Cleese said on Tv after the controversy of the premiere; "Yes I agree with the Bishop, if we had made this film in the 16th century we would have been burnt at the stake, I'd just like to suggest that we may have made some progress in the last 400 years!"

"So funny they banned it in Norway" was how it was marketed in Sweden.

I remember watching this when it first came out, and I would say the backlash was similar to that of the religious response to Harry Potter. In other words, the highly zealous were greatly offended, and tried to make a big fuss but mostly ended up just banning their fellow parishoners from partaking, and the rest of us went about our business. 😊

When Life of Brian came out, a lot of people who never watched the film had some very strong opinions about it and attempted to have it banned. Side note: No studio would finance Life of Brian so George Harrison stepped in and formed a film company 'Handmade Films' to bring this movie into existence.

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" is one of THe most requested songs to be played at funerals

Monte Python was HUGE. They were groundbreaking in comedy....and completely out there, leaving traditional comedy conventions behind. Their stuff is silly, while at the same time cerebral if you know a lot about history. Everybody loved them!

Be sure to thank George Harrison for this movie. Hes not the Messiah! He's a very naughty boy! 😂

There were whole countries that banned this movie (Ireland, Malaysia, Norway, Singapore, South Africa). They weren't able to get studio funding so George Harrison (the Beatle) funded it because he wanted to see the film.

LIfe of Brian was considered a hit in 1979. It was the 22nd highest grossing movie in the US at a little over $21 million. But it did receive some push back. It was banned in a few countries (Norway, Italy, Ireland) and some counties in England. But Monty Python used that as advertising - "...so funny, it was banned in Norway" and things like that.

They were working on "Life of Brian" not too long after "Star Wars" was released. "Star Wars" permeated pop culture at the time. Tossing in a totally unexpected and out of place spaceship scene was a nod to that, and those who saw the movie when it came out in theaters found it hilarious.

I always assumed the aliens in the spaceship was a reference to the "Ancient Aliens" theories of the day. It was the belief that benevolent extraterrestrials visited Earth and were the basis for many religious beliefs. Brian was therefore rescued by "Angels" who came down from "Heaven" in their "flying chariot", making him even more a "Holy" prophet. And to make it funnier, the aliens were just as surprised as Brian.

Politics and religion had not yet melded into one big authoritarian unit in the USA at the time we were watching this in theaters. Life of Brian was picketed by Bob Jones University in SC where I was living at the time, but there wasn’t the kind of political pushback you’d see today. We have become less progressive, not more, in the decades since this marvelous film was in our theaters.

This is peak Python. The satire, the sociopolitical commentary, the ideas way ahead of their time... plus absurd and brilliant comedy

Remember the movie is the "Life" of Brian birth to death. the Cast started as wanting to spoof Jesus but that was to hard so they came up with the idea of Brian leading a parallel life but just missing greatness.

The space ship section is a parody of Greek and Roman drama in which The Gods would suddenly appear and decide / change things for the characters. Pythons thought the spaceship was a good modernisation of a similar idea. When Brian climbs the stairs and has nowhere else to go, the gods appear!

This caused so much controversy when it first came out. The Latin vocab lesson always stuck with me, and i didn't even take that class at school. Shortly after the release of their film Life of Brian, Monty Python members Michael Palin and John Cleese appeared on BBC Two's Friday Night, Saturday Morning to debate the film with Roman Catholic journalist and satirist Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood. It's worth a watch.

When Cleese's character sees Jesus walking in, "Speak of the devil" 🤣

It was banned in many places when it came out as well. There were groups that organized busses to take trips from where it was banned to where they could see it.

As a christian, i can say that i appreciate this movie more than most. It only gets better the deeper you get into the religion. It has honest criticisms and answers to those. Its a stupidly deep and complex movie l. I dont think the writers even fully understood everything they did in it.

If you can find it, I highly recommend Holy Flying Circus (2011) a historical fiction comedy about the ~real story about the backlash the Monty Python crew faced when releasing The Life of Brian in the UK, and the censorship they overcame.

