For all you whippersnappers who thought Kevin Smith’s ‘Dogma’ was the end all be all of sacrilegious humor, one needs to go back almost twenty years earlier when Monty Python threw their hat into the controversial ring with ‘Life of Brian’ – the film many believe to be Python’s masterpiece.
Back in 1979, ‘Life of Brian’ did attract a lot of scorn from religious groups with protests, bans and sight unseen ‘blasphemous’ labels thrown around with a zealous abandon. Watching the flick these days, that knowledge becomes even sillier. Heck, the big JC only pops up in a cameo involving his sermon on the mount (where we get a back row perspective – “Blessed are the cheese-makers?”), a far cry from say Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ or ‘Dogma’. I guess a humorous take on religion, no matter how benign, was going to get the torches lit.
Our story begins with the three wisemen. Directed by a vibrant star over Bethlehem, they deliver gifts to a cute little newborn. And then promptly rush back into the stable and take away the gifts and deliver to the newborn next door. Such is the life of Brian, the poor bastard son of a Roman centurion whose life ridiculously parallel’s Christ’s.
Even into his adult life, Brian is still confused for the messiah by legions of people looking for healing and answers to their prayers. Yet Brian has no interest in preaching and only concerns himself with the Roman forces occupying his homeland.
Joining up with the People’s Front of Judea, a separatist movement to undermine Roman occupation, Brian falls in love with Judith Iscariot (Sue Jones-Davies), rubs the leader Reg (John Cleese) the wrong way and soon finds himself on the run from the Romans and his overly devoted followers with Francis (Michael Palin) and would-be transsexual Loretta (Eric Idle) along for the ride.
Probably the most tightly scripted of the Python films i.e. a narrative and logic that makes sense from beginning to end, ‘Life of Brain’ also makes great use of Python’s trademark rebellious humor and a cast with a penchant for occupying several roles.
Michael Palin not only occupies the role of Francis, but makes great comedic work of Pontius Pilate and an ex-leper who accused that Christ robbed him of his livelihood as a beggar.
Of course, when it comes to comedy troupes, everyone knows that no one gets the job done like Monty Python. Satire and droll humor is their specialty and the bible presents the perfect opportunity for the gang to knock clever and relevant satire constantly out of the park. Directed by Terry Jones with production design by Terry Gilliam (who designed the animated title sequence), ‘Life of Brain’ is Monty Python at their best.
The film is presented in 1.85: 1 anamorphic widescreen with special features spread over 2 discs. Oddly, the comedy troupe is spread over two commentary tracks with the 1st commentary including Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Terry Jones with the 2nd commentary including John Cleese Michael Palin. Both are pretty great tracks for Python enthusiasts, though, who provide a nice balance of genuine info and playful banter.
Next up is the ‘Original illustrated 110 minute recording by The Pythons of their early screenplay in progress’, a cool feature that presents storyboards over a early cast rehearsal. ‘The Story of Brian’ is an all-new hour-long doc on the film with recent interviews with a lot of the cast, and nice behind-the-scene looks into pre, shooting, and post production. 13 minutes of ‘Deleted Scenes’, a few short ‘Radio Ads’, a ‘Photo Gallery’ and trailers end things off.
I can’t imagine anyone taking the controversy surrounding this film seriously these days, but if by chance you’ve been avoiding this film because of that, give it a chance. I think you’ll find there’s very little to offend here.
For the rest of you, ‘Life of Brain’ is considered by many critics to be one of the top comedies of all time and I could never find many reasons to disagree. Satire and humor doesn’t get much smarter than this.
Monty Python's Life Of Brian - The Immaculate Edition is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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