Life of Brian's Parody of the Sermon on the Mount in Jesus Films

The most iconic scene in Life of Brian is, of course, the opening post-credit scene in which Jesus is delivering the Sermon on the Mount to assembled thousands (In Judea. AD 33. Saturday afternoon. At around tea time).  Such is the success of Life of Brian that most of us are now more familiar with the parody than what is being parodied.  Everyone knows Life of Brian but relatively few are familiar with its source material.  As it happens, the scene is even funnier when viewed against the background of the Jesus films of the 1960s and 1970s.

Geoffrey Burgon's score is a superb pastiche of just what one hears at this point in both King of Kings and Greatest Story Ever Told. After shots of the crowds gathering, we have a clear shot of Jesus (Kenneth Colley) silhouetted against a blue sky.  As the camera pans back from Jesus, and as we get further and further away, we hear Jesus less and less distinctly until we arrive at Brian his mother Mandy. Mandy cannot hear a word and shouts, "Speak up!"  Iconic lines follow.  "Blessed are the cheesemakers!"  "Did you hear that? Blessed are the Greek!".

The point of the parody is the depiction of the Sermon on the Mount in the epic Jesus films like King of Kings.  Jesus is speaking to a cast of thousands and it is hardly surprising that people cannot hear:

But if you think it would take a lot of projection to speak to that crowd, compare Jesus (Jeffrey Hunter) about to give the Sermon on the Mount in King of Kings:

Jesus is so far in the distance in that shot that you can hardly see him.  Here is a little help:

It is not very different in the Greatest Story Ever Told in which Jesus (Max Von Sydow) gives his sermon to a group of disciples arranged around him in a circle, with a crowd listening at greater distance (imitating Matt. 5.1-2 and 7.28-29), and the vast landscape of Utah visible in the background:

It's not easy imagining being able to hear a word Jesus said from that kind of distance.  But take a look also at the way that Kenneth Colley is presented in close up against the blue sky in Life of Brian:

The similarity with the close-up of Jeffrey Hunter in King of Kings, who is similarly preaching against the backdrop of blue sky, is clear:

The colour in King of Kings is exquisite.  Jesus wears this unusual but rather striking red outer garment only during the Sermon on the Mount sequence in the film, and Ray makes sure to accentuate the contrast with the luscious, cloudless blue sky. 

But this draws to our attention the fact that while there are real similarities between the King of Kings sermon and the Life of Brian sermon that parodies it, there is one quite noticeable difference.  Kenneth Colley in Life of Brian looks nothing like Jeffrey Hunter or Max Von Sydow.  Why is that?  Colley in fact looks similar to Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth. And in 1979, when Life of Brian was released, Jesus of Nazareth was a very recent memory.  In fact, as Matt Page reminds us, Life of Brian even used some of the same sets that were used by Jesus of Nazareth out in Tunisia.  

Jesus of Nazareth does not feature a classic Sermon on the Mount scene, though it does repeatedly feature the teaching from the Sermon, and it has one scene in which Jesus gives both the beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer to a gathered multitude relatively late in the production:

The composition here, with its gorgeous oranges and browns, is quite unlike the Life of Brian and King of Kings sermons with their blue sky mountain shots, but Robert Powell's Jesus provides a close analogue to the few seconds we see of Kenneth Colley's Jesus.  Here is Colley:

His long dark hair and beard, and the arrangement of his garments is just like Powell's:

The sermon in Life of Brian thus parodies not only the scope and grandeur of King of Kings and Greatest Story, but also the very look of the Jesus most familiar to viewers in the late 1970s, Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth.

If you need a refresher, here is the scene from Life of Brian:

Life of Brian on Celluloid Jesus

I've been gradually adding pages to my Celluloid Jesus web pages and the latest additions are Jesus of Nazareth (yesterday) and now also Life of Brian:

Celluloid Jesus: Life of Brian

Among other things, I've linked to James Crossley's excellent "Life of Brian or Life of Jesus?" and all the footage of the Jesus and Brian Conference at King's College, London in June -- one of the academic highlights of last summer:




There are hours of entertainment there, with Richard Burridge interviewing Terry Jones and John Cleese, and papers by, among others, Paula Fredriksen, Helen Bond, Bart Ehrman, A. J. Levine, James Crossley, Philip Davies, Steve Mason.

