Monty Python's Life Of Brian
by Terry Jones
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry GilliamDirector: Terry Jones
Writer: Graham Chapman
Writer: John Cleese
Writer: Michael Palin
Writer: Terry Gilliam
Writer: Eric Idle
Writer: Terry Jones
Producer: Denis O'Brien
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-27
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Movie Reviews of Monty Python's Life Of Brian
Movie Review: Only Biggus would not laugh at this movie
Summary: 5 Stars
What with all the to-do about the now on DVD Mel
Gibson-directed film, I've gone to the original source
material, which it, by way of the Marquis de Sade and
Lucio Fulci, paid homage-- "The Life of Brian." Monty
Python has given us a movie that is somewhat different
than the remake. And far more meaningful. It is on Anchor
Bay DVD; it looks beautiful; it is a delight that has stood
up well over time
Brian is a savior of the moment, by wondrous silly mistake.
The silliness continues, and the sweetness. It is an innocent,
endearing movie, hilarious, but about difficult things,
making superb observations, done so beautifully and on a
wide, rich, satisfying and full canvass--a human film about
all of us. It is the giving of an "ah come on, can't we all be
mates about this?"
Never mocking. More of a young child's unknowing
honest wisdom when asking questions others would rather
not have to hear or try to answer. It says if you take the
cant away, depending on which cant you wish taken away,
there is a reward--it is called being a person; it is called
having a good time; all indwelling in a certain expansive,
generous daffiness that there is such need of in our grim
days of now when everything is so unbearably, many times,
so stupidly and horribly serious.
Stern scary rhetoric and iron fists, nothing new, certainly,
can't really hold a candle to Brian. Though they would
surely like to. The movie overwhelms you with easiness,
with laconic dragonflies in the sun "all having fun." With
everything tossed into a satirical pot (no pun intended),
including even a hilarious nod to the space jockeys of those
"Chariots of the Gods?" books. It tells us that a cool soda
is bracing on a too hot, too angry boil sun of a summer
day. It is not a polemic, nor a shaft of cruel rhetoric. The
film is in the best mode of tonic.
There's even a snappy tune to whistle to at the film's end.
There is no snappy tune in the current remake. You
wonder how it all happened--the stories, the parables, the
mishearing, the guessing, the human need to believe
something, anything, the desire not to be what Brian tells
people they must be, as they parrot his words, not seeing at
all how thick they are being. It's all here. And much of it
probably is just very close to what really did happen. In
British of course. After all, most films on that place and
time are. I was 18 before it really hit me--the silliness of
Christian movie and TV "British Israel." Honest.
Only here the Brits speak modern day. And the
anachronisms goofily overflow. Brian is perhaps a kind of
savior. He doesn't want to be, Lord knows. He knows so
much, more than he wishes he did, is so perplexed by all
the madness surrounding him, even to the very end, and is
above all else kind, and constantly unsure of himself, many
times embarrassed, and genuinely humble. None of that
mock-humble stuff. If anyone would just listen to him. He
deserves that at least. There is not one moment of
meanness in it.
Many other movies and books on the topic can't lay this
claim. It puts the movie "modern day" sensibility of the
time on ancient Israel. As people of anywhere always put
their own sensibilities and times on any history. Showing
that the ludicrousness can be turned to a golden, glowing
warmth that tickles and makes you happy. It says we're
here for such a short time; couldn't we try to be just a little
more pleasant to ourselves and each other? Such a simple
thing. So elusive.
It is a return to memories of days, in filmic and print
history, at least, when peace and love really meant what
they said, not exactly the opposite. It made me reflect,
want to be more gentle than I too have been in a while.
It is a knockabout movie. At times, on purpose, sappy.
Smart and sharp; it is enduring. Eric Idle is especially
wonderful as all those different characters. The film is a
memory glass of yesterday. Mellowed and friendly and
fine. So if you're tired of having a very stiff neck, and
seeing an actor re-enact being tortured slowly to death in
gory detail, or hearing and reading about it endlessly, this
film is a definite re-threading of the brain.
It's supposed to be about ideals, this whole tapestry of the
human heart, isn't it? And at least the attempt to live up to
one or two of them? And make it a little easier for our
brothers and sisters, as frightened and as human as we? At
least, I used to think that was what it meant.
I'd rather the lessons from Brian any time. Python, in
turning it all on its head, makes it make sense. A blessing
from Charles Dickens' Tiny Tim would be far more apt
here. But if you gotta go with Lucio Fulci kind of
movies...well, that's your business. Fulci, however, never
pretended his movies were anything other than what they
were. Python would rather be honest. And of course
cheery. When you look at life, and all. And then there's
that Biggus fellow who also deserves a chuckle. Even if it
means a date with you know what.
Summary of Monty Python's Life Of Brian
The Gospel according to Monty Python: In Judea, a boy is born in a manger a short distance from and about the same time, as Jesus Christ. Three wise men from the East are for a time deceived by this proximity into believing that he is the promised Messiah, but it soon becomes apparent that he is, in fact, only a hapless peasant named Brian. However, the "Life of Brian" causes plenty of commotion for the Roman Empire and leaves him desperate to escape his burgeoning popularity."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
"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 Emerso
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