Monty Python’s Life of Brian ***** (1979, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones) – Classic Movie Review 2,983

Director Terry Jones’s daring 1979 Monty Python movie Monty Python’s Life of Brian is a controversial triumph and probably sees the Pythons at their peak. This inspired and iconic religious spoof is of course again written by and stars Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Jones.

Chapman plays wimpy Brian Cohen who Brian, who is born on the original Christmas Day in the stable next door to Jesus’s. He spends his life being mistaken for a messiah and becomes Brian of Nazareth, a messiah of Christ-like proportions, in the Python team’s hilarious and shockingly irreverent Biblical spoof.

Life of Brian stirred up an enormous blaze of controversy with its cheery onslaught of bad taste religious jokes from its depiction of the virgin birth (Jones as The Virgin Mandy, mother of Brian) to its final crucifixion ironic sing-along song ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’. The song was reused in the musical stage show Spamalot, adapted from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).

Unsurprisingly, it was deemed blasphemous by many Christians, kept off British TV for many years, and many scenes still have a decided shock-value, plus there is a slew of four-letter words too. It was banned in Ireland for blasphemy until 1987. Torbay Council, Devon, refused to show the film until September 2008. Aberystwyth, Wales, finally lifted its local ban in 2009 after cast member Sue Jones-Davies was elected mayor.

39 local authorities in the UK (also including Harrogate, Dudley and Swansea) banned it or gave it an X-rating. In parts of Germany, it is illegal to screen the film on Good Friday, along with nearly 800 other films.

EMI backed out of financing the film because it considered the script blasphemous. The Pythons sued and settled out of court. But Monty Python fan George Harrison created Handmade Films and pawned his home and office building to raise the $4million finance needed – ‘because I want to go see it’. Idle said it was the highest price ever paid for a cinema ticket!

However, blasphemous or not, it is certainly also hysterical and wickedly well observed, lampooning the pomposity of organised religion with a daring panache that finally wins over most open-minded sceptics. The Python performers, playing several parts, are at their most exuberant and hilarious in a variety of strange guises. The six star cast members boldly play 40 characters, with Palin as Pontius Pilate, Idle as Stan and Cleese as Reg.

Also in the cast are Spike Milligan, George Harrison as Mr Papadopolous, owner of The Mount, Ken Colley, Gwen Taylor, Terence Bayler, Carol Cleveland, Charles McKeown, Sue Jones-Davies, John Young, Bernard McKenna, Andrew MacLachlan, Neil Innes, Chris Langham, John Case, Charles Knode.

Cleese’s use of the C word is dubbed as ‘klutz’ to avoid an 18 cert in the UK.

The working title Brian of Nazareth was not used, perhaps to avoid comparisons with Jesus of Nazareth (1977), whose leftover sets were used for parts of Life of Brian.

Gilliam directed at least two scenes: the arrival of the Wise Men and the Nativity and the abduction of Brian by the aliens.

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life followed in 1983.

The hilarious, controversial and timeless 1979 comedy classic film Monty Python’s Life of Brian is showing in more than 110 UK cinemas from 7 April 2023 as a special bad taste Easter treat.

RIP Terry Jones, who died of frontotemporal dementia on 21 January 2020, aged 77, after living for several years with a degenerative aphasia and gradually losing the ability to speak,

He studied at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University, where he read English but ‘strayed into history’, becoming interested in the medieval period by reading Chaucer as part of his English degree.

While at Oxford, he performed comedy in the Oxford Revue with Michael Palin. Palin recalled: ‘The first thing that struck me was what a nice bloke he was. He had no airs and graces. We had a similar idea of what humour could do and where it should go, mainly because we both liked characters. We both appreciated that comedy wasn’t just jokes.’

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,983

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com