NOVANEWS
11/12/2010
Original anti-Zionist jokes in Monty Python’s LIFE OF BRIAN remain censored
By Eric Verlo
Think you know the saga of the deleted scenes from Monty Python’s LIFE OF BRIAN? Not if you trust Wikipedia. The 1979 comedy didn’t just take the mickey out of Jesus and the feuding Palestinian Liberation fronts, it poked good fun at Zionists, as goose-stepping racists led by Eric Idle’s OTTO the NAZIRENE who was determined to promote Jewish racial purity, carve a Lebensraum from the “traditional Jewish areas of Samaria,” displace the Samaritans into internment camps, and plan an anschluss of Jordan to “create a great Jewish state that will last a thousand years.” My, my, my. But the defamed parties had the last laugh.
They acquired the studio with the rights to the film, obliterated the offending celluloid, reedited the video release, and have rewritten cinematic history.
Maybe you don’t care what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians. Did you know someone is messing with the legacy of Monty Python? We had the comedy sketches memorized in college. Who could have imagined the originals would be vulnerable to tampering?
I’m not sure this is an overreaction. Monty Python is not Shakespeare, what is. But it’s not Nicholas Sparks either. For a populist phenom it rivals Swift. This is book burning, is what it is. A sinister effacing of creative work. Life of Brian is considered as in contention for Britain’s greatest film comedy, and for your consideration, instead of a director’s cut, we’ve got a censor’s cut.
Here’s the lowdown in brief: three integral scenes of the theatrical release were removed from the video version. The third scene was recut to make up for the absence of the first two. When Criterion released a new copy, the missing sequences were included in the extras as “deleted scenes,” represented by mangled outtakes, from which key lines were cut. An official narrative was fabricated to recount how the sequences had been removed from the original version to improve the flow, the crude outtakes testifying to why they didn’t make the cut.
But that’s all bullocks. And the niggling weak spot to this digital book burning are, ironically enough, the BOOKS published in 1979 of the screenplays to accompany the film’s release. Plus anyone who remembers seeing the film in its first release.
Not My Tribe has suffered its own internal dissension over comparing Israel to the Nazis. Apparently it’s SO not done, not even Monty Python can get away with it.
You may have revisited the video many times, now the DVD, maybe you read about the scandals about the film’s release, maybe you memorized some of the dialog; are you curious that you missed the bits about Samaria, Jordan and purified Jewish blood?
When the Catholic church objects to a movie, it declares a boycott. Zionists take a more effective strategy. When pulling funding from the project doesn’t work, they buy the rights and delete the scenes. You’d think a film as celebrated as Life of Brian would be inviolate to culture vandals. And so far the desecration has escaped the legions of Monty Python fans. Wikipedia recounts how Otto’s scenes were deleted from the film, and thankfully resurfaced to be included as outtakes on the 2007 Criterion edition. But the account is untrue.
From restored out-takes we might surmise that Jewish objections were limited to the Star of David embellished as a swastika, but from the un-restored material it seems that the modern censors objected to Zionists depicted as determined to carve their own Lebensraum in Samariaby means of Anschluss and internment, for the sake of a third Jewish reich. Oh My Goodness.
The Criterion edition of Monty Python’s Life of Brian has some famously restored scenes, alleged to have been cut from the original version. They’re available again, and you can see them on Youtube. But it’s Poppycock. The scenes in question were actually removed from the video release, and “lost” by the studio which took over Handmade Films. The deleted scenes were actually out-takes of the originals. Fortunately, the screenplay published to accompany the 1979 release has the original lines, which vary quite curiously from what’s being peddled as the restored original. Yes, the deleted scenes have deleted scenes.
If you saw the 1979 film in the theater, you might remember Otto, the Hitleresque Zionist with the curiously non-German accent. Here is the original script made from the final take. The out-take restored as “deleted scenes” stray considerably from these lines. The lines in bold have simply been simply clipped.
BRIAN slips out through the back door and descends some steps into MANDY’S garden where he sits, head in hands.
Suddenly a voice assails him.
OTTO: Hail, Leader!
BRIAN: What?
OTTO: Oh, I– I’m so sorry. Have you seen the new Leader?
BRIAN: The what?
OTTO: The new Leader. Where is the new leader? I wish to hail him. Hail, Leader. See.
BRIAN: Oh. Who are you?
OTTO: My name. Is. Otto.
BRIAN: Oh.
OTTO: Yes. Otto. It’s time, you know. . .
BRIAN: What?
OTTO: . . . Time that we Jews racially purified ourselves.
BRIAN: Oh.
OTTO: He’s right you know. The new leader. We need more living room. We must move into the traditionally Jewish areas of Samaria.
BRIAN: What about the Samaritans? (…Full Article)
BRIAN slips out through the back door and descends some steps into MANDY’S garden where he sits, head in hands.
Suddenly a voice assails him.
OTTO: Hail, Leader!
BRIAN: What?
OTTO: Oh, I– I’m so sorry. Have you seen the new Leader?
BRIAN: The what?
OTTO: The new Leader. Where is the new leader? I wish to hail him. Hail, Leader. See.
BRIAN: Oh. Who are you?
OTTO: My name. Is. Otto.
BRIAN: Oh.
OTTO: Yes. Otto. It’s time, you know. . .
BRIAN: What?
OTTO: . . . Time that we Jews racially purified ourselves.
BRIAN: Oh.
OTTO: He’s right you know. The new leader. We need more living room. We must move into the traditionally Jewish areas of Samaria.
BRIAN: What about the Samaritans? (…Full Article)
