One of the Monty Python troop’s most successful and hilarious films has just been voted the most controversial film of all time by fellow movie lovers in London. The news comes on the eve of an upcoming 40th anniversary reunion planned for the comedy troupe this fall in which Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam will all appear for a short musical based on Monty Pythons Life of Brian entitled Not the Messiah (He’s a very naughty boy). The only member of Python which will not be in attendance will be Graham Chapman who sadly passed away back in 1989.
It is Life of Brian which was voted the most controversial film of all time besting films like A Clockwork Orange and The Last House on The Left with the polls spokesmen stating: “The success of films like Life Of Brian proves that scandal sells.”
Now of course this is not the first, nor will it be the last time a most controversial film of all time list is done, so the fact that films like Caligula, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her lover,Salo,The Last Temptation of Christ,Crash,Kids,The Birth of a Nation, The Passion of the Christ,Lolita,Deep Throat or Bad Lieutenant were forgotten to be mentioned is heresy. It does though make you wonder who, in fact, classifies a film to be controversial or inappropriate. Is it mere coincidence that 2 of the films mentioned are comedies while the other a pseudo documentary and not a full length narrative film, or does it say more about ourselves that films of that nature or ‘quality’ do not get made today? It is more often than not religion and sex, more so than violence that seems to anger certain viewers such as is the case with every film mentioned previously. With the sole exception of The War Game which was deemed too frightening and graphic so much so that the film was made for television viewing back in August of 1966 and the same year won an Oscar for best documentary but was banned by the BBC for viewing until 1985 a full 11 years later due to ”the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting”.
Or maybe its the filmmakers themselves that are too afraid to make controversial films like in the case of Theo Van Gough who directed the 10 minute film Submission about muslim women which got him stabbed to death (as seen below)
There is even to this day rampant discussion as to whether Pier Paolo Pasolini had been murdered out of sheer vengeance from his captor or if it in fact had been done due to his final film Salo: The 120 days of Sodom. Either way it is up for debate that if films that can cause such outright hate and debate are more controversial than a biblical comedy by the famed British troupe.
It's kind of silly I think. Didn't 'Last Temptation of Christ' come out right about the same time period? It seems to me if they are going to pick a movie that was controversial for religious reasons they would pick that over Life of Brian.
9:02 am July 14, 2009
Donny Broussard
Admin
posts 9
3
I think it's a silly argument. Jesus himself told me that he found “Life of Brian” sorta lame, and if it was up to him he'd would have picked “The Passion of the Christ” because he didn't like the way his hair looked in it.
Yeah, I've gotta agree with you guys on that… of all the controversial religious-type movies, I wouldn't exactly put the “Life of Brian” as a real consideration. The only other thing I could figure is, did it have a huge negative response when it was released? I don't see how, but stranger things have happened.
3:29 pm July 16, 2009
Matt Champagne
Admin
posts 4
5
Yah it did have a nuge negative response from religious types when it was first released. But so did Dogma and tons of other movies.
One of the Monty Python troop’s most successful and hilarious films has just been voted the most controversial film of all time by fellow movie lovers in London. The news comes on the eve of an upcoming 40th anniversary reunion planned for the comedy troupe this fall in which Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam will all appear for a short musical based on Monty Pythons Life of Brian entitled Not the Messiah (He’s a very naughty boy). The only member of Python which will not be in attendance will be Graham Chapman who sadly passed away back in 1989.
It is Life of Brian which was voted the most controversial film of all time besting films like A Clockwork Orange and The Last House on The Left with the polls spokesmen stating: “The success of films like Life Of Brian proves that scandal sells.”
Now of course this is not the first, nor will it be the last time a most controversial film of all time list is done, so the fact that films like Caligula, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her lover,Salo,The Last Temptation of Christ,Crash,Kids,The Birth of a Nation, The Passion of the Christ,Lolita,Deep Throat or Bad Lieutenant were forgotten to be mentioned is heresy. It does though make you wonder who, in fact, classifies a film to be controversial or inappropriate. Is it mere coincidence that 2 of the films mentioned are comedies while the other a pseudo documentary and not a full length narrative film, or does it say more about ourselves that films of that nature or ‘quality’ do not get made today? It is more often than not religion and sex, more so than violence that seems to anger certain viewers such as is the case with every film mentioned previously. With the sole exception of The War Game which was deemed too frightening and graphic so much so that the film was made for television viewing back in August of 1966 and the same year won an Oscar for best documentary but was banned by the BBC for viewing until 1985 a full 11 years later due to ”the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting”.
Or maybe its the filmmakers themselves that are too afraid to make controversial films like in the case of Theo Van Gough who directed the 10 minute film Submission about muslim women which got him stabbed to death (as seen below)
There is even to this day rampant discussion as to whether Pier Paolo Pasolini had been murdered out of sheer vengeance from his captor or if it in fact had been done due to his final film Salo: The 120 days of Sodom. Either way it is up for debate that if films that can cause such outright hate and debate are more controversial than a biblical comedy by the famed British troupe.
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