Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

On Sunday night, I got the chance to watch the Terry Jones directed, ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’, and it’s a film, which I love from the opening titles to the end credits.  The movie dealt with a lot of controversy from religious and political groups and it was / is accused of being blasphemous and disrespectful to Jesus and God, but personally I felt it wasn’t an attack to any religious figures, more a satire / comedy on the way some religious people follow their leaders without really thinking about it.

The movie's plot is about the life of Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman), who is a poor Jewish boy born in Nazareth on the same day as Jesus.  Years later, Brian is now a young man who has grown hating the Roman occupation of his country while working at the local Arena. One day Brian attends one of Jesus' sermons and among the crowd he notices Judith (Sue Jones-Davies), a woman who leads him to the rebel group "People's Front of Judea".  Brian joyfully joins the rebels, but the missions given to him do not exactly end in the best way for the group. Things get complicated for Brian when after a bizarre series of circumstances, he ends up being confused with a messiah, and with this he gains a considerable amount of devoted followers.

As always, the Pythons are simply superb in their portrayal of the many characters of the movie. Graham Chapman only plays three characters this time, but he is Brian and as our main character he perfectly portrays the naiveté of the young idealist man.  John Cleese is also excellent in the many characters he plays, especially as the leader of the People's Front of Judea.  Director Terry Jones himself appears as, among others, Brian's mother, making a remarkable character with his peculiar voice.  You can't single out one actor as the best in the film, but Michael Palin's performance as Pontius Pilate is easily one of the funniest of the movie.  Finally, Eric Idle gives the icing in the cake as he sings the Python's most famous song, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".

There are so many scenes to choose, which stand out, but a few personal favourites include Brian writing out his slogan "Romans go Home" and is taught a spelling lesson by the Centurion on how to write it properly.  Another hilarious moment is when Brian shouts to the crowd that they're all individuals. They answer in unison: "yes, yes, we are all individuals" - and then this bearded fellow (think Eric Idle) pokes his head out and calmly states: "I'm not." That is just brilliant!  The rivalry between the `People's Front of Judea' and the `Judean People's Front’, is just so funny and finally, ‘Biggus Dickus’, the dialogue from that part of the film is so funny to watch.

This is without a doubt one of the best comedic films of all time. It challenged how far you could go in films and influenced a generation. Truly, the Pythons did for comedy what the Beatles did for music.

Cheers folks,