Monty Python's Life of Brian

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)

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)

Revealing mistake: When the blind man is telling Brian he can see again and falls down in the pit, you can see the white mattress that he lands on. (01:01:10)

Other mistake: When Brian is being chased by people who believe he is the Messiah, Brian loses a sandal. They all think it's a sign and run after him with one sandal in their hand. Thing is, when you see them, thay all have both sandals on their feet, yet most of them are holding a sandal. Where did they all get their third sandal from?

pierpp

Continuity mistake: During an early scene, the People's Front of Judea are conversing while Brian is selling food. The man to the right of Reg has no tear in his shirt collar at the beginning of the scene. Once Brian approaches them his shirt collar has a significant tear that wasn't there before. (00:21:20)

Audio problem: When the leader of the Suicide Squad introduces himself and his team to Brian, we can see his original lines have been over-dubbed on the post-production. (01:27:55)

cinecena

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

Continuity mistake: Pilate is making his guards laugh by telling them about Biggus Dickus' wife Incontinentia Buttocks. Brian crawls away, while Pilate rushes up his steps in a wide shot of the room. But then the camera cuts to a close-up of Brian, and he crawls away again.

Continuity mistake: In the balcony scene, the Gourd Follower woman is in the foreground in shots from the window, but long shots show only the man behind her. (01:07:00)

Phoenix

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

Continuity mistake: At the crucifixion, the soldier says, "Let's settle this" with his arms raised. In the following shot on his front, his hands are on his hips. (01:23:35)

Phoenix

Continuity mistake: When Stan says he wants to be a woman at the coliseum, he is facing to his left. In the following shot, he is facing down and to the right. (00:19:25)

Phoenix

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)

Continuity mistake: The cross carried to the crucifixion scene by the Saintly Passer-by looks nothing like the one they crucify him on. The cross bar is a narrow pole, and the upright is much smaller than the one he ends up on. They do not crucify him on a different cross - he is roughly pushed down on the flimsy prop cross he carried, then instantly is hauled upright on a sturdy one.

Continuity mistake: After Brian is caught by the alien spacecraft, his yamulka is in front of his hairline. But, once the camera pulls away to show the aliens his yamulka is placed very far back on his head. (00:43:09)

Continuity mistake: When Mandy and Brian are walking home after the stoning, Mandy tells Brian he needs to get a job. But a few minutes later, when the ex leper is bartering with them for a donation, Mandy says that one of the prices he's asking for is more than what Brian makes in a month.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: She was lying to him to get him to go away.

lionhead

Suggested correction: He's got a job - selling otter's noses and other delicacies in the arena during gladiatorial meets.

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

Revealing mistake: When the centurion strikes Brian after Pilate confirms he wants him to do it, you can see the filming skip, showing that Brian wasn't actually struck.

LorgSkyegon

Boring Prophet: There shall in that time be rumors of things going astray, erm, and there shall be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia-work base, that has an attachment. At that time, a friend shall lose his friend's hammer, and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before, about eight o'clock.

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Trivia: The film was initially banned in Norway, for fear that it might offend some people's religious sensibilities. In neighboring Sweden, it was billed as "The film so funny it was banned in Norway"

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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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