Friday 15 December 2017

Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)



Three Wise Men follow a star to Bethlehem, in order to give homage to a new born child as the Son of God.  They find him in a stable.  Unfortunately, it rapidly becomes apparent that it's the wrong kid, and they scurry off down to the next stable to give their gifts to Jesus, instead.

The next baby over to the Son of God is Brian, who grows up into a rather diffident young man in the shadow of his domineering mother.  Brian seems destined for a life of little note until his efforts to impress a young woman lead him to join the People's Front of Judea, possibly the most inept of the many inept organisations attempting to end Roman control of Jerusalem.

Suffice it to say that Brian isn't going to do much to improve the overall quality of the PFJ's personnel, and that his adventures are only going to be come more absurd from this point on.

The anarchic antics of the Monty Python team are in full effect here in their second original film (and third film overall).  It's a fine bit of farce, though carried in large part by the comedic charisma of the Pythons themselves: describing the jokes simply wouldn't do the film justice.

If you like your comedy broad, silly and off-the-wall, and you're not easily offended by political and religious satire, you might well find Life of Brian a sharply funny bit of work.  If you don't fit that criteria, you will probably think it's just stupid.  Put me down in the "sharply funny" camp.

No comments:

Post a Comment