Movies - Monty Python's Life of Brian

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	Movies - Monty Python's Life of Brian

Life of Brian is a 1979 film by Monty Python which deals with the life of Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman), a young man born nearly the same time as, and right down the street from, Jesus.

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the greatest comedy film of all time. In 2004 the same magazine named it the 5th greatest British film of all time. On the IMDb, the film is consistently ranked among the top 250 films of all time.

Synopsis

Brian (Graham Chapman) was born in the stable a few doors down from the one Jesus was born in (a fact which initially confuses the three wise men come to praise him, as they must instead put up with his boorish mother Mandy). He grows up to be an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea and becomes infatuated with an attractive young rebel, who persuades him to join one of the many fracticious and bickering separatist movements to strike at the Roman occupiers (despite his first attempt at writing graffiti on the city wall being criticised for its improper Latin grammar and the guard forcing him to copy it one hundred times as punishment).

However, a series of unfortunate coincidences - and some meaningless babble recited as an attempt to avoid the Roman guards - sees the majority of people come to regard him as the Messiah. Despite his best efforts to (a) convince people that this isn't the case and (b) try and use his influence to get people to embrace their individuality and not rely on Godheads or authority figures (advice which is merely parrotted unthinkingly back at him), he is arrested, sentenced to death, crucified, and abandoned by anyone who could possibly help him. Still, got to look on the bright side of life.

Analysis

Life of Brian is essentially a classic farce and is eloquently summed up by Brian's mother (played by Terry Jones) saying, "He's not the messiah; he's a very naughty boy". This notwithstanding, the film is variously seen as a critique of excessive religiosity, a satire depicting organised and popular religion as a racket involving hypocrisy and zealotry, a sacrilegious film "deserving censorship", or just a very funny movie.

It also pokes fun at revolutionary groups by featuring several factions that are nominally protesting against the Roman occupation of Judea, but are in fact more at loggerheads with one another (examples include 'The Judean People's Front', 'The People's Front of Judea', and (with only one member) 'The Judean Popular People's Front'). According to the DVD commentary, this part of the story is a satire on the multiplication of ineffectual left-wing parties in Britain in the 1970s. These revolutionary groups would splinter every few weeks and would be angrier at each other than they were at the British government.

The film contains all members of Monty Python in multiple roles, and also features cameos by Spike Milligan (who happened to be on holiday in Tunisia where the filming was taking place, utilising sets left over from the 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth) and George Harrison (without whom the film would not have been made — since Harrison set up Handmade Films to help fund it after the subject matter scared off the original backers, EMI). Chris Langham also appears as a centurion.

Either by accident or design, several characters are never named during the film, although they do have names which are used in the tracklisting for the soundtrack album and elsewhere. There is no mention of the fact that Eric Idle's ever-cheerful joker is called "Mr. Cheeky", that the terribly well-meaning Roman guard played by Michael Palin is (aptly) named "Nisus Wettus", or that Brian's mother (Terry Jones) is named "Mandy".

The movie's critical moment seems to be when Brian speaks to a large crowd of his followers:

:Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for yourselves! You're ALL individuals!

:The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!

:Brian: You're all different!

:The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!

:Man in crowd: I'm not...

:The Crowd: Shhhh!

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Monty Python's Life of Brian ]

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