I've also added a link to Sarah Prime's article in Marginalia that reflects on the conference.

As usual on this site, I end with my video guide, answering the question, "Where can I get hold of . . . .?"

I have certainly missed things, so please comment either here or there on things you'd like to see added.

Meanwhile, I have another blog post on the way soon about Life of Brian.

What have the Romans done for us? - Life of Brian and Jesus of Nazareth

One of the legendary scenes in Life of Brian features Judean rebels, led by Reg (John Cleese), asking, "What have the Romans done for us?"  I have been re-watching Jesus of Nazareth (dir. Franco Zeffirelli, 1977) this week and I have been struck by several Brian - Jesus of Nazareth parallels. One of these occurs at about thirty minutes into the film.

The location is Nazareth in about 4 BCE, and the Galileans Jews are discussing oppression by Rome before they are interrupted by Joseph.

"What does Rome give us?" they ask.  Here's the clip:

And in case you need a reminder, here's the famous clip from Life of Brian:

Update (Saturday 31 January): Many thanks to Matt Page who has commented over on Bible Films Blog. Among other things, he corrects my reading of the line.  It is "What does Rome give us?" and not "What do the Romans give us?"  It's interesting that I had harmonized a little to Life of Brian in my transcription, just as scribes of Mark often harmonize to the more familiar Matthean versions of Jesus' sayings!

Jesus and Brian Conference, Day 2

William Telford and me

After a wonderful first day, the Jesus and Brian conference began again on Saturday morning with a paper from one of the real gurus of Jesus films, William Telford. He had a superb series of reflections on the ways in which the Life of Brian parodies the Jesus films, and his paper was superbly performed.  He does not just read his paper, in the manner all too common in the guild, but he acts it.  It was compelling stuff.


Just as compelling was the second paper, "Monty Python's Life of

Philip Davies and James Crossley

Jesus", in which first Philip Davies and then James Crossley took a more subversive look at the film and argued that it is not quite so benign in its intentions as it is depicted by Burridge and others.  After a coffee break, Helen Bond gave an eloquent and fascinating paper on laughing at crucifixion.

Helen Bond

The quality of the papers continued to be high. Guy Stiebel from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem talked about "Romanti Ite Domum: Identity and Expressions of Resistance in Judaea", with fine use of Powerpoint, including one picture of some kind of ancient phallus, which caused lots of sniggers (and some remarks about "bigus dickus").

Steve Mason

Last night I blogged about my hunger after the canape reception, but today I was forced to eat my words after we were treated to a delicious sandwich lunch, and I was even invited into the speakers' room where I got to hang out with the swells.  I do miss nice British sandwiches, so it was a treat, and I sneaked one last one in to enjoy with the first afternoon paper, Steve Mason on "What have the Romans ever done for us?", a really fascinating study of first century politics and relations between Judaea and Rome, with superb use of Powerpoint (and it's not often that you can say that).

Paula Fredriksen

After Steve Mason came one of my favourite scholars, Paula Fredriksen. I must admit that I still feel a little starstruck whenever  I talk to her.  Her paper was called "Are you a virgin? Biblical Exegesis and the Invention of Tradition" and the best use of clips from the film -- each short clip was followed by some reflections on the Biblical text.

The last session of the day kicked off with a fascinating piece by David Shepherd, who explored another Biblical parody, Wholly Moses, starring Dudley Moore, which was something of a critical and commercial failure.  Shepherd showed several clips and explored the difficulties with the film.  The second of his clips, in which Dudley Moore as Hershel "does God" after having come down from the mountain, I found hysterically funny, so much so that when my head fell backwards I knocked someone's bag off their desk. The last paper of the day was given by Aaron Rosen, who talked about "Sonofagod: Images of Jesus in Contemporary Art".

There was just enough time in between the end of the formal programme and the conference banquet for a swift pint in a German style bierkeller with big screens showing the World Cup, and we just caught Argentina beating Iran 1-0 in the closing minutes.

