Life of Brian Review- by Michael Carlisle

Title: Life of Brian

Year: 1979

Director: Terry Jones
Country: UK
Language: English 

Does Christ have a sense of humor? If not, then the cast members of Life of Brian are in for some big trouble down the road. Indeed many religious authorities did not take this film lightly, as no film about Christ ever is. Like Last Temptation of Christ, Passion of the Christ and many others, Life of Brian has been a source of great controversy since it has been released. Unlike those films, Python is not directly about Christ, rather it is about Brian, a man who is mistaken for Christ. Though Christ does appear in this film, we aren’t necessarily laughing at him but the people who cannot understand him or are bickering during His famous “sermon on the mount” speech.  “Blessed are the Greek??”

While Life of Brian does make fun of religion, I don’t believe it has done so in an incredibly disrespectful way. Infact I would argue that they make fun of religious movies more than religion. Usually religious films are incredibly serious films, heavy in drama that don’t dare make a joke in fear of an audience uproar. This film decides that all that all this fear is silly nonsense and decides to go all out. After all Brian is not the messiah, “he’s a very naughty boy.” It also asks questions that we’ve been dying to know, like how did people know that Jesus’ mother Mary was a virgin? Isn’t that a very personal question?

I’d say Life of Brian also makes fun of arthouse film audiences. I remember a scene in Life of Brian where Brian drops his shoe in the desert and the followers of his pick it up. They argue what the shoe symbolizes when in reality it symbolizes nothing. “It’s a sign that is the sign”, “we must cast off our shoes”, “cast off the shoes and follow the gourd!” Indeed I remember reviewing Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange stating that it was an abhorrent film, however many people disagreed scrambling to find some meaning. Why can’t it have no meaning? Why does its meaning have to be the meaning you gave it?

Life of Brian’s Monty Python troupe realizes that religion is taken very seriously and wished to lighten things up with this film. It’s odd to think of this film as an attack on anything because any Monty Python fan isn’t going to be taking the jokes to seriously. This film will not inspire religious ignorance, nor will it cause people to drop out of their religion. I think the point is said best during Brian’s song on the cross, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” We should not find ourselves filled with rage at people who disagree with us, instead we must find the humour in life and keep loving each other despite our differences. Does Christ have a sense of humour? I think so and I think he would strongly agree with the films overall message. Unlike Bill Maher’s Religulous, Life of Brian does not wish to separate people but bring them together by laughing at religious seriousness. In-fact  It almost seems childish for someone to take a film like this seriously. After all, it’s Python. 3/5