Editing Monty Python's Life of Brian (section)

===Editing===
A number of scenes were cut during the editing process. Five [[deleted scene]]s, a total of 13 minutes, including the controversial "Otto", were first made available in 1997 on the [[Criterion Collection]] [[Laserdisc]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Laserdisc Database|title=Criterion Life of Brian|url=http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/08009/CC1504L/Monty-Python:-Life-of-Brian:-Special-Edition-(1979)|access-date=13 December 2011}}</ref> An unknown amount of raw footage was destroyed in 1998 by the company that bought Handmade Films. However, a number of them (of varying quality) were shown the following year on the [[Paramount Comedy Channel]] in the UK. The scenes shown included three shepherds discussing sheep and completely missing the arrival of the angel heralding Jesus's birth, which would have been at the very start of the film; a segment showing the attempted kidnap of Pilate's wife (a large woman played by John Case<!--Please don't change "Case" to "Cleese"; it's not a typo-->) whose escape results in a fistfight; a scene introducing hardline [[Zionist]] Otto, leader of the Judean People's Front (played by Eric Idle), and his men who practise a suicide run in the courtyard; and a brief scene in which Judith releases some birds into the air in an attempt to summon help. The shepherds' scene has badly distorted sound, and the kidnap scene has poor colour quality.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|author=SOTCAA|date=2004|title=Monty Python – Films|publisher=[[UK Online]]|url=http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sotcaa/sotcaa_python.html?/sotcaa/pythonpages/python_films02.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070323234524/http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sotcaa/sotcaa_python.html?%2Fsotcaa%2Fpythonpages%2Fpython_films02.html|archive-date=23 March 2007|access-date=6 November 2006|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> The same scenes that were on the Criterion [[laserdisc]] can now be found on the [[Criterion Collection]] DVD.

The most controversial cuts were the scenes involving Otto, initially a recurring character, who had a thin [[Adolf Hitler]] moustache and spoke with a German accent, shouting accusations of "racial impurity" at Judeans who were conceived (as Brian was) when their mothers were raped by Roman [[centurion]]s, as well as other Nazi phrases. The logo of the Judean People's Front, designed by Terry Gilliam,<ref name="immaculate">{{cite video |date=2007 |title=The Story of Brian |medium=Monty Python's Life of Brian: The Immaculate Edition DVD |publisher= [[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]]}}</ref> was a [[Star of David]] with a small line added to each point so it resembled a [[swastika]], most familiar in the West as the symbol of the anti-Semitic Nazi movement. The rest of this faction also all had the same thin moustaches, and wore a spike on their helmets, similar to those on [[Pickelhaube|Imperial German helmets]]. The official reason for the cutting was that Otto's dialogue slowed down the narrative. However, Gilliam, writing in ''The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons'', said he thought it should have stayed, saying "Listen, we've alienated the Christians, let's get the Jews now." Idle himself was said to have been uncomfortable with the character; "It's essentially a pretty savage attack on rabid Zionism, suggesting it's rather akin to Nazism, which is a bit strong to take, but certainly a point of view."<ref name="autobiography" /> [[Michael Palin]]'s personal journal entries from the period when various edits of ''Brian'' were being test-screened consistently reference the Pythons' and filmmakers' concerns that the Otto scenes were slowing the story down and thus were top of the list to be chopped from the final cut of the film.<ref name="autogenerated1969" /> However, [[Oxford Brookes University]] historian David Nash says the removal of the scene represented "a form of self-censorship" and the Otto sequence "which involved a character representative of extreme forms of [[Zionism]]" was cut "in the interests of smoothing the way for the film's distribution in America."<ref>{{cite book |last=Nash |first=David |title=Blasphemy in the Christian World: A History |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2007 |page=214 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OIA_i8jviucC&pg=PA214 |access-date=18 May 2010 |isbn=978-0-19-925516-0}}</ref>

The only scene with Otto that remains in the film is during the [[crucifixion]] sequence. Otto arrives with his "crack suicide squad", sending the Roman soldiers fleeing in terror. Instead of doing anything useful, the squad stab themselves to death as Brian watches. Terry Jones once mentioned that the only reason this excerpt was not cut too was due to [[continuity (fiction)|continuity]] reasons, as their dead bodies were very prominently placed throughout the rest of the scene. He acknowledged that some of the humour of this sole remaining contribution was lost through the earlier edits, but felt they were necessary to the overall pacing.

Otto's scenes, and those with Pilate's wife, were cut from the film after the script had gone to the publishers, and so they can be found in the published version of the script. Also present is a scene where, after Brian has led the [[Legio V Macedonica|Fifth Legion]] to the headquarters of the People's Front of Judea, Reg ([[John Cleese]]) says "You cunt!! You stupid, bird-brained, flat-headed..."<ref>{{cite book |author=Chapman, Graham |display-authors=etal |date=1979 |title=Monty Python's The Life of Brian/MONTYPYTHONSCRAPBOOK |pages=script p.34 |no-pp=true|title-link=Monty Python's The Life of Brian/MONTYPYTHONSCRAPBOOK }}</ref> The profanity was overdubbed to "you klutz" before the film was released. Cleese approved of this editing as he felt the reaction to the profanity would "get in the way of the comedy."<ref name="autobiography" />

An early listing of the sequence of sketches reprinted in ''Monty Python: The Case Against'' by Robert Hewison reveals that the film was to have begun with a set of sketches at an English public school. Much of this material was first printed in the ''[[Monty Python's The Life of Brian / Monty Python Scrapbook]]'' that accompanied the original script publication of ''The Life of Brian'' and then subsequently reused. The song "[[All Things Dull and Ugly]]" and the parody scripture reading "Martyrdom of St. Victor" were performed on ''[[Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album]]'' (1980). The idea of a violent rugby match between school masters and small boys was filmed in ''[[Monty Python's The Meaning of Life]]'' (1983). A sketch about a boy who dies at school appeared on the unreleased ''[[The Hastily Cobbled Together for a Fast Buck Album]]'' (1981).