The conference dinner took place in the Inner Temple Hall, and was hosted by Robin Griffith-Jones.  Earlier in the day, Richard Burridge had mentioned that he would try to get a chance to introduce me to John Cleese, and I was delighted that he did so.  Here, for posterity is the pic.:

Richard Burridge, John Cleese, me

Joan Taylor kindly took the picture.  I was delighted to get the chance to chat to Cleese, who was utterly delightful.  At the dinner itself, the top brass sat on high table with Cleese, with Fredriksen to his left, Griffith-Jones to his right, and Ehrman opposite.  The food was excellent and the wine flowed pretty freely.  Afterwards, Cleese gave a short speech and then invited attendees to ask him questions about the film, with Michelle going around with the mic.  Cleese dealt graciously and amusingly with each of the questions and I could have listened to him all evening.  A really marvellous occasion.

Sadly, this wrapped up my attendance at a wonderful conference.  I had a conference in Roskilde, Denmark, to get to, on Luke's Rewritten Bible (on which, more anon), so I jumped on the tube to Victoria and the train to Gatwick, in time to grab a couple of hours' sleep before my early morning flight.

The conference did continue today (Sunday) with several great speakers including A-J Levine, Adele Reinhartz and Bart Ehrman.  I would also really have liked to hear Richard Burridge's talk about the Malcolm Muggeridge and Bishop Stockwood programme.  Perhaps I'll be able to catch up via the conference video.  As far as I could tell the whole thing was being video-ed.

This pic. is nicked from the T & T Clark twitter feed, via Jim West's blog, and depicts Joan Taylor interviewing film editor Julian Doyle:

Joan Taylor and Julian Doyle

It's appropriate to conclude with a picture of Joan Taylor, who did so much hard work to make this conference a success.  It was a brilliant idea for a conference, superbly organized, with tons of amazing papers from top people.  And, of course, John Cleese.

Did I mention that I met John Cleese?

Jesus and Brian Conference, Day 1

Terry Jones, John Cleese and Richard Burridge

It's not every day that you get to go to a conference on Monty Python.  Jesus and Brian Or: What Have the Pythons done for us? is the mastermind of Joan Taylor at Kings College, London, with support from Richard Burridge.  The focus is Monty Python's Life of Brian (dir. Terry Jones, 1979), and how it interacts with scholarship on the New Testament, Christian Origins, the Historical Jesus and the history of early Judaism.  The conference began today at King's College London and continues for the next two days.

As a long time fan of Life of Brian, and with an interest in Jesus films, I could not resist the opportunity to make it to this one.  Luckily, I have a conference in Denmark beginning on Sunday, and the chance to stop off in London on the way there made it irresistible.  Having said that, travel was not straightforward.  We had a flight cancelled on Wednesday evening and another on Thursday morning and only made it in in the early hours of Friday morning.  With no more than a few hours sleep over the last three nights, this does make it more of a challenge than I had expected, but I have no doubt that it will be worth it.

Joan Taylor introduces the conference

The conference began at around 4pm today.  Immediately one could see several scholarly celebrities around -- A.-J. Levine, Bart Ehrman, Helen Bond, George Brooke, Martin Goodman, Adele Reinhartz, Philip Davies, James Crossley, Eddie Adams, and so the list goes on.  Kings College is right in the heart of London, on the Strand, with theatres and swanky restaurants all around.  As long as you are not in a car, it's a fantastic location for a conference.  I tubed in from Heathrow to Covent Garden and had just a five minute walk.

Joan Taylor introduced the conference with a lively and witty piece on "the Historical Brian".  She mentioned her delight that the Pythons themselves had expressed enthusiasm about the conference and her amazement to get a phone-call from John Cleese.  She looked also at the comparison between the Life of Brian and the Hollywood Jesus films, and especially King of Kings.  

Martin Goodman

George Brooke

Martin Goodman then spoke about "The Life of Brian and the Politics of First Century Judea" and there was a lively Q&A session afterwards.  George Brooke spoke third, on "Brian as a Teacher of Righteousness", and got the best laugh so far when he said that Brian "puts the mess back into messianism".  The audience were taking a little while to warm up, but they were gradually getting there.