The Pythons made this movie not to mock Jesus, iirc they said he was a very nice bloke, but the followers of religion. George Harrison became the biggest backer after EMI pulled out at the last moment, and later said he did it "as he really wanted to see it". His reward was a cameo as Mr Papadopoulos "owner of the Mount" and had one word of dialogue....which was later dubbed over my Michael Palin.

It was great to see your reaction to this! Hope you watch Monty Python's The Meaning of Life sometime down the road!

"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy"

I loved this scene where he said “write that 100 times.” That was my elementary teacher’s favorite form of punishment at the time this movie came out so I found it hilarious. Keep in mind this is a British comedy troupe and 70’s comedy there was nothing but wild!!!

The aliens scene was also a live version of one of Terry Gilliam's animated bits, which in the TV show would often be totally random having nothing to do with any of the sketches.

Brian: I'm not the Messiah! Arthur: I say you are, Lord and I should know, I've followed a few!

This movie is a comedic masterpiece. It’s brilliant and silly at the same time. 😂

When my mates and I went to see this movie when it opened at the picture theatre we had to walk pass protesters to see it.

This caused quite an uproar in the UK. Senior Church officials and intellectuals debated with the Pythons on TV as to whether it was blasphemous. The Pythons said it wasn't because it was not about Jesus!

It's weird knowing that this movie almost didn't happen. Just a few days before the Pythons were to go on location to shoot this, the original funding was pulled. However, former Beatle George Harrison came through just in time with the money needed. I think he had to mortgage his house in order to do it. Also, for the song at the end, "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life", it's since become a popular song at funerals in the United Kingdom. There have been a couple of occasions when Eric Idle (who wrote the song and sang lead vocals) did it on a couple of special occasions. One of them was during the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, on which he wrote an additional verse: When you're stuck on the world's stage, With lots of loonies half your age, And everything is starting to go wrong, It's too late to run away, You might as well just stay, Especially when they play your silly song!

you're right, some of the stranger parts of the USA got a bit freaked out by Life of Brian. Obviously the rest of the world got the humour though.

The space sequence was a commentary on how every show, ad, and movie of that time would often find some way to shoehorn in some space theme to take advantage of *Star Wars* mania. You cannot overstate the effect *Star Wars* (1977) had on great parts of the world, especially the West.

There's a video of the Monty Python guys debating the movie with religious leaders and it's brilliant

This was banned in Ireland when it first came out. I heard it first on a vinyl record, which were allowed....just the sound track! It wasn't until 1985, I actually seen the film(it was still banned) for free, downstairs in the HARP Bar beside O Connell Bridge in Dublin on a huge TV projection screen .....the mix of a banned movie, drink, and lots of intoxicated people....what a night!.....and yeah....went to mass the next morning.😅😅😅

I'm not saying the moving star in the beginning that the wise men follow was the sun reflecting off of an alien space ship in orbit around the planet.

As long as art drives people to violence, this art has to exist.

One of the smartest movies ever made.

you say we're not in times like these where people get stoned, but it happens daily across the middle east and even in europe for the silliest things, like painting muhammed or a girl getting a boyfriend etc.

One of the recurring themes in "Monty Python" is the humor in things that are completely nonsensical and meaningless, such as the alien ship. Another classic example is the "fish-slapping dance." Terry Jones once said they had intended to have a variety of comedy styles in their show, but he jokingly lamented that the word "Pythonesque" being added to the Oxford Dictionary demonstrated they had failed miserably.

When I was a kid I preferred The Holy Grail, but as I got older I do find Life of Brian more smarter and funnier than that.

Stoning, an old Catholic school joke where Jesus goes to a stoning and tells them let one who is without sin cast the first stone. The crowd starts to disperse except for one woman hefting a rock to throw. So, Jesus complains 'Mom, I'm trying to teach a lesson here!' Great reaction.

The film was actually received very well. There was also a ton of protests.

