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Monty Python's Life Of BrianIn common with most English comprehensive schools and workplaces during the early Eighties, Highfields School’s classroom would resound to relentless barrages of dialogue from Monty Python’s Life Of Brian.
In the years that followed, woe betide anyone who mentioned “Naughtius Maximus” and, needless to say, my life was made hell from that one line of dialogue: “Welease Woger”. Of course, I knew the dialogue inside out but the visuals were stunning. While the script may have borrowed liberally from The Goons, the look of the movie was pure Pasolini, with Ben Hur, Spartacus and countless other Biblical epics thrown into the mix. The project was born after those naughty Python lads had a boozy night out in Holland. “We were in Amsterdam promoting the Holy Grail and getting drunk,” recalls Terry Gilliam. “Eric (Idle) came up with a great title: Jesus Christ — Lust for Glory — and we all fell about. We liked it because it was a great subject matter to deal with and everyone did their research seriously.” Life of Brian was the third big screen offering from the Python team and although armed with a slightly bigger budget than Holy Grail, they still had their work cut out getting it made. The tale of a simple lad whose life mirrors that of Christ was pounced upon by religious extremists claiming it was blasphemy. The Pythons countered by remarking it was simply an allegorical tale of people who follow religions without question. “We worked very hard not to blaspheme — because it’s really about this guy next door — but the bishop of Southwark didn’t understand this, Malcolm Muggeridge didn’t understand it and the people of America didn’t understand it either; but my mother, who’s an avid churchgoer, had no problem with it.” The controversy raged on through the Eighties with some countries banning the movie. Whichever your viewpoint, there’s no denying that much of the script is hilarious. George Harrison certainly thought so.
While many studios wouldn’t touch the project with a bargepole in the late Seventies, the former Beatle was so keen for the flick to see the light of day, he set up Handmade Films and decided to finance it partly himself. Life of Brian attracted legions of followers, including Star Wars creator George Lucas who was highly amused by a homage to his blockbuster. Terry Gilliam directed the wonderfully irrelevant action scene where a couple of aliens catch the falling Brian, blast off into space, and get caught up in an interstellar dogfight before crashing back to earth. The whole scene was made with next to no money and still looks wonderful 22 years later. If many of the elaborate sets look familiar it’s because they were originally built for Franco Zeffirelli’s mini series Jesus of Nazareth. It saved the production a fortune and features one of the funniest moments in which Michael Palin tries to stifle his giggles while interrogating the centurions. Like all good movies, the legacy of MPLOB has lived on long past its release date. The closing song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, was an eventual chart hit in the early Nineties and this marked the last time the Pythons would really gel onscreen. Although The Meaning of Life was a critical success in 1983, many of the cast found that the magic had gone. The merry band wisely broke up after that and went off to do their own thing. It’s perhaps just as well, because if they hadn’t, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, A Fish Called Wanda and The Fisher King may never have seen the light of day.
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