Monty Python's Life of Brian
Monty Python's Life of Brian mistake picture

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)

Monty Python's Life of Brian mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Brian had his speech and the people pursue him asking him to complete his sentence, there is a frontal shot of Brian and the people where they push a blind man to the ground. You can see the shadow of the camera man on the crowd as they are walking. (00:55:15)

Mortug

Visible crew/equipment: When Brian's mother tells him that his father was a Roman, you can see the shadow of the boom mic on the wall behind Brian. (00:17:20)

Mortug

Visible crew/equipment: When the spaceship is being attacked, the alien bumps up a bit, and if you look closely you can see a face under the right hand alien. (00:43:28)

Visible crew/equipment: A man appears from behind the second to last cross in a black waistcoat/jacket and white pants, the van he came in (presumably) is there too, and appears again later in the song, only for a short few seconds though. (01:30:20)

Kida

Continuity mistake: At the end of the scene with the ex-leper you see Brian's mother open the door to their house twice; first in the background of a wide shot, then in a closer shot. (00:15:25)

More mistakes in Monty Python's Life of Brian

Jewish Official: All right, no one is to stone ANYONE until I blow this whistle! Even... And let me make this absolutely clear... Even if they do say "Jehovah"!

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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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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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