George Harrison, a member of the Beatles, donated money to make this happen. It stirred up controversy in its time, but that just made it even more popular.

There was a time when people understood that comedy, especially satire, was to be held to a different measurement than straight speech. That time is long gone. Monty Python was known for scathing satire and instead of being offended, people EXPECTED this movie to be as it was. Of course, then, as now, the very conservative religious got their panties in a wad, but also as now, it was just mostly background noise because most everybody else "got it'.

Living in Sweden I know that one of the tag lines were ”The movie that’s so funny it’s banned in Norway” or some such. There’s also a number on videos on KZfaq with the Python gang doing panels with politicians, priests and christians. Well worth watching in my opinion.

In those days it was either public bath or no bath

The church of England went after them for publishing it. There is a video on it I suggtest you watch it as it was so rediculous that the reaction of what the church said made the movie get spread out much more than just releaseing it. Colleges showed thsi all the time well into the 80's

They sang "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life" at the funeral of the guy who played Brian.

I think you'd like some british comedy series like Red Dwarf and Black Books

Monty Python had trouble to get this movie financed. So they startet to look for someone to "pay" this movie and they found George Harrison of "The Beatles" who liked the script and also liked and belived in Monty Python. George Harrison has got a very short appearance in the movie....

Like that "Certificate of Authenticity" Now, I"ve got this bridge in Sydney, shaped like a coat-hanger, that you might like to buy.

Love this film, always have! You might want to check out another comedy (from the 80's) called "A Fish Called Wanda" featuring two actors from Monty Python, John Cleese and Michael Palin ... it's delightful, you will not regret!!

If you were married to Biggus Dickus you would eventually end up Incontinentia too.

The odd thing about the public reaction to this movie is that it isn't poking fun at Christianity itself, but rather zealots (and thus of ANY religion) that take things too far based on too little! Those that had such a negative public outcry, by their very nature prove the accuracy of the film's depiction!

A lot of movies made in the 70's could not be made today. This movie, Blazing Saddles, etc.

This movie is still fkng hillarious, and so ahead of its time 😂😂

They weren’t ridiculing Jesus, just religiosity and the tendency people have to lock in on the inconsequential bits and split into different groups over them. My favorite was allegorizing something misheard…..“blessed are the cheese makers” into a more expansive “well any dairy product really”. The backlash they got pretty much validated their point. I think it would be worse now, in the US. They cheekily mimicked James Bond theme songs in the opening. They winked at Star Wars in the nonsensical alien bit, which solved a difficulty they were having with a scene transition.

The song at the end git to no1 in the charts here in the UK lol

Never underestimate the amount of Coke involved in the making of this movie….. I love the late 70’s early 80’s.

Just had a look and the budget for this (adjusted for inflation) is about 9x that of Holy Grail so that explains a few things.

Funny thing is(no pun intended) it was voted funniest movie in the 70s but banned in more countries than any other movie that year

If this movie is ever cancelled, we can all just wrap it up and go home.

Mum took us kids to go see it. We were all big Monty Python fans. We grew up watching the highly irreverent Dave Allen on telly so Life of Brian wasn't shocking. Sure, the nudey bit made us giggle, but it was Australia in the 70s, you saw that stuff on TV. (Number 96) I've never thought about how a US audience would react to this movie. It's kind of prudish over there, isn't it.

This came out in a decade where spouse swapping was a thing (even though probably close to no-one actually did), just after the decade of free love. Our society has become more prudish now than it was back in the 70s. To be more precise, the 80s, helped by the aids epidemic, were more prudish than the 70s but with the revival of the 60s in the 90s society became more liberal again. But now we are more prudish again. It tends to eb and flow a bit.

Great reaction! I'm a Christian and I find this to be hilarious! It is a statement of courage and independence that allowed these people to put together a blasphemous piece of work like this! I don't know how many brave souls we have today, but at least back then, there were quite a few! It's a good thing!

