A few months ago, there was a table read for a stage adaptation of Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” in NYC. The film’s star John Cleese was in attendance.
Cleese claims that all the actors – several of them Tony winners – had strongly advised him to cut the famous Loretta scene. “I have, of course, no intention of doing so,” stated Cleese.
The scene in question features a male character declaring that he wants to be woman named “Loretta,” and wants to have a child. Cleese’s character tells the man that this is a ridiculous claim, while another suggets that they all advocate for his right to childbearing.
This was comedy in 1983.
“I want to be a woman. … It’s my right as a man,” the character claims “I want to have babies… It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.” After Cleese’s protest, the character snaps, “Don’t you oppress me!”
I’m glad he isn’t caving. The scene was alarmingly ahead of its time. In fact, “The Life of Brian” is over 40 years old, but its humor is just as fresh as it was then.
Cinema tends to record things as they were at the moment they were filmed. They are records of history. Moments in time. If you start cutting scenes from ‘Life of Brian’ that might offend today’s sensibilities then you might be left with roughly 30 minutes of material.
I don’t find the scene offensive. Nobody should. The male character who wants the right to be “Loretta” makes his points and the others make their counterpoints. Nobody in that scene seems irrational, unhinged, or even violent.