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Scott Ventura >> Movie Commentary >> June 2000 >> Life of Brian

Life of Brian

Movie Commentary by Scott Ventura

Details

Scott's Rating:
4 / 5
Times Seen:
2
Viewing Date:
June 2000
IMDB Name:
Life of Brian (1979)
Director:
Terry Jones
Keywords:
comedy
Made:
1979
MPAA Rating:
R

Blissful Blasphemy

There's actually relatively little blasphemy to be found in Life of Brian unless you go about blindly thinking it's really about Jesus. It's not. It's about Brian, who just happened to be born close by under similar conditions. Of course, if you consider any attack on religion to be blasphemy, I suppose there's lots of blasphemy there. You might also find some sacrilege, desecration, and profanation, but it's all in good fun. Good, Python fun.

Life of Brian is the second of the three major Monty Python movies, preceded by Holy Grail and followed by The Meaning of Life. It chronicles a man who would rather not be a Messiah, but through great error is perceived as one anyway. In many several places, the movie redresses classic Python humor sources to new effect. They then are twice as funny, once because it's funny to begin with, and again because it's a reminder of the "Monty Python's Flying Circus". And then there's the Latin lesson, which brought me back to those glorious middle school days with Mr. DeFeo. That it's administered by a centurion instead of a teacher is all the more appropriate.




Copyright 2000-2002 by Scott Ventura. All rights reserved.