Talk:Monty Python's Life of Brian

Sound quality of main theme
Every time I've watched this film on various DVDs over the last couple of decades, the main Shirley Bassey-esque theme has had awful phasing effects. Does anyone have any info that can shed light on this? Was it done deliberately, or has the soundtrack suffered degradation at some stage? I don't remember the phasing being there when I watched the cinema release. There are no obvious phase errors on the rest of the soundtrack. Ef80 (talk) 10:21, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Edit war?Inspiration from The Life of Jesus
The film imho was inspired by an important scholarly book which concludes that Jesus was an unremarkable Jew…

I changed the wording to “likely” inspired by the book. It is clearly more than a coincidence.

If all WP assertions were sourced, there would be little in WP.

I am checking with the Monty Python team. X Riskit 4 a biskit (talk) 20:24, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

When asked what the inspiration of the film was, palin responds that they read up about JC see vid @ 6:02 This would certainly have included the book I mention. Coincidence? Ok, now, to say “likely” inspired?? See YouTube “life of Brian debate 1979” Riskit 4 a biskit (talk) 20:58, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

“ Craveri concluded that the claims to divinity made by the historical Jesus were strictly limited and not unusual for a Jew of that generation. “ Riskit 4 a biskit (talk) 21:00, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

Oh, hang on, the WP Craveri article isn’t sourced, so better delete it?? Riskit 4 a biskit (talk) 21:03, 16 February 2023 (UTC)


 * can I add an email as a source? Or a telephone convo? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Riskit 4 a biskit (talk • contribs) 14:26, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Your opinions are irrelevant for Wikipedia. WP is based on reliable sources. Read WP:RS. Your supposition re Palin is irrelevant. You need to find a secondary source that supports your assertions. Do the research in finding a reliable source, present it here and maybe your information can be included if there is WP:CONSENSUS Robynthehode (talk) 14:39, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
 * warning: This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Monty Python's Life of Brian article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Riskit 4 a biskit (talk • contribs) 15:23, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Your warning is not appropriate. I have not been uncivil WP:CIVIL just a bit terse. Please read the protocols and guidelines for contributing to Wikipedia. You can start with WP:5P but also read the other links I provided. Also please sign your posts by ending the post with four tildes 'Robynthehode (talk) 16:57, 17 February 2023 (UTC)'. Thanks

Failed verification re: decades-long ban on Italy
I added a tag to the line in the third paragraph of the introduction which currently reads: "Some countries, including Ireland and Norway, banned its showing, and in a few of these, such as Italy, bans lasted decades." The citation links to a newspaper article on an Italian website titled "L'equivoco su Brian di Nazareth dei Monty Python quarant'anni dopo" ("The misunderstanding of "Brian di Nazareth" by Monty Python forty years later"). I don't speak much Italian but from what I can tell, even a cursory glance over it and running it through a couple of translators makes it clear nowhere in the short two-paragraph article does it say how long Italy banned it for, let alone that it was for "decades"; merely that Italy banned it for some amount of time alongside several other countries: "Parte di tanta fama è dovuta all’accanimento della censura, che proibì il film in varie nazioni fra cui l’Italia: era il 1978 e più che uno scandalo fu un malinteso." (Google Translate: "Part of so much fame is due to the fury of the censorship, which banned the film in various countries including Italy: it was 1978 and more than a scandal it was a misunderstanding.") This sentence is in the first paragraph of the article and a variation of it is in the article's subtitle at the top of the page. But nowhere else does any variation of the words "proibita" or "proibì" (banned) appear, or the word "Italia" or any variation of it, so it seems pretty obvious the article doesn't make any such claims about Italy banning the film for decades, or for any specific amount of time at all. According to "Life of Brian"s IMDb entry, Life of Brian first premiered in the USA on August 17, 1979, and first premiered in Italy on March 28, 1991, so although the Italian ban technically spanned 3 decades, it was only banned for 11 years, 7 months, and 11 days at most. According to the website Original Film Art, they are selling a copy of the Life of Brian movie release from its original Italian premiere, which they say was in 1991 and 12 years after the film first came out. The site says it has a certificate of authenticity but I can't view it, and it doesn't offer dates. But this all seems more reliable than the Il Foglio article currently cited, which has no dates or amount of time at all and certainly doesn't say Italy's ban lasted decades. I think we should: --VolatileChemical (talk) 12:06, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
 * A) rewrite that sentence in the intro so that it says something like, "and in a few of these, such as Italy, bans lasted decades", or "bans lasted into the 1990s", "bans lasted more than a decade", or "bans lasted up to 12 years", because that seems to be more accurate;
 * B) include one of those other sources (IMDb, Original Film Art.com etc, if they are acceptable), or find new sources, to put in addition to and/or in lieu of the Il Foglio article;
 * C) maybe also just find a different place in the wiki entry for the Il Foglio article, which is not an irrelevant source about Life of Brian and the censorship response, just a bad source for backing up a specific claim about durations of the Italian ban. I'm not sure if that article ever had a longer or different form in 2019 when it was published which had information about those things at the time, but the current iteration does not.
 * D) Instead of the Italy example we could add after it, or replace it with, an example of a country where the ban did actually last multiple decades, e.g. Chile (21 years), or so according to IMDb's Certification ratings guide entry for "Life of Brian".

No mention of controversy over Stan/Loretta scene
So there was a scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian where Stan expressed her desire to be a woman called Loretta and to have babies, and other characters made fun of her for this. In the 21st century, this has been quite controversial among trans people, but there's no mention of it in the 21st century section. Think we should add a section on that? MarchRain (talk) 05:54, 18 December 2023 (UTC)