HOLY FLYING CIRCUS
UK, 2011, 89 minutes, Colour.
Steve Punt, Charles Edwards, Rufus Jones, Tom Fisher, Darren Boyd, Jason Thorn, Roy Marsden, Michael Cochrane, Stephen Fry.
Directed by Owen Harris.
The title indicates that this will be a film about Monty Pythons Flying Circus. It is specifically about the aftermath of the making of The Life of Brian and the outcry against the film in 1979.
By 1979, the Pythons had been successful in their television programmes as well as in several films including Monty Pythons and the Holy Grail and Jabberwocky. They had many targets and were adept at clever and incisive satire. The six members of the group had university backgrounds, were particularly well educated, experienced on stage in comedy, in performance as well as in writing.
The film opened in the United States and was immediately howled down as blasphemous, audiences and critics not able to see the humour in the parody of so many historical films and the traditional Biblical films.
Each of the six Pythons had his own distinctive presence and style, manner of speaking. John Cleese, very tall, peremptory, contradictory, sarcastic and aggressive capitalised on these in his characters and performances. By contrast, Michael Palin was usually smiling and his characters were genial. There are several sequences in this film indicating is niceness – which audiences of his later travel shows would agree with. Graham Chapman, the out-of-the-closet homosexual member of the group, who played Brian, could play ordinary characters. Eric Idle was the joker and something of a wood-be entrepreneur. Terry Jones, who was the director of the films, had idiosyncratic pronunciations and was also clever at portraying masculine-looking women. Terry Gilliam was an American, and animator, responsible for so much of the eccentric and amusing visuals for the shows.
The casting in this television film is often quite extraordinary. Darren Boyd is perfect as a young John Cleese, voice, manner, and particularly look. Charles Edwards could easily pass as Michael Palin himself, an extraordinary facial likeness. Steve Punt is not unlike Eric Idle. And Tom Fisher does a passable Graham Chapman. Rufus Jones, portraying Terry Jones, does not look like him in the ordinary sense but looks like him and sounds like him in his performance as Michael Palin’s wife. The lookalike for Terry Gilliam, Phil Nichol, is not bad.
As in the Pythons sketches, each of them takes on various roles throughout this film.
Jason Thorne sends up an exploitative BBC producer, changing his mind instantly, harsh on his staff, determined for the Friday night, Saturday morning, program to have heightened conflict, inviting the Pythons to participate and interested in getting controversial and argumentative church figures. The Bishop is Mervyn Stockwood of Southwark, unfortunately referred to in passing as Catholic but in fact he was Anglican. The second contributor was Malcolm Muggeridge, former editor of Punch, with a rather wild reputation despite his very British-mannered decorum, who had recently come under the influence of Mother Teresa.
The film has various meetings of the Pythons, the attitude towards their comedy, the film itself, meetings with the producer who was very happy – and unhappy after the premiere in the United States.
The screenplay focuses mainly on John Cleese and Michael Palin. The two actors are certainly the best of the six and sustain interest in the film. Cleese is unwilling to participate in the television debate while Palin is very strong for it, offering, despite his hesitations, to do the debate. He takes it very seriously and does a lot of preparation. Cleese offers to be offensive. As it turns out, the debate, chaired by a very young Tim Rice, gives the opportunity for the two opponents of the film (who later admitted they missed the first 15 minutes and thus missed the clear differentiation between Jesus and Brian with the visit of the Magi) to talk down at the Pythons. Transcripts of the actual debate form the basis for the screenplay – although, as seen in the documentary, Jesus Christ Moviestar, it was Terry Jones rather than Michael Palin who participated in the debate with Cleese, the Bishop and Muggeridge. Michael Cochrane does a perfect impersonation of Malcolm Muggeridge.
While there are no private scenes for five of the Pythons, many of the scenes for Michael Palin are with his wife at home, she being supportive, sometimes critical, with scenes with Palin on the phone with his mother who does not understand and who finally appears watching the debate. Charles Edwards performs as the mother.
In the meantime, there are various groups of Christians in opposition to the film without having seen it. There are various meetings with a leader, a man with a stammer (echoes of Life of Brian as well as A Fish called Wanda) and a man with Tourette’s Syndrome blurting out curses and swearing at odd moments. They come to the studio to the debate and are disedified by the manner and words of the Bishop and Malcolm Muggeridge. They become apologetic and finally have a drink with the Pythons.
Some of the humour would not have been suitable for 1979 – this film opening with Jesus walking through the desert, encountering a man and breaking wind in his face. There is an episode with Jesus, especially in a discussion with God the Father as they watch the show. Stephen Fry is God the Father and has a few reprimands for his son, telling him to grow up.
The Life of Brian was banned by 23 councils in Britain and not allowed to be shown on television until the 1990s. Yet, in other countries, especially in Australia, the film was seen as amusing satire, critical of religion certainly, but not Jesus of the Gospels. In the film, there is discussion about the famous sequence of the Sermon on the Mount, which parodies the Sermon in the King of Kings. The Pythons emphasise that Jesus is not to be identified with Brian and point to several scenes where the distinction is made.
In some countries, the film was a classic instantly, but it has taken a lot longer for it to be established in the British consciousness (with John Cleese continually making derogatory statements about Britain – and film indicating that he left to live in the United States).
