Review of Life of Brian (1979) by Joshua P — 21 Mar 2012

This is one of my favourite Monty Python's movies because they managed to successfully make fun of religious attitudes without making fun of the religion itself telling the story of Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman), a young Jewish man who is born on the same day as, and next door to, Jesus Christ, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah. A film which is relevant today as it was 30+ years ago or it could be 2000- years ago... why? Just ask a question : "What have the Romans ever done for us?" replacing the name Romans with one of your choice! Or just watch the events in the movie replacing the characters with people from your surroundings...

Five years ago UK television station Channel 4 broadcasted an hour-long documentary called The Secret Life of Brian about the making of The Life of Brian and the controversy that was caused by its release. And the controversy was big! Themes of religious satire were so controversial at the time of its release that drew accusations of blasphemy and protests from some religious groups. Thirty-nine local authorities in the UK either imposed an outright ban, or imposed an X (18 years) certificate - effectively preventing the film from being shown. Some countries, including Ireland and Norway, banned its showing, with a few of these bans lasting decades. The film makers used such notoriety to benefit their marketing campaign, with posters stating "So funny it was banned in Norway!".

Controversy wasn't the only big thing - same was the influence on people watching it... especially artists and filmmakers! The alibi of the murderer in Simon Brett's comic thriller Shock to the System (1984) depends on having been in a cinema watching Life of Brian; the stoning scene is referenced in Terry Pratchett's second Discworld computer game; a clip of the stoning scene was shown in the music video "Yang Yang" by Anika in 2010; the scene in the ninth episode of 'South Park's fifteenth season, 'The Last of the Meheecans' where a naked Butters opens his window to find the townspeople in the street below hailing him as a god is a reference to the scene where the same thing happens to Brian... Of course, the film was a box-office success, grossing fourth-highest of any film in the UK in 1979 and highest of any British film in the United States that year. For me it is one of the great comedies all time!

My personal connection with the movie is the location of Monastir in Tunisia, where I spent some time and where Life of Brian production was reusing sets from Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth (1977). This movie is very professionally done with lots of serious satire under the laughs, making it much deeper than most of the critics will admit. If you love smart satire, silly gags, singing along "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" and everything else this movie has to offer, sit down with snacks and your favourite friends and laugh - if those friends are a rabbi, priest and scholar it could be even better.