“It seemed perfectly plausible”: A small Welsh town forgot it had banned ‘Life of Brian’ for 30 years
While they’re now universally accepted as geniuses, Monty Python were once considered to be somewhat controversial.
Cinema tends to be on the progressive side of history, and it’s often that films that are ahead of their time end up earning some sort of backlash for upsetting the established order. Ironically, some of the most fervent debates occur because of comedies, as they can be seen as making light of important issues,
The British comedy troupe Monty Python weren’t necessarily looking to pick a fight with anyone, as they seemed to take an equal opportunity to offend anyone. Their rise to prominence is one of the most significant movements in the history of comedy, and inspired some of the most significant filmmakers of the coming decades.
The troupe’s first film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, was praised as an instant classic for the ways in which it lampooned the archetypes within medieval films, and specifically the mythology of Arthurian legend. While their next film, Life of Brian, was just as hilarious, it did present more issues because of the ways in which it mocked Christianity, starring Graham Chapman as Brian Cohen, who happens to be born in the stable next to Jesus of Nazareth. In an amusing satire of the Old Testament, the film follows its titular character as he goes on a series of adventures that mirror Jesus’, which lead to him being crucified.
The film had such a light tone in mocking faith-based issues led to it being banned, including in the Welsh town Aberystwyth, where the town’s mayor, Sue Jones-Davies, said that she was unaware of the ban when she was first elected.
“When I became mayor, someone contacted me and asked did I know it had been banned,” she said, “We did some research and found that it had been banned. Aberystwyth had a lot of chapels and churches 30 years ago, so it seemed perfectly plausible that it would have been.”
Ironically enough, Jones-Davies actually had an acting role in the film as Brian’s girlfriend, and although the restrictions on screening Monty Python’s Life of Brian had been mollified in the decades since its release, she said that there was a push to officially repeal the ban in honour of the film’s anniversary. “I didn’t lift it,” she said, “It just sort of faded away. Over time, it just dissolved. We thought it might be a nice gesture before my year of office was up to show the film, since it is also the film’s 30th anniversary.”
There’s a fierce debate among Monty Python fans on which of their films is the best: while Monty Python and the Holy Grail was so popular that it inspired the Broadway adaptation Spamalot!, the musical lifted its most iconic song, ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’, directly from Life of Brian. The song is memorably sung by Brian and the other prisoners who are held on crucifixes at the end of the film.
Life of Brian might now seem somewhat quaint in comparison to the other comedy-related controversies in recent memory; there was backlash to South Park and Borat, and nearly a terrorist scare as a result of the Seth Rogen comedy The Interview. If the removal of the ban on Life of Brian proves anything, it is that people are more willing to lighten up over time.