From this first session we went upstairs for a nice wine reception, with a few of those posh little canapés going around on trays, the kind where you need about five hundred to fill you up.  As it turned out, this was the only food of the evening, so it was important to grab as many as you could, and I'm not sure that I was quite up to the job.  Rick Trainor, Principal at Kings, gave some opening remarks, and uttered the heresy that he had not in fact seen the film!

Terry Jones, John Cleese, Richard Burridge

After the reception, we returned to the lecture theatre for the highlight of the day.  In fact, I'm sure it will prove to have been the highlight of the whole conference.  Richard Burridge interviewed Terry Jones and John Cleese for an hour.  It was an utterly compelling session.  I have to admit that I was a little starstruck.  John Cleese took the lion's share of the discussion and pretty much everything he said was quite fascinating.

Cleese expressed genuine pleasure that the film had resulted in a conference like this, and said that it might just be one of the best things the Pythons had done.  He talked about how good a director Jones was, adding that it was because he was a megalomaniac.  He talked about an alternate story line that came to nothing about Brian (or some other character) failing to make it to the last supper.  He spoke in the most disparaging way about the media ("second rate scum") and expressed little surprise when Burridge mentioned how little interest they had shown in this conference.

Jones did do a Mandy voice at one point, and he generally seemed rather chuffed with the whole discussion while broadly happy to let Cleese dominate.  Burridge did a fine job of allowing them to relax and chat while at the same time reining them in a bit and asking some very interesting questions, including a discussion of the now famous Stockwood and Muggeridge discussion of the film, with Cleese and Palin, on Tim Rice's programme.  Cleese said that he was an admirer of Muggeridge and felt sorry for him that his responses to the film were so poor.

Terry Jones, John Cleese, Richard Burridge

If anything, the discussion with Cleese and Jones was too good.  The hour went too quickly, and I could have continued listening for hours.  There followed an opportunity to watch the film (via DVD projection) in the same theatre, but over half the audience including most of the top brass flocked out, perhaps having realized that two or three canapes is not quite enough for dinner, and going in search of food and drink.  If the timing was not ideal, it was still nice to have a chance to watch the film again, all the more so in appreciative company, and good to brush up on it ahead of a whole raft of lectures tomorrow, all of which look like they will be fascinating.

The first day of the conference was every bit as good as I thought it would be and better.  Richard Burridge has an article in the Church Times here: Is he more than a 'naughty boy'? and there is a pre-conference podcast here.

I will continue to live-tweet the conference tomorrow, along with several others, and all your reactions, using the #JesusandBrian hashtag.

Jesus and Brian Conference in London - tickets still available!

I'm surprised that this one is not already sold out, but the good news is that tickets are still available for conference about The Life of Brian coming soon:

Jesus and Brian: What did the Pythons ever do for us?
Kings College, London, 20-22 June

Full details are at the link above.  As a life-long fan of Life of Brian, I am really excited about this event.  In fact, I booked my ticket back in March, as soon as I heard about the conference.  I hope to live-blog most of it too (though sadly I'll have to miss the Sunday because I'll be heading to Denmark for another conference, on more of which anon).

There is a stellar cast of scholars lined up to speak at the conference, including Paula Fredriksen, Adele Reinhartz, Helen Bond, Bill Telford, Bart Ehrman, James Crossley, Philip Davies, Martin Goodman, George Brooke, Steve Mason, Amy-Jill Levine, as well as locals Joan Taylor and Richard Burridge, and so the list goes on.

While the programme lists Richard Burridge engaging in a "conversation with mystery guests" for the Friday evening, I have it on good authority that the guest will be Terry Jones himself!  Julian Doyle (editor) is also lined up to appear on the Sunday.  And there is another "mystery guest" for the Saturday evening who can't yet be named.

Booking details are here.  I look forward to seeing lots of you there for what is likely to be a really wonderful event.

He's not the Messiah.  He's a very naughty boy.

