Monty Python's Life of Brian

Factual error: There were no gourds in Ancient Judea, of that type. The 'gourd' mentioned in the Bible refers to a colocynth plant, which yields only a small fruit, 5 - 10cm diameter. The gourd in the film is from a pumpkin, and not from a watermelon, as others have suggested. Pumpkins originated in the Americas, and there weren't any in the rest of the world before Columbus.

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Suggested correction: This is a movie where Brian falls inside a flying UFO with alien pilots. I seriously doubt that the filmmakers had any intention whatsoever to be historically accurate.

Sacha ★

Regardless of the random UFO scene, this is still a factual mistake. It doesn't matter if a film maker sets out to intentionally make a historically accurate film or not. There's nothing to suggest this film was set in an alternate past or that it was a sight gag as if it was a Mel Brook's film.

Bishop73

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Mistakes

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Visible crew/equipment: In the last scene while Brian and the others are singing you can see a tourist walking in the background. (01:30:30)

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Quotes

Boring Prophet: There shall in that time be rumors of things going astray, erm, and there shall be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia-work base, that has an attachment. At that time, a friend shall lose his friend's hammer, and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before, about eight o'clock.

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Trivia

Trivia: Michael Palin as Pontius Pilate was genuinely daring his guards to laugh about Biggus Dickus' name. The people playing the soldiers were told not to laugh during the scene but were not told what Palin would be doing or saying.

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Questions

Question: When Brian is about to be crucified, soldiers arrive with news of his release. The soldiers ask for Brian, and everybody shouts "I'm Brian." Is this a parody of the "I'm Spartacus" episode in the Kirk Douglas/Stanley Kubrick film of "Spartacus"? If so, would this support my feeling that Life Of Brian is primarily a parody of classical/biblical 'epic' films?

Rob Halliday

Answer: Actually, no, the primary goal of "Life of Brian" was not to parody biblical films. Terry Gilliam has stated that the "important" objective of the movie was "to offend a lot of people," particularly "Jews and Christians, because they're easy to push around." Gilliam further said that, at the same time, they were "very cautious not to offend Muslims, because they're the dangerous ones." Both Gilliam and John Cleese have also said that, while the Pythons took care to avoid blasphemy (not directly mocking Jesus of Nazareth, with whom the Pythons had no quarrel), they fully intended that the film be heretical (in defiance of Catholic Church doctrine and dogma). Make no mistake, "Life of Brian" is not supposed to be a lighthearted parody of biblical films; it's supposed to be a sharp stick in the eye to the Roman Catholic Church.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: The scene is a parody of the scene in "Spartacus" (although they are saying "I am Brian" for completely different reasons.) However, the film is meant to be a satire on religion itself and not a parody of epic films. The Pythons did a lot of research to try and accurately portray 1st century Judea, which is why it may look like a biblical epic, but I can't recall any biblical epics they parodied. At the time it was considered blasphemous, and not a parody, and banned in several areas in the UK and some countries. Although the Pythons argued it's not blasphemy but heresy.

Bishop73

Answer: You are indeed correct. It is a parody of the "Spartacus" scene but mostly of religion.

raywest ★

Perhaps not so much a parody of "Spartacus" as a tribute to Stanley Kubrick. Monty Python writer Terry Gilliam was very much a fan of Kubrick films and became friends with Kubrick in the 1980s. Gilliam claimed that Kubrick had even spoken with him about making a sequel to Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (with Gilliam as director). Chances are, the "Spartacus" allusion was part of Gilliam's contribution to the "Life of Brian" screenplay, a tip-o-the-hat to Stanley Kubrick.

Charles Austin Miller

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