An essay in honor of the 25th anniversary re-release of The Life of Brian.

by G. J. Goldberg

May 2004

 

Noses are rarely mentioned by Josephus, and big noses not at all, except by implication (War 5.7.4 325).¹ Yet despite this, the 1979 film Monty Python’s Life of Brian,² which, according to its writers, is “based on a load of Josephus”,³ begins its post-title action with an intense rhinometric argument.⁴

MR. CHEEKY: (Trying to listen to the Sermon on the Mount)

See? If you hadn't been going on, we'd have heard that, Big Nose.

MR. BIG NOSE:

Hey. Say that once more, I'll smash your bloody face in.

MR. CHEEKY:

Better keep listening. There might be a bit about 'Blessed are the big noses.'

[Et cetera]⁵

The source material for this exchange could only have been Josephus’ eye-witness testimony of the hardiness of the nose of one Jewish fighter named Castor. During the siege of Jerusalem, this Castor delayed the Roman assault by pretending to negotiate with the commander, Titus Caesar:

During this interval, a certain person shot an arrow at Castor, and wounded him in his nose; whereupon he presently pulled out the arrow, and showed it to Titus, and complained that this was unfair treatment. So Caesar reproved him that shot the arrow, and sent Josephus, who then stood by him, to give his right hand to Castor. (War 5.7.4 325)

Despite the clear impression this gives of a nose that is both large enough to be a target of Roman spears and durable enough to survive such an attack, Josephus leaves the inference unstated. No doubt Josephus deliberately avoided nasal discussion so as not to offend his Roman audience, who likely had large noses of their owns and did not want them disparaged by comparison with Josephus' compatriots. Indeed, from the numismatic evidence, Emperor Vespasian’s nose bears comparison to that of Mr. Big Nose from “Brian.”⁶

The Cheesemakers

Josephus also sheds light on a problem of interpretation. The argumentative characters of the film misapprehend Jesus’ proclamation, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” which they hear as “Blessed are the cheesemakers.” Fortunately, their confusion at this is dispelled by a nearby scholar who speaks with the authority of a modern Professor of Religious Studies: “Obviously it’s not meant to be taken literally -- it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.”

This explanation can be taken even further, as Josephus tells us that the valley running through central Jerusalem was called the Tyropoion Valley, which means “Valley of the Cheesemakers” (War 5.4.1 140) (the Greek Tyropoion is the genitive plural of tyropoios, from tyros, “cheese“, and poieo, “make“). With cheese makers -- or any manufacturers of dairy products -- at the heart of the holy city, they must surely have been blessed, opening the possibility that this is the correct reading of the Sermon on the Mount and that “peacemakers” is a later corruption. (This argument would be more plausible if an English-language substrate were found beneath the Gospel text, to justify the corruption via phoneme resemblance; such research is ongoing.)

Factionalism

The most striking dependence of Brian on Josephus lies in the film's vivid portrayal of the Roman occupation of Judea and consequent revolutionary factionalism. Josephus painfully demarcates the fracturing of the revolution into factions and sub-factions: Zealots, Sicarii of Masada, John of Gischala‘s group, the followers of Simon son of Gioras, Annanus' party, and the Zealot splinter group led by Eleazar son of Simon -- what Josephus describes as “a faction bred within a faction…which like some raving beast for lack of other food at length preyed upon its own flesh." (War 5.1.1-2 4-6) (see Chronology of the War 6). The audience of Brian is given a quick summary of the situation:⁷

REG:

Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the [expletive deleted] Judean People's Front.

GROUP:

Yeah!

JUDITH:

Splitters!

FRANCIS:

And the Judean Popular People's Front.

GROUP:

Yeah. Splitters!

STAN/LORETTA:

And the People's Front of Judea.

GROUP:

Splitters!

REG:

What?

LORETTA:

The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.

REG:

We're the People's Front of Judea!

LORETTA:

Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.

REG:

People's Front! 

FRANCIS:

Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?

REG:

He's over there.

According to the Python commentary on the DVD release of Brian, this scene was written as a satire on the multiplication of ineffectual left-wing political parties in Britain in the 1970’s. However, the resonances with Josephus are so apparent, we must conclude that either the Python’s have forgotten their debt to the historian, or else British leftists of the 1970’s deliberately modeled their activities upon the politics of ancient Jerusalem.⁸

^Moderates

Antagonism was aimed also at the common citizenry who were not inclined to fight, as vividly described by Josephus in such passages as War 5.1.5. This is doubtless the source for a statement by Reg, the revolutionary leader in Brian: "What Jesus blatantly fails to appreciate is it's the meek who are the problem."⁹

Roman Contributions

Although the Romans were occupiers, they did make civic improvements. Josephus describes how Pontius Pilate ordered the construction of an aqueduct to carry water into Jerusalem (War 2.9.4 175, Antiquities 18.3.2 60). This project is explicitly cited in Brian and produces ambivalence among the revolutionaries:¹⁰

REG:

They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers' fathers […] And what have they ever given us in return?

