Comprehensive information and links about Life of Brian

Life of Brian is a 1979 film by Monty Python which deals with the life of Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman), a young man born nearly the same time as, and right down the street from, Jesus.

In 2000, readers of 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 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 stunning critique of excessive religiosity, a satire depicting organised and popular religion as a racket involving hypocrisy and religious zealotry, a sacrilegious film "deserving censorship," or just a very funny movie.

It also pokes fun at revolutionary grouplets of the 1970s 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').[1]

The film contains all 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) 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). 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 JonesLife of Brian is named "Mandy".

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 Mr. Palin insisted that this was solely for humorous purposes. Indeed, his father had a stammer, and he himself gives his name to 'The Michael Palin Centre', which offers "specialist assessment and therapy service in stammering." However, what caused most contention was the film's supposed blasphemous content.

Protests against the film were organised based on its perceived blasphemy, not least 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. Indeed, many people have come to see the song as a life-affirming ode to optimism. ("The Bright Side Of Life" is also featured in Eric Idle's )

On its initial UK release the film was banned by some town councils (several even took great pleasure in banning it, even though they had no cinemas within their boundaries). This proved rather pointless, since people who wanted to see the film merely went to places where it was not banned. 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 on Jersey until 2001. The Bailiff of Jersey 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, asked about the name of the Pythons' forthcoming feature, 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 book (ISBN 0413486605). Shortly after the film was released, Cleese and Palin engaged in a debate over it on the BBC2 discussion programme , 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 was then itself sent up the following week in the classic .)

The central tenet of the film can be summed up as the struggle between 'individual humanism' and conformity, as is demonstrated in this excerpt:

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 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 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 are printed by two companies).

An audio recording of . New York: Grove, 1981. (ISBN 0413486605) This book discusses at length the censorship and controversy surrounding the film.