The Life of Brian/Jesus - Softcover

Julian Doyle

3.58

12 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848766289 ISBN 13: 9781848766280

Publisher: Matador, 2011

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Four hundred years ago, the Pythons would have been burnt at the stake for making the film Life of Brian. But this was the late 20th century and the antiquated British blasphemy laws were something of an irrelevance. That was until July 1977 when a blasphemy case succeeded against Gay News for publishing a poem about a Roman centurion's homoerotic leanings towards the crucified Christ. It was decided to open Life of Brian in the USA where freedom of speech is enshrined in the constitution. Or so it was thought but soon after the premiere in New York in 1979, the opening salvo in what became a heated and often surreal religious war of words came from Rabbi Abraham Hecht who declared, "Never have we come across such a foul, disgusting, blasphemous film before." Life of Brian was banned in many countries for blasphemy. But what is blasphemy and what should be the punishment? Who wants the law and why? And does God believe in it? Julian Doyle, the film's editor, analyses the film and compares each scene of the film with the actual Biblical events and comes to some extraordinary conclusions, including some special insights into the film that has been voted Britain's best comedy ever.

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Review:

"The first thing to say is that Julian is a polymath and the great thing about him is that he doesn't have any assumptions or pre-suppositions, but he does have points of view; lots of them; his book is an exploration of his mind. Like the original film, it is likely to outrage and irritate a lot of people, but it is never dull. It is full of surprising and interesting ideas. Although it centres around the world of Jesus as reflected in 'The Life of Brian', it embraces the career of Richard Dadd, the nature of Masonary, the Jewish identity. It asks startling questions such as: Was Jesus really crucified? Did the Christians pinch the symbol of the fish from the Pythagoreans? At one point he presents a fascinating exploration of Bosch's mysterious painting of 'Christ Crowned with Thorns' , and then the next moment he is examining the significance of numbers in the Bible story. It's a wild, chaotic bronco-busting ride in an out-of-control fairground, but hang on in there - it's worth it." -- Terry Jones 20100925 "Julian Doyle, like many others who worked on Monty Python's Life Of Brian, has clearly not recovered from the experience. To be honest Julian's mental state has worried us all over the years. Having worked with him on Monty Python and The Holy Grail and Jabberwocky I urged the others to have him put quietly in an institution, rather than endure any more of his offensive Anne Boleyn impersonations. But no-one listened and now look what's happened. He's written a disgusting book and used our likenesses to try and sell it. I was sent a complimentary copy and, to be honest, I threw it in the bin, as instructed by Sarah Palin. My lawyers are currently looking at a copy and rather enjoying it." -- Michael Palin 20101001 "Disgusting book! I threw it in the bin, as instructed by Sarah Palin. My lawyers are currently looking at a copy and rather enjoying it." -- Mike Palin "A joyfully mischievous journey of discovery." -- Terry Jones "Great stuff. Lots of interesting research. Connections. Thoughts. Blasphemies." --Terry Gilliam

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