Not the Messiah Out on DVD

Out on DVD this week is the new oratorio based on The Life of Brian and entitled (of course), Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy).  I've blogged on this before -- it's delightful and amusing, and it is great now that they have also released a DVD of the live performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Here's the official page:

Not the Messiah on Blu-Ray and DVD

These days, Monty Python has its own Youtube channel with tons of clips (and apparently all this free stuff has massively increased their sales. Others: "go figure"!). This is the original trailer (for the one day cinema release):



Here's a sing-along for "Always look on the bright side of life":



Here is a some behind-the-scenes stuff:



And here Eric Idle "responds to your fatuous comments":

Only the true Messiah denies his divinity

We discussed the Messianic Secret in my New Testament Introduction class at Duke yesterday, and on this topic I can never help thinking of one of my favourite scenes in Life of Brian. Brian, who is being pursued by a crowd who want to proclaim him the Messiah, makes clear that he is not the Messiah. Some bright spark comes up with the line, "Only the true Messiah denies his divinity!" The exchange is towards the end of this four minute clip. Only two or three people, out of a hundred and thirty in the class, had seen Life of Brian, so this is to whet their appetites too:



Incidentally, this is a fine example of the use of Youtube by official organizations. Since Monty Python put clips like this on Youtube, sales of their DVDs apparently multiplied massively. There is a lesson there for online marketing that is still not understood by very many people.

Not the Messiah -- listen while you can!

As Matt Page mentions on Bible Films Blog, the new oratorio based on Monty Python's Life of Brian was broadcast on Radio 3 on New Year's Day. Of course there was a lot to think about that day, not least with the regeneration of the tenth doctor into the eleventh in "The End of Time (Part 2)" (still buzzing about that one), and so it is quite likely that a lot of people will have missed the live broadcast. No need to worry! It's available on BBC's iPlayer, details here:

Not the Messiah

A comic oratorio inspired by Life of Brian, celebrating 40 years of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Eric Idle, Michael Palin and fellow Pythons join the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra. Every musical style and genre is included, from Handel to Gilbert and Sullivan to Mariachi band.

Eric Idle and John du Prez: Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)

Eric Idle (bariton-ish)
Judith ...... Shannon Mercer (soprano)
Mandy ...... Rosalind Plowright (mezzo)
Brian ...... William Ferguson (tenor)
Reg ...... Christopher Purves (bass)
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
John du Prez (conductor)
With guest appearances by fellow Pythons Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam.

It's wonderful and hilarious and I strongly recommend it. And the good news is that it is not locked-down to UK listeners only, so you don't even need to perform the usual hocus-pocus to listen to it. I must admit that I've grabbed a copy while I can, pending, of course, the release of the CD in due course.

Previous posts on Not the Messiah here.

Pop Classics blog

I recently commented on the fact that sometimes this blog and my Resident Alien blog intersect and Henry Nguyen drew my attention to an excellent new blog that appears to span my own interests, ancient and modern. The Pop Classics blog is the work of a final year PhD student at my former institution, the University of Birmingham. Juliette Harrison comments on popular culture from an informed, classics expert's perspective. I am delighted to see that so far she has commented not only on the Life of Brian but also on one of the great historical episodes of recent Doctor Who, The Fires of Pompeii. 

Not the Messiah Reviews in

Over on Filmchat, Peter Chattaway has a round up of reviews for the Premiere of Not the Messiah, the oratorio based on Monty Python's Life of Brian (last Friday). See Not the Messiah -- the premiere reviewed. Sounds pretty promising to me, e.g. see especially the comments by Robert Cushman of the National Post:

As well as being a filleted adaptation of the movie, the new piece functions as an homage to, or more frankly, an exploitation of, all things Python. For example: As is well known, Brian was born in a stable to the Non-Virgin Mary while a more momentous birth was taking place just next door. ("Is it A.D. yet?" "It's about a quarter to.") And There Were Shepherds -- that's the title of one of the numbers, if an oratorio has numbers. In it, the shepherds sing about how happy they are in their jobs because, simply, "we like sheep." They don't, they make it clear, have much time for any other variety of livestock. They are as enhusiastic about sheep as others have been known to be about Spam . . . .

