Monty Python's Life of Brian


Monty Python's Life of Brian is a 1979 British surreal biblical black comedy film starring and written by the comedy group Monty Python. It was directed by Jones. The film tells the story of Brian Cohen, a young Judaean man who is born on the same day as—and next door to—Jesus, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah.
Following the withdrawal of funding by EMI Films just days before production was scheduled to begin, musician and former Beatle George Harrison and his business partner Denis O'Brien arranged financing for Life of Brian through the formation of their HandMade Films company.
The film's themes of religious satire were controversial at the time of its release, drawing accusations of blasphemy and protests from some religious groups. In the United Kingdom, the film was given an AA rating by the British Board of Film Classification, though 11 local councils outright banned the film, while a further 28 raised the rating from AA to X across their jurisdictions. Some countries, including Ireland and Norway, banned its showing; and, in a few of these, such as Italy, bans lasted over a decade. The filmmakers used the notoriety to promote the film, with posters in Sweden reading, "So funny it was banned in Norway!"
The film was a box office success. It was the fourth highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom in 1979 and the highest-grossing of any British film in the United States that year. It has remained popular and has been named as the greatest comedy film of all time by several magazines and television networks, and it later received a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus reading, "One of the more cutting-edge films of the 1970s, this religious farce from the classic comedy troupe is as poignant as it is funny and satirical." In a 2006 Channel 4 poll, Life of Brian was ranked first on their list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films.

Plot

Brian Cohen is born in a stable next door to Jesus, which initially confuses the three wise men who come to praise the future King of the Jews. He grows up into an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea.
While listening to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Brian becomes infatuated with a young rebel named Judith Iscariot. His desire for her and hatred of the Romans, further exacerbated by his scolding mother, Mandy Cohen, revealing that Brian himself is half-Roman, inspire him to join the "People's Front of Judea". This is one of many fractious and bickering independence movements that spend more time fighting each other than the Romans.
PFJ leader Reg tasks Brian to paint slogans overnight on Roman governor Pontius Pilate's palace, but a Roman officer catches him in the act. However, the officer shows more concern with Brian's Latin grammar than the act itself, and after correcting the slogan to "Romani ite domum", orders him to write it on the wall one hundred times. Brian finishes after sunrise and is chased by guards before being rescued by Judith.
Reg gives a revolutionary speech to the PFJ asking, "What have the Romans ever done for us?" At this point the listeners outline all forms of positive aspects of the Roman occupation such as sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, public health and peace. He then outlines plans to kidnap Pilate's wife.
However, inside Pilate's palace, the PFJ encounters another revolutionary group, the Campaign for a Free Galilee; an argument ensues over who came up with the plan first and everyone except Brian is knocked unconscious, leading Brian to be captured by the palace guards. The guards bring Brian before Pilate, but his questioning is cut short when the guards laugh uncontrollably after Pilate mentions the name of his friend, Biggus Dickus, and his wife, Incontinentia Buttocks.
After escaping from the Romans, Brian is accidentally scooped up by a passing extraterrestrial spaceship that crash-lands back on Earth. He tries to blend in among prophets who are preaching in a busy plaza, repeating fragments of Jesus' sermons. He stops his sermon mid-sentence when some Roman soldiers depart, leaving his small but intrigued audience demanding to know more. Brian grows frantic when people chase him to the mountains, and there they declare him to be the Messiah.
After spending the night with Judith, Brian discovers an enormous crowd of followers assembled outside his mother's house. Her attempts at dispersing the crowd are rebuffed. Although Brian tells them they need to think for themselves and that they are all individuals, they ironically parrot his words as doctrine.
The PFJ seeks to exploit Brian's celebrity status by having him minister to a thronging crowd of followers demanding miracle cures. Brian sneaks out the back, only to be captured by the Romans and sentenced to crucifixion. In celebration of Passover, a crowd has assembled outside the palace of Pilate, who offers to pardon a prisoner of their choice as a show of friendship between the Romans and the people of Judea.
However, the crowd shouts out names containing the letter "r", to mock Pilate's speech impediment, and are further amused by his friend Biggus's lisp, which causes them to laugh uncontrollably. Eventually, Judith appears in the crowd, who frantically calls for the release of Brian, which the crowd parrots. Realising that one of the prisoners is really named Brian, Pilate agrees to "welease Bwian".
The guards eventually catch up to Brian, who is already on the cross. But in a scene that parodies the climax of the film Spartacus, various crucified people all claim to be Brian, and the wrong man is freed.
Brian is successively approached and then abandoned by the PFJ, who praise his martyrdom; the Judean People's Front, who commit mass suicide as a form of political protest; Judith; and his mother. As Brian sinks to despair, the convict beside him offers a cheerful song, which Brian and the other convicts join in with.

Cast

Several characters remained unnamed during the film but do have names that are used in the soundtrack album track listing and elsewhere. There is no mention in the film that Eric Idle's ever-cheerful joker is called "Mr Cheeky", or that the Roman guard played by Michael Palin is named "Nisus Wettus".
Spike Milligan appears as a prophet, ignored because his acolytes are chasing after Brian. By coincidence Milligan was visiting his old World War II battlefields in Tunisia where the film was being made. The Pythons were alerted to this and he was included in the scene being filmed that morning. He left in the afternoon before he could be included in any of the close-up or publicity shots for the film.

Production

Pre-production

There are various stories about the origins of Life of Brian. Shortly after the release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Eric Idle flippantly suggested that the title of the Pythons' forthcoming feature would be Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory. This was after he had become frustrated at repeatedly being asked what it would be called, despite the troupe not having given the matter of a third film any consideration. However, they shared a distrust of organised religion, and, after witnessing the critically acclaimed Holy Grails enormous financial turnover, confirming an appetite among the fans for more cinematic endeavours, they began to seriously consider a film lampooning the New Testament era in the same way that Holy Grail had lampooned Arthurian legend. All they needed was an idea for a plot. Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam, while promoting Holy Grail in Amsterdam, had come up with a sketch in which Jesus' cross is falling apart because of the idiotic carpenters who built it and he angrily tells them how to do it correctly. However, after an early brainstorming stage, and despite being non-believers, they agreed that Jesus was "definitely a good guy" and found nothing to mock in his actual teachings: "He's not particularly funny, what he's saying isn't mockable, it's very decent stuff", said Idle later. After settling on the name Brian for their new protagonist, one idea considered was that of "the 13th disciple". The focus eventually shifted to a separate individual born at a similar time and location who would be mistaken for the Messiah, but had no desire to be followed as such.
The first draft of the screenplay, provisionally titled The Gospel According to St. Brian, was ready by Christmas 1976. The final pre-production draft was ready in January 1978, following "a concentrated two-week writing and water-skiing period in Barbados".
Finance originally came from EMI Films under Michael Deeley and Barry Spikings - EMI had distributed Holy Grail. However head of EMI, Bernard Delfont, was scared off at the last minute by the subject matter and pulled finance. Python fan and former Beatle George Harrison set up HandMade Films along with Denis O'Brien to help fund the film at a cost of £3 million. Harrison put up the money for it as he "wanted to see the movie"—later described by Terry Jones as the "world's most expensive cinema ticket". The very last words in the film are: "I said to him, 'Bernie, they'll never make their money back on this one'", teasing Delfont for his lack of faith in the project. 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."
As a reward for his help, Harrison appears in a cameo appearance as Mr. Papadopoulos, "owner of the Mount", who briefly shakes hands with Brian in a crowd scene. His one word of dialogue had to be dubbed in later by Michael Palin.