He's a Very Naughty Boy (Movie only) (Monty Python's Life Of Brian (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Monty Python's Life Of Brian (DVD)
Date:	16/12/06 (374 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderfully funny parody

Disadvantages: Will offend people

Over the years there have been many controversial movies that have been considered out of the ordinary for lots of different reasons. “The Exorcist (1973)” was banned for many years due to its psychological impact on teenage girls whilst “Evil Dead (1981)” fell foul of the censors due to a rape scene involving a tree root. Never banned, at least not in this country wholesale, but controversial for different reasons was the 1979 movie “Life of Brian”. A parody of the life of Jesus, the film was panned by the Church and accused of blasphemy in religious circles. Ironically, it was one of the funniest movies of all time.

“Life of Brian” follows the story of Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman), an ordinary man whose life runs parallel to the Saviour, Jesus Christ. From the opening Nativity scene in which our hero is born in a stable a few doors away from the one in which the baby Jesus is brought into the world to the closing Crucifixion scene during which last minute attempts are made to save Brian from a fate worse than sitting at the right hand of God, the movie is a non-stop parody of organised religion. The initial setting of the three wise men bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and murr in which Brian’s mother Mandy (Terry Jones) accepts the gold and frankincense but tells them to keep the murr as she’s not so keen on it sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Anyone familiar with any of the Gospels and the life story of Jesus may second guess the plot as the story lurches from one sacrosanct scene to another. What gives the movie its impetus is the notion that Brian is a rebel; an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea. His desire to free the people of his country takes him on a devout journey from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount to the ultimate case of mistaken identity at the end.

The Monty Python team was legendary. Made up of John Cleese, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Gillian, the comedy troupe brought an anarchic, public school humour to the realms of British comedy and followed on from the good work done by institution such as The Goons in the sixties. At times hit and miss with their gags, they broke the mould of comedy writing by traversing taboos that had long been untouched. One of those taboos was religion and when the movie’s original backers – EMI – realised that there might be a backlash to the film’s content, they infamously backed out. With last minute financial support from George Harrison and the Hand Made Films Company, the movie was eventually finished alhough the budget fell short of what was required to produce the movie as originally conceived.

All of the Pythons are on top form with each playing multiple roles and a number of cameos from people like George Harrison as Mr Papadopoulis and Spike Milligan as a prophet. The majority of the scenes in the movie are part of movie folklore. The opening reels from the Sermon on the Mount could have been subtitled “Blessed are the Cheese makers” whilst the chanting of the name “Jehovah” will never be quite the same following John Cleese’s Roman soldier centric, notoriously funny stoning scene in which he gets frustrated with the gathering of women disguised as men wearing beards who have arrived to stone a skinny man accused of blasphemy for using the Holy word “Jehovah” out loud. The public school aspect of the Python’s work was never far away from the surface of their brand of comedy and popped up again in the scene with the Roman guard who catches Brian daubing the wall of the local governor’s palace with graffiti. Required to write the grammatically correct "Romani ite domum" one hundred times, the obvious reference to school class punishments belonging to those having suffered Latin lessons immediately appealed to the teenage population as well as satiating the Pythons' own constant comic sniping at stoical attitudes in education as well as underlining the enduring boredom that many school children would have experienced in a traditional school environment.

Terry Jones directed the movie having had success with “Monty Python and The Holy Grail” in 1975. Needless to say, apart from playing Brian’s unfortunate mother, he also filled in with a number of other parts in the film as well as getting to utter the seminal lines for which this movie is arguably most famous; as the crowds gather to catch a sight of Brian, Mandy throws the window shutters open to the crowd below and tells them that Brian won’t be coming out today because “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy” sparking a pantomime exchange with the gathering and propelling Jones’ character into the pantheon of celluloid comic heroines.

Ultimately, Monty Python's “Life of Brian” is a farce. However, anybody thinking that the movie is simply a run-of-the-mill comedy would be mistaken. There is an important message about thinking for one’s self and not being taken in by continually nodding in agreement with the majority. This is underlined through the metaphorical Trojan horse of religious beliefs and symbols with scenes like the one in which Brian loses his shoe when being pursued by the crowd only for John Cleese et al to hold the shoe up and declare it a sign but, of what, they aren’t quite sure. From such a flimsy incident, a whole religion could have been built or at least that’s what the script suggests much to the ire of the Religious lobby of those times (on release, the movie was banned by a number of town councils in the UK, as well as in Eire and Norway). As ever, the greatest irony amongst all of the subsequent protests was that the movie was catapulted into the public limelight guaranteeing it huge movie going audiences, much to the chagrin of luminaries like Mary Whitehouse and Malcolm Muggeridge.

Not only was the Church and all of its everyday trappings considered to be fair game by the movie’s script, a level of political satire entered the fray; commonplace for Python thinking. The scene at the Colliseum set against a backdrop of Christians being thrown to the Gladiators along with the captive, hungry lions is both deadpan and razor sharp. With the debate amongst John Cleese as Reg and Eric Idle as Stan (who wants to be known as “Loretta” from now on) amongst others with Brian looking on whilst selling tidbits to the spectators, Cleese pokes fun at the ineffectual left-wing parties in Britain during the 1970s by accusing rival political factions of being “splitters” when the only difference in beliefs seems to be the name of the various parties e.g. "The Judean People's Front", "The People's Front of Judea" or (with only one member) "The Popular Front".

The film’s finale is legendary featuring Idle’s enduring anthem “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” whilst the ineffective Judean People's Front Crack Suicide Squad make a list ditch attempt to save Brian. With yet more controversy, the Suicide Squad’s leader Otto was meant to have been a recurring character in the movie, complete with thin moustache and a German accent while many other scenes were cut to save from alienating the Jewish population. Strangely, many of the scenes that had been cut were supposed to have been lost by the Canadian company that bought Handmade Films. However, a number of the lost scenes did resurface and were shown in 1999 adding to the movie’s mystique.

Over the years, I’ve watched this movie on numerous occasions. It’s witty, funny, intelligent and guaranteed to make people laugh out loud. If you are of a religious persuasion then you will need an open mind to appreciate the thinking and humour than runs through the movie and if you do that, you will probably end up loving it as much as I do. For me, “Life of Brian” is one of the funniest movies of all time and, with that; I recommend it to you wholeheartedly. It’s also on television over the Christmas period along with a special programme about the furor that surrounded its making and release. However, for reviewing this movie in such a positive light you may consider me to be the Devil. If not, at least a very naughty boy?

Thanks for reading

Mara

Notes
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“Life of Brian” DVD available at Amazon from £5.97.
Run time 94 mins
Video/DVD rating 15

Summary: Overview of movie