. . . . But much of the evening's appeal undoubtedly depends on its sense of lesemajeste. I don't mean by that irreverence towards the Bible. The show begins with a rather heavy-handed anti-hymn, O God You Are So Big ("and we are garbage in your sight") and it retains the exhortations of Brian, the reluctant messiah, that his flock should learn to think for themselves. But this element is muted, and the music actually dilutes it.

Life of Brian: The Musical Latest

Variety has the latest on Not the Messiah:

'Messiah' in Idle hands
'Spamalot' creator announces next project
By RICHARD OUZOUNIAN

. . . . Idle was unwilling to disclose details about the work other than to say, "I promise it will be funnier than Handel, although probably not as good."

One question, though, is whether it will include "Brian's" best-known tune: "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," already part of "Spamalot." . . . .

H.T.: Peter Chattaway on Filmchat. Cf. also my previous post on it.

Life of Brian: The Musical

It sounds pretty implausible, I know, but it's true -- they are turning The Life of Brian into an oratorio called Not the Messiah. On FilmChat, Peter Chattaway draws attention to this article in Playbill:

Spamalot Creators Handle "Not the Messiah" Take on "Life of Brian" for 2007 Debut
By Ernio Hernandez
16 Oct 2006

Spamalot creators Eric Idle and John Du Prez are mining the Monty Python catalog for more as the duo will present "Not the Messiah," a 50-minute oratorio based on the 1979 film "Life of Brian."

The commissioned work will be a part of 2007's Luminato, the Toronto Festival of Arts Culture and Creativity, at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on June 1, 2, and 4 (all at 7:30 PM) in 2007, according to a TSO spokesperson.

The world premiere of "Not the Messiah" will be conducted by TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian (who happens to be Idle's cousin). The work — which Idle states "will be funnier than Handel, though not as good" — is to be performed by a narrator, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, with guest soloists and choir . . .

Well, I for one am looking forward to this, on the assumption that it eventually makes it to record and future performances.

Silverscreen Beats 3 and 4

The third and fourth Silverscreen Beats programmes were broadcast on Radio 4 yesterday (15.45 BST) and today (15.45 BST) and they are now available on-line to listen again:

Jesus Christ Superstar (July 5)

Lyricist Tim Rice reveals that the movie only came about because the stage show was such a flop, and how Tom Jones inspired the title to the film.

Life of Brian (July 6)

Composer Geoffrey Burgon reveals how he wrote a traditional, serious score to counteract the comedy in a controversial film. Director Terry Jones admits that he was surprised that the song Always Look on the Bright Side became such a hit.

There are several contributions from me in both programmes. The last part, on The Last Temptation of Christ, is broadcast tomorrow.

Update (Friday, 10.54): see Matt Page's comments in Bible Films Blog: Silverscreen Beats: Godspell and Superstar and Silverscreen Beats: Life of Brian

Silverscreen Beats

Over on Matthew Page's Bible Films Blog (note originating in Peter Chattaway's Filmchat: Jesus Movie Soundtracks on the BBC), there's a post about a new BBC Radio 4 programme:

Silverscreen Beats

It is on all this week at 3.45 pm BST, five episodes at 15 minutes each, taking the music for King of Kings, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Life of Brian and The Last Temptation of Christ. You can listen again from the link above. Matt asks:

As for the series as a whole, I suspect it is a repeat. Certainly before Mark Goodacre's brief quote he is introduced as being from Birmingham University which would make it at least a year old! If that is the case, it's a very much welcome one.

Well, the clip of me speaking, as well as a lot of the rest of the content, is taken from a BBC Scotland documentary broadcast on Easter Day 2004 and entitled Silverscreen Superstar. I blogged on it briefly at the time (Silverscreen Superstar, 15 April 2004). I didn't know about the new version, so I am interested to see how it pans out and whether they'll be using any more of me in it.

