Life of Brian was More Accurate than the Bible, Monty Python Filmmaker Claims
Monty Python’s Life of Brian is no more offensive to Christians than Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar and should never have been banned, its filmmaker said yesterday.
Julian Doyle also said the cult comedy, released 45 years ago today, is a more accurate representation of Jesus’ life than the Bible and that its hit ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ deserved a “regular slot” on BBC1’s Songs of Praise.
Those behind its prohibition were as clueless about history as the film’s hapless main character, Brian Cohen, he added.
In the movie, Brian, a likeable but unlucky man, was born in the stable next door to Jesus and spends his life being mistaken for the Messiah.
The film, described at the time as the most blasphemous ever made, was banned for a year in Norway, for eight years in Ireland, and for more than a decade in Italy.
Screenings were also cancelled in cinemas across the US and the UK following protests from religious leaders and nuns.
A ban in Aberystwyth, Wales, lasted three decades and was only lifted in 2009 after one of the stars, Sue Jones-Davies, who played Brian’s love interest Judith Iscariot, became town mayor.
But Doyle, the film’s editor, who also worked on Python favourites The Holy Grail and Meaning of Life, said Life of Brian was not a mockery of Jesus or Christianity at all.
He said the film, which hit cinemas on 8th November 1979, was simply intended as a parody of human behaviour and the “comedic tendency” of people to blindly follow leaders.
The hordes of placard-waving protesters who misunderstood its satire and took offence to its storyline – and to its infamous crucifixion scene – were “no better than a Gumby”, he added.
A Gumby was a recurring Python character with extremely limited intelligence.
Unlike cast members John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam, Doyle has remained tight-lipped about the backlash before now.
But he broke his silence at the launch of his new book The After-Life of Brian, which has been released to coincide with the film’s 45th anniversary and which “separates fact from fiction” about the life and death of Jesus Christ.
Doyle, 81, who spent four decades researching the book, said Life of Brian is no more disrespectful of the Messiah than Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Jesus Chris Superstar or any other creative representation of Jesus.
But, he joked that the Pythons themselves should be burned at the stake for challenging the biblical account of Jesus’ life.
He said: “The politicians, the censors, and, of course, the placard-waving mobs of protesters completely misunderstood Life of Brian.
“Many were as clearly as dim-witted as a Gumby because they simply didn’t grasp the fact that we weren’t mocking Jesus or Christians at all but simply making a film that satirised society’s comedic tendency to follow religious, political and business leaders like sheep.
“If you look at the film from an historical point of view, you’ll realise that it is a far more authentic and accurate portrayal of Jesus Christ than the teachings of the Church and the Bible combined.
“So describing Life of Brian as blasphemous is as nonsensical and ignorant as calling Jesus Chris Superstar blasphemous, too. And quite clearly, Webber’s musical is about as far from as blasphemous as you can get.
“If you really want to get upset about the film then it should be over its historical accuracy, which brings the biblical narrative into serious question.
“In the past, this would have been considered ‘heresy’ so perhaps the Pythons should have been burned at the stake!”
Doyle, whose feature film credits also include Time Bandits and Brazil, added: “I was amazed when Life of Brian was banned, and I’m still amazed that Always Look on the Bright Side of Life never got a regular slot on Songs of Praise.
“I mean, it’s the most popular choice of song for funerals in the UK, so it’s being blasted out of churches all the time!”
Life of Brian, considered one of the greatest comedies of all time, tells the story of
Brian, a young Judaean man who was born on the same day as Jesus.
Upon its release the film, and its crucifixion scene in particular—ending with Eric Idle singing ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’—caused outrage among Christian groups worldwide.
Screenings were met by protests and the movie – which was given a ‘X’ adult rating – was subsequently banned in numerous countries.
But Doyle said that Life of Brian presents a more historically accurate portrayal of Jesus and his times than any other movie.
Not only that, he reckons it is more accurate than the biblical story of Jesus, which he says is “full of contradictions”.
In the Bible, for example, Jesus died within hours of being nailed to the cross, but his death would have in fact taken days to occur as other crucifixion scenes did in the movie.
One memorable scene has another of the victims being crucified, Mr Cheeky, played by Eric Idle, tell Brian, “We’ve got a couple of days up here.”.
And as the cast discovered, the biblical story of Jesus carrying his own full-size cross would have been impossible.
“In the film, Mr Cheeky’s comment that they have plenty of time on the cross is historically accurate because what is there to kill someone, apart from exposure to the elements and dehydration?” Doyle said.
“But let’s say someone would die in a few hours. It doesn’t make sense why you’d make a cross for someone and nail them up – it’s an absurd amount of effort and time to kill a man.
“If you pop him up and then take him down after a couple of hours why not just stab him and save all that time and money?”
He added: “In Life of Brian, we made small crosses for the actors to carry, because anything larger would have been impossible to shift.
“Christian artwork often shows the cross that Jesus was raised upon to be a towering thing but he would have needed to be a powerlifter to have any chance of getting that his shoulders, let alone dragging it along.”
In fact, Doyle believes from his research that Jesus may not have been crucified at all but rather stoned to death in much the same way as another famous scene in the film.
“Confusingly, the Bible contradicts itself on stoning as a means of execution for Jesus’ crime, blasphemy, which many have taken to mean that Jesus couldn’t possibly have been stoned for his crime,” he said.
“However, the Jewish holy book, the Talmud, states clearly that stoning was the Jewish method of execution, not crucifixion, and that’s most likely what actually happened.
“The funny thing is that while the Pythons only ever intended to make a comedy film, they intuitively hit on a more realistic portrayal of Jesus and his times because they followed reason rather than faith.
“This has obviously made a lot of Christians unhappy, but it stands up to scrutiny and if you are seeking to learn about the life of the real Jesus then Python’s Life of Brian is, in my view, just as valid as any other portrayal of Jesus including the Church’s teachings.”
In 2014, Doyle. Life of Brian director Terry Jones and fellow Python John Cleese attended an academic conference at King’s College London about the film’s creative contribution to scholarship on the life of Jesus.
Doyle added: “I’m very proud of the growing appreciation of the film’s historical accuracy within the academic world, especially given how vociferously religious critics tried to crucify the Pythons when the film first released.
“While it is, and will always remain, a comedy first and foremost, to those who are open minded it does offer a wider insight into the life and times of Jesus, and one that has just as much legitimacy, if not more so from an historical perspective, as the Church’s account.