Few things about this movie. The Biggus D*kus scene--the guard actors didnt know. All they knew was not to laugh. You see Beatle George Harrison who funded this movie is in the scene after Brian sleeps with Judith. He's in red. Doesn't say anything but waves.

Wow, a certificate of authenticity. Signed by Naughtius Maximus himself.

There was quite a lot of controversy when this came out. I think it is the funniest movie I have seen (I am American.). Groundhog Day is second.

Some people get it, some don't.

What? Next thing you're going to try to tell us is that Nautius Maximus isn't a real name either. 🤯

"This is disrespectful in a way that I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone be disrespectful" How quickly you appear to have forgotten your viewing of "The Loophole" :-)

There were protests outside cinemas in the UK when this came out. Yes, it caused a fair bit of outrage.

I used to take offense to this movie as a Christian because I was told it was bad. Then I watched it. I realized it is NOT mocking Jesus at all. It's mocking people who were to blind to notice Brian wasn't the actual Messiah. Even Monty Python said they would not make it about Jesus because they think Jesus was a wonderful person who wasn't worthy of any mockery or insult. Granted not so much some followers of course. One quote I remember coming from someone higher up at a Catholic church said: “They were satirising closed minds, they were satirising fundamentalism and persecution of others and at the same time saying the one person who rises above all this was Jesus, which I think is remarkable and I think that the church missed that at the time.”"

There's a discussion with a bishop and 2 of the python members from an old bbc program

The alien space-dogfight was the best

80s satire is 2020s reality

If you think this was disrespectful you should see the tv show they started with monty python's flying circus

7:50 We actually watched this movie in Latin class 😅

I remember seeing it when it came out. I think the scene with the crack suicide squad was edited out, I never saw that scene until the DVD came out.

Any movie can be remade. There are enough streaming services that Im sure you can find one that will take it. Look at Chapelle he claims to be canceled but still sells out arenas.

In the scene with the first mention of Bigus Dickus, the two actors playing the guards had been that they must not laugh, and if they did they'd be fired (don't think they knew in advance what was going to be said)... therefore ensuring they were genuinely trying their best not to laugh.

How Brian got down from the tower? Put some "Aliens"?

I've always said that Holy Grail was funnier, but Life of Brian was the better movie.

A lot of religious morons at the time tried to argue that this movie made fun of Jesus when literally the first scene in the movie shows the three wise men going in the wrong house and then finding the right one with Jesus in the crib, and literally the second scene in the movie is showing Jesus holding his sermon on the mount with Brian in the audience. Some people's stupidity will never cease to surprise you.

peak Python right here

Dude I got 100's of ancient Roman coins! Want some? lulzzz

A fascinating at-the-time debate about this movie is available on KZfaq. It's between two of the Python members VS the leader of the Aglican Church + a theology prof from Oxford, or the like. The Python boys evicerate the old, offended, "expert" fuddy-duddies.

Road To 10 Million Subscribers.

Cool.

The religious backlash to this film actually served as free marketing for the film more than anything else at the time...

this is from 1979 let it sip in

How did happen? It was British, not Hollywood.

The film was banned in many places for many years

It was boycotted and banned in places. There is a great debate show with Cleese and Palin against the then Bishop of Southwark and Malcolm Muggeridge. check it out

This movie makes fun of organized religion and the absurdity of the times, that's not really offensive, but religious people took it as making fun of Jesus, which it actually did not do, and the Monty Python crew had debates with clergy on TV to explain it to them. Every depiction of Jesus in the movie (like the semon on the mount) is played straight and respectful; it's the people that are the butt of the joke.

People used to be able to take a joke.

They made this movie on a 4 million dollar budget

How was this 'received' when it came out? I'd call it a mixed reaction. Let's be clear, it was also a very small reaction too. It was the 70s. there was no 'internet'. Most people didn't even notice it because, as far as the 'public' went, most people didn't even know that there even was a "Monty Python". The reaction from those 'Christian Americans" that noticed it was very intense.

It's about damned time. Have you done The Meaning of Life yet?

P.S. I'm guessing this is your first brush with Monty Python.