Easter flashback : Monty Python's Life of Brian

     Happy Easter to all !!! As I have done in the past, every holiday I like to take a look at a favorite of the current holidays films. This time around, the 1979 comedy "Life of Brian". 

    Monty Python started out as a sketch show in 1969 that ran for four seasons. The success of this show go them their first feature, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." It was a critical and financial hit. It was produced for