Life of Brian on Hollywood Jesus

David Bruce's Hollywood Jesus web site has a new page available to celebrate the re-release of Life of Brian and it includes a review by Jenn Wright:

Monty Python's Life of Brian (2004)

See also Mike Gunn, on the related web site hosted on Hollywood Jesus called After Eden, for some extraordinary stories about Life of Brian:

Of Peace and Cheese
A Journal Entry for May, 2004

I first discovered the insidious plot to prevent a new generation of American audiences from seeing this movie -- while I was vacationing a couple of weeks ago in Florida. When I tried to rent Life of Brian in an unassuming retirement community video store, they didn’t have it. As the clerk explained, “Every time we try to carry the movie, someone steals it!” There’s no crime in that community! I didn’t see one cop for 9 days; but they can’t keep a copy of this movie in their video store? We can no doubt thank a community of fundamentalists doing their part for the “Kingdom of God.”

Life of Brian on Fresh Air

Thanks to Jim West for the notice that Fresh Air have a feature on Life of Brian. Details are available here:

Fresh Air: Life of Brian

You can listen to the programme from that link and also hear some archive interviews, Graham Chapman from 2 July 1987, John Cleese from 22 September 1990, Michael Palin from 17 April 1990 and Eric Idle from 6 October 1999.

Peter and Paul and Jesus film trivia

Following on from my previous blog entry, the IMDb entry for Kenneth Colley, who plays Jesus in the opening (post-credit) sequence in Life of Brian, lists him as an actor in another New Testament related film after Life of Brian, the TVM Peter and Paul. I can recall seeing this on television over twenty years ago and particularly remember Anthony Hopkins's Paul shouting at Peter at the Antioch incident, "You are like a reed!" I have wanted to get hold of a copy of this for some time, and it seems that it is now available on video, in the USA at least, so that's a must. While looking at the IMDb on Peter and Paul, I noticed that it features José Ferrer (1909-92) as Gamaliel. He played an excellent Herod Antipas in The Greatest Story Ever Told. In fact, the cast of Peter and Paul looks remarkable -- Raymond Burr as Herod Agrippa, Herbert Lom as Barnabas. I am looking forward to seeing it again.

Second Coming of Brian

Good to see reference to the twenty-fifth anniversary release of Life of Brian on Paleojudaica; this is from the Houston Chronicle

'Passion' gives 'Life of Brian' something to celebrate
By ROGER MOORE
The Orlando Sentinel

Pythoner Eric Idle suggested Jesus Christ, Lust for Glory, playing off the British title of Patton: Lust For Glory, Jones recalls.

"The more we worked on it, the more interesting and outrageous it became. We reread the Gospels, changed the story to Brian, a contemporary of Jesus. We realized, very quickly, that the real humor lay not in what Christ said, but in the fact that 2,000 years after Christ, you've got everybody still killing each other because we can't get together on how we should worship and accept his message of peace and love."

In other words, people were misunderstanding the message of Jesus, right from the start. "Blessed are the cheesemakers," one character thinks he hears Jesus say off in the distance during the Sermon on the Mount.

Python and future Brazil director Terry Gilliam did the exceptional biblical production design, "but we lucked out in shooting in Monastir, Tunisia, the same place Franco Zeffirelli made Jesus of Nazareth," Jones says. "A lot of the same sets were still there. Just had to dress them up a bit.

"Of course, it also meant that you could be shooting your version of the Sermon on the Mount, and some elderly Tunisian extra would say, 'Well, that's not the way Zeffirelli did it.'"

I've heard this before, but I love that story. One thing I like to point out when showing students the Sermon on the Mount scene from Life fo Brian is that the Pythons also clearly chose an actor who looked like Robert Powell's Jesus to play Jesus in that opening scene, the only time Jesus appears in the film. The actor is a certain Kenneth Colley, about whom IMDb gives us this trivia, "The only actor to play an Imperial officer in more than one Star Wars film (not including extras)."

Silverscreen Superstar

BBC Scotland broadcast a 55 minute special on Jesus films and their music on Easter Monday. There are lots of clips, and some interesting interviews with key people involved including Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar), Geoffrey Burgon (Life of Brian) and a co-producer involved in the music of Last Temptation of Christ (will check the name). There is also quite a lot of me in it. You can listen on-line here:

Silverscreen Superstar

In this Easter special, musician Davey Scott goes behind the screen for the untold stories about the music in the classic 'Jesus films'. Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Life of Brian all come under the spotlight.

Or you can go to this page and scroll down and click:

Radio Scotland Features