Amazon.com Essentials:
"Blessed are the cheesemakers," a wise man once said. Or maybe
not. But the point is Monty Python's Life of Brian is a
religious satire that does not target specific religions or religious
leaders (like, say, Jesus of Nazareth). Instead, it pokes fun at the
mindless and fanatical among their followers--it's an attack on
religious zealotry and hypocrisy--things that that fellow from
Nazareth didn't particularly care for either. Nevertheless, at the
time of its release in 1979, those who hadn't seen it considered it to
be quite "controversial."
Life of Brian, you see, is about a
chap named Brian (Graham Chapman) born December 25 in a hovel not far
from a soon-to-be-famous Bethlehem manger. Brian is mistaken for the
messiah and, therefore, manipulated, abused, and exploited by various
religious and political factions. And it's really, really
funny. Particularly memorable bits include the brassy Shirley
Bassey/James Bond-like title song; the bitter rivalry between the
anti-Roman resistance groups, the Judean People's Front and the
People's Front of Judea; Michael Palin's turn as a lisping, risible
Pontius Pilate; Brian urging a throng of false-idol worshippers to
think for themselves--to which they reply en masse "Yes, we must think
for ourselves!"; the fact that everything Brian does, including losing
his sandal in an attempt to flee these wackos, is interpreted as "a
sign." Life of Brian is not only one of Monty Python's funniest
achievements, it's also the group's sharpest and smartest sustained
satire. Blessed are the Pythons. --Jim Emerson
