Editing Monty Python's Life of Brian (section)

==Political satire==
The film pokes fun at revolutionary groups and 1970s [[British left|British left-wing politics]]. According to Roger Wilmut, "What the film does do is place modern stereotypes in a historical setting, which enables it to indulge in a number of sharp digs, particularly at trade unionists and guerilla organisations".<ref>Wilmut, Roger (1980). ''From Fringe to Flying Circus''. London: Eyre Methuen Ltd. p. 250</ref> There are several groups in the film which oppose the [[Judaea (Roman province)|Roman occupation of Judea]], but fall into the familiar pattern of intense competition among factions that appears, to an outsider, to be over ideological distinctions so small as to be invisible, thus portraying the phenomenon of the [[narcissism of small differences]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://observer.com/2015/09/will-socialists-back-bernie-definitely-maybe/|title=Will Socialists Back Bernie? Definitely Maybe|last=Paul|first=Ari|date=2015-09-02|newspaper=The Observer|language=en-US|access-date=2016-09-10}}</ref> The comical naming similarities of the groups were also a satire of fractious divisions between contemporary Palestinian liberation groups, all containing the words "front" and "liberation" along with "Palestine": [[Palestinian Popular Struggle Front]] (PPSF) (formed 1967) had broken off from the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (PFLP), which had divisions which lead to [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command]] (PFLP-GC) (1968), which in turn split into [[Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (DFLP) (1969), [[Popular Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (PFRLP) (1972).  

Such disunity indeed fatally hampered real-life Judean resistance against Roman rule.<ref name="Levick1999">Levick, Barbara (1999). ''Vespasian''. London: Routledge, pp. 116–119. {{ISBN|0-415-16618-7}}</ref> Michael Palin says that the various separatist movements were modelled on "modern resistance groups, all with obscure acronyms which they can never remember and their conflicting agendas".<ref>Palin, Michael in ''Monty Python Speaks'', ed. Morgan, David, Fourth Estate, 1999.</ref>

[[File:Romani ite domum HER Museum 6 July 2018.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Romani ite domum]]'' ("Romans go home"); recreation of the anti-Roman slogan (in the [[Hull and East Riding Museum]]) that Brian writes on the walls of the Jerusalem Palace to prove himself worthy to be a member of the People's Front of Judea]]
The People's Front of Judea, composed of the Pythons' characters, harangue their "rivals" with cries of "splitters" and stand vehemently opposed to the Judean People's Front, the Judean People's Popular Front, the Campaign for a Free [[Galilee]], and the Popular Front of Judea (the last composed of a single old man,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1771479 |website=www.democraticunderground.com |title=Are you the Judean People's Front?}}</ref> mocking the size of real revolutionary [[Trotskyism|Trotskyist]] factions). The infighting among revolutionary organisations is demonstrated most dramatically when the PFJ attempts to kidnap Pontius Pilate's wife, but encounters agents of the Campaign for a Free Galilee, and the two factions begin a violent brawl over which of them conceived of the plan first. When Brian exhorts them to cease their fighting to struggle "against the common enemy", the revolutionaries stop and cry in unison, "the Judean People's Front!" However, they soon resume their fighting and, with two Roman legionaries watching bemusedly, continue until Brian is left the only survivor, at which point he is captured.

Other scenes have the freedom fighters wasting time in debate, with one of the debated items being that they should not waste their time debating so much. The famous "what have the Romans ever done for us" scene has  drawn significant attention, with Python biographer George Perry noting, "The People's Liberation Front of Judea conducts its meetings as though they have been convened by a group of [[Union steward|shop stewards]]".<ref>Perry, George. ''The Life of Python'', Pavilion, 1994, p. 161</ref> This joke is the reverse of a similar conversation recorded in the Babylonian [[Talmud]];<ref>Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 33. "R. Simeon b. Johai [sic] said: 'All these things they have instituted for their own sake. Their markets are gathering-places for harlots; they have built baths for the purpose of indulging themselves in their comforts; they have built bridges to collect tolls from those who cross them.'" Full text available at http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t01/t0110.htm</ref> some authors have even suggested the joke is based on the Talmudic text.<ref>{{Cite journal |journal=[[World Policy Journal]] |doi=10.1215/07402775-3903604 |url=https://css.ethz.ch/en/services/digital-library/articles/article.html/503413b7-2420-4fcf-9e4e-202190602ed5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111233/http://www.css.ethz.ch/en/services/digital-library/articles/article.html/503413b7-2420-4fcf-9e4e-202190602ed5 |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 April 2017 |title=The Roads to Power |year=2017 |last1=Khalili |first1=Laleh |volume=34 |pages=93–99 |s2cid=157912921 }}</ref>