The fact that religious leaders got offended by a movie that did not really make fun of Jesus actually proved the point of the movie, which was that its people who screw up religion and turn it into something offensive
So sad that the Christians of 2022 act so offended by every tiny thing that threatens their stupid beliefs. This is because that idiot Reagan let Jerry Falwell turn the Republican Party into a nutjob Religious Fundamentalist Fascist Party.
Somehow I doubt the MP comedian troop or any other English/Western person will be making any comedy films mocking the backward, superstitious Islamic people. Yeah, certain mountain Islamic tribal people are still stoning people to death, still doing open sex slave auctions like ISIS did in Iraq.
I was a student at Uni flatting in Hamilton NZ when it was released. Movies, cafes was something we didn't do as students back then we saved all our money for rent, food and alcohol. Then we saw the news on our black and white tv all these people protesting about Life of Brian and how people should boycott it. Well we exercised our choice to go watch it and see what the fuss was all about. I remember a big group of us biking back to our various flats at night singing but mainly humming "Always look on the bright side of life". Loved it back then still do
I was starting college, the movie was playing locally, of course we gathered to see it, there were sign carrying protesters, foaming at the mouth preacher people - the comedy outside the theater gave the movie a run for it's money. Dipshits....
of course the film is blasphemous.im not sure why everyone tries to hide that fact.it ridicules the Biblical story of Christ from start to finish. But its damn funny at the same time.
My favorite comedy movie of all the time. It’s funny that many religious people got upset over the Life of Brian, but didn’t bat an eye over The Holy Grail. The portal of their God in The Holy Gail was WAY more blasphemous!
The problem religious groups had with the Life of Brian was that it wasn't a satire of Jesus but a satire of religious groups. The only appearance of Jesus was him preaching the Sermon of the Mount while the followers in the crowd nattered away as they didn't understand the point of it.
I didn’t always agree with them, but I do miss Siskel and Ebert. I think the show was called “At the Movies”. But their breakdowns were entertaining, especially when they disagreed about a movie and kept trying to convince each other why they did or didn’t like it. So for a low budget comedy to get a “two thumbs up” rating was kind of a rarity. These frequently disagreed about comedies.
From the days when comedy was funny despite the beginnings of wokedom opposing it. Can you imagine partying with people who had no sense of humor? What would they find funny - shutting down true humorists?
We won't know, but I think that Life of Brian ultimately benefited from the controversy. I also think that religion generally loses when it attempts to demonize something that is obviously harmless. If they are willing to lie to you about this silly movie, then what else are they lying about? I will be fair... it does open the door to the reality that the people in biblical times were people. That means they were just as susceptible to being wrong and dumb like the rest of us.
The debate Michael Palin and John Cleese had with two religious leaders on BBC had both admitted freely they had not even bothered to watch this classic film
On the Monty Python Show they used "and now for something completely different" quite a bit, so it wasn't a movie reference so much as a Monty Python reference.
I think that these two critics reflected accurately what many people felt about Monty Python's film back then. It was, like Mel Brooks' stuff, just designed to make us laugh.
This movie is brilliant! But, “silly and harmless “?? Y’all aren’t gonna mention the long, full shot of Graham Chapman’s bait and tackle? Just gonna let America discover that for themselves, eh? These guys knew what was up rofl
The great irony of the controversy over the film is the fact that actual Jesus appears in it, but the mob chooses rando Brian as the Messiah instead, giving truth to Christ's observations about false prophets and a prophet not being recognized in his own land.
Once agaion, prominent religious leaders are worried about losing their grip on their parishioners, particularly Roman Catholics. When I was planning to see this movie when it came out, my church youth group hosted a group of nuns who were planning to stand outside and protest against the movie as people were arriving. Of course that was on the evening I was going to see it. Luckily, they didn't show. I can bet that they never even thought about viewing it for themselves. As far as Brian goes, from the start it's obvious that he isn't the Christ, as Jesus features early on. The whole movie isn't knocking religion as such, either - it's a clever stab at people who without using their brains just jump onto bandwagons and the unscrupulous leaders who profit (or prophet) from such idiocy...
I'm religious but I remember thinking at the time that Christianity had survived wars, famine, poverty, persecution, and all manner of other things but it couldn't take a little gentle ribbing? Yeah, one of my favorite movies.
