Monty Python: Life of Brian - A-Review

The Life of Brian has become the most critically praised and well-loved pieces of work from the Monty Python team. It is side splitting funny and controversial and has become a classic, voted the best comedy movie of all in time in 2006 by two separate polls conducted by British TV channels.

It has seen by many religious groups as anti-Christian and was banned in Ireland for 8 years. However for anyone who actually watch the movie before judging it - it is not satirising Jesus Christ or any other historic Christian figure, Instead the film takes on topics such as:power, totalitarianism, repression, the politics of subversion and the complicity of the repressed.

It is clearly established from the opening scene - that Brian is not Jesus - he is introduced listened to the Sermon of the Mount from the back of the crowd. The Three Wise Men make a mistake and go to the wrong baby before they discover their mistake, reclaim their gifts from Brain's avaricious mother, and go onto the real messiah. Poor Brian spends his entire life being mistaken as the Messiah and being hounded by would be followers, before ultimately being crucified, a common, barbarous custom of the Romans, something that happened to thousands of common thieves and political opponents not just Jesus of Nazareth. In fact the Monty Python team of Cleese, Palin, Idol, Chapman, Jones and Gilliam were all heavily schooled in, but sceptical of traditional religion - is almost miraculous if you believe in that sort of thing!

Life of Brian is one of the best film examples I know of the British abiity to do satire really, really well. There is no laugh track, no laugh here hints, but if you get it your ribs will hurt a lot the first time you see. Its all so true especiallly for anyone who has watched modern politics and religion. Here are some classic moments form the film to illustrate what I am talking about:

You Have to Think For Yourselves

After finally getting the girl Brian wakes up to discover a large crowd of followers weighting for him - the Romeo and Juliet scene rapidly descends into farce. With his mother utters the famous line of "He's not the Messiah - he's just a very naughty boy" followed by the brilliant scene where Brain exhorts his would-be follows to "think for themselves". The irony of course is that a man who was clearly a rebel and a leader of his time has for the following 2000 years had his name used to instruct many in unquestioning obedience!

Fleeing from the authorities, Brian poses as a Preacher and unintentionally ends up with a group of fanatical supporters worshipping his discarded gourd and shoe. They are all convinced that he knows the secret or truth but won't share it with them. Then of course those that saw him first decide that they are the inner circle and seek to exclude the others - sound like a religion you are familiar with?

The final scene, where the movie unexpectedly becomes a musical, is a brilliant look of life and death, with a message of hope and optimism - and isn't that what Christian's belief Jesus died for, to give us hope? This most controversial scene most Christian protestors said that it was mocking, apparently forgetting that Jesus was hardly the only person that the Romans crucified.

As Director Terry Jones said in an interview as a reply to this scene: "Any religion that makes a form of torture into an icon that they worship seems to me a pretty sick sort of religion quite honestly" John Cleese has also been quoted as saying that he thinks that the "Christian appropriation of a Roman form of torture as iconography was a little strange" Watch it below and judge for yourself.

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was later re-released with great success, after being sung by British football fans. It was sung by solders serving in the Falklands War. It has even been adapted to a straight, strict-tempo foxtrot for ballroom dancing. Complete with uncensored lyrics - tune is so gentle and singable most people appear to miss the 4 letter word in one of the later verses!

Originally released in 1979, 30 years on it has lost none of his edge and a new DVD release has improved the quality of the sound and video spectacularly. The original film was shot on a shoestring budget, on location in Tunisia, ironically using some of the sets made for Franco Zeferelli's "Jesus of Nazareth". Remember those crowd scenes are done with real crowds not CGI or other special effects. So if you have not seen it for a while get the DVD, if your kids don't know about it - buy the DVD for them. religion is important to many people - but any truly great idea shouldn't be so fragile as to have lost its sense of humour. The issues satirised in Brian: bigotry, hatred, unthinking obedience are as real now if not more so than in 1979. What's your opinion? Have you seen the film? Are there any religions out there which actually reflect the real love of and respect for others that Jesus apparently taught?