
  5. ^ a b c d e Chapman, Graham; Cleese, John; Gilliam, Terry; Idle, Eric; Jones, Terry; Palin, Michael; with McCabe, Bob (2003). The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons. London: Orion Publishing Group, pp.349-387. ISBN 0-7528-5293-0. 
  6. ^ a b Chapman, Graham; et al (1979). Monty Python's The Life of Brian/MONTYPYTHONSCRAPBOOKOFBRIANOFNAZARETH, scrapbook p.4. 
  7. ^ a b Sellers, Robert. "Welease Bwian", The Guardian, March 28, 2003. Retrieved on 2006-11-06. 
  8. ^ Ebert, Roger (June 18, 2004). Monty Python's Life of Brian. Digital Chicago. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
  9. ^ a b Lammers, Tim (May 17, 2004). Python's Jones Passionate About 'Life Of Brian's' Return. WNBC. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
  10. ^ Strife of Brian. The Times.
  11. ^ SOTCAA (2004). Monty Python – Films. UK Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
  12. ^ SOTCAA (2004). Monty Python – Films. UK Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
  13. ^ Michael Palin, "Diaries: The Python Years, 1969-1979"
  14. ^ Chapman, Graham; et al (1979). Monty Python's The Life of Brian/MONTYPYTHONSCRAPBOOKOFBRIANOFNAZARETH, script p.34. 
  15. ^ CBC Arts (October 18, 2006). Python gang reunited as Spamalot opens in London. CBC. Retrieved on 2006-10-18.
  16. ^ Vivien Schweitzer (April 10, 2007). Not the Messiah, Eric Idle's Comic Oratorio, to have U.S. Premiere at Caramoor Festival. PlaybillArts. Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
  17. ^ TheyWorkForYou (3 May 2006). House of Commons Debates. mySociety. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  18. ^ Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, May 3, 2006, column 963

[edit] Further reading

  • Hewison, Robert. Monty Python: The Case Against. New York: Grove, 1981. ISBN 0-413-48660-5. This book discusses at length the censorship and controversy surrounding the film.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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