XERXES:

The aqueduct?

REG:

What?

XERXES:

The aqueduct.

REG:

Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that's true. Yeah.

COMMANDO #3:

And the sanitation.

STAN/LORETTA:

Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like?

REG:

Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things that the Romans have done.

MATTHIAS:

And the roads.

REG:

Well, yeah. Obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don't they? But apart from the

sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads--

COMMANDO:

Irrigation.

XERXES:

Medicine.

[Et cetera, et cetera]

These benefits are likely overstated. Despite the aqueduct, which Pilate in any case paid for with funds stolen from the Jerusalem Temple, Josephus does not give the Romans much credit for enhancing life in Judea. They did have some influence. The true builder of Judea was Herod the Great, who, as a client king of the Roman Empire, necessarily emphasized Roman-style architecture, and probably was heavily leaned on to buy all of his cement from a Sicilian contractor.

Multiple "Messiahs"

In pre-revolutionary Judea, many enterprising self-employed persons, whom Josephus uncharitably terms "deceivers," gained popular followings and inspired the masses with prophecies of signs and wonders, before being dismembered by the Romans. The hapless title character of Brian, who is called "Brian who is called Brian," unwillingly becomes one such figure. Providing a badly-needed comedic context to the messianic environment of early Christianity, the film depicts a row of such prophet-wannabes declaiming their visions a la Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park:¹¹

BORING PROPHET:

There shall in that time be rumors of things going astray, 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.

 
If only Josephus could have lived long enough to see Brian, either in a theater with a big bag of popcorn and a Mountain Dew or sitting at home in front of the DVD player with a bucket of fired chicken and a six-pack, he would have had a good guffaw at this scene.

According to the Python DVD commentary, finding an upbeat ending for Brian proved excruciatingly difficult, inasmuch as the title character needed to be crucified at the finish. It eventually became clear to the Monty Python group that the only possible way to end the film was with a song. Eric Idle wrote it quickly – one might say, as though divinely inspired. The result is one of the most uplifting moments in cinematic history:

MR. FRISBEE III: (On the next cross over from Brian)

Cheer up, Brian. You know what they say.

Some things in life are bad.

They can really make you mad.

Other things just make you swear and curse.

When you're chewing on life's gristle,

Don't grumble. Give a whistle.

And this'll help things turn out for the best.

And...

[music]
 

Always look on the bright side of life.
 

[whistling]
 

Always look on the light side of life.
 

[whistling]
 

If life seems jolly rotten,

There's something you've forgotten,

And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.

When you're feeling in the dumps,

Don't be silly chumps.

Just purse your lips and whistle. That's the thing.

And...

Always look on the bright side of life.

SEVERAL:

[whistling]

MR. FRISBEE:

Come on!

SEVERAL:

Always look on the right side of life,

[whistling]

MR. FRISBEE:

For life is quite absurd

And death's the final word.

You must always face the curtain with a bow.

Forget about your sin.

Give the audience a grin.

EVERYONE:

Enjoy it. It's your last chance, anyhow....

The Pythons attributed this philosophy to the fact that all members of the group had been born during WWII, and had some memories related to the bombing of London. It's a British response to adversity: "I've had worse." But once again they did not adequately disclose their debt to Josephus. At the siege of Jotapata, Josephus, who was himself the commander of the Jewish forces there, witnessed or was informed of the behavior of one of his people who had fallen into the hands of the Romans:

One of the people of Jotapata had undergone all sorts of torments; and though they made him pass through a fiery trial of his enemies, in his examination, yet would he inform them nothing of the affairs within the city, and as he was crucified, smiled at them. (War 3.5.33 321)

Amen.

 

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Footnotes

1. References are to the Jewish War by Flavius Josephus. Citations are in the form of "Book.Chapter.Paragraph" followed by the Greek line number.

2. Handmade Films (1979). DVD Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition 2004. Written by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones,  and Michael Palin.

3. Something I read once somewhere.

4. There are several unauthorized Brian scripts on the Internet, such as that of "The Unofficial Monty Python Home Page"  (http://www.mwscomp.com/movies/brian/brian.htm#script); but these are too unreliable for use by the serious scholar, unless you're pressed for time.

5. "The Unofficial Monty Python Home Page", Brian script, Scene 2.

6. David Hendin, Guide to Biblical Coins (Amphora, 1987)

7. Brian script, op. cit., Scene 7.

8. Perhaps motivated by easy comparisons between Margaret Thatcher and Nero.

9. Brian script, op. cit., Scene 2.

10. Brian script, op. cit., Scene 9.

11. Brian script, op. cit., Scene 14.

12. Brian script, op. cit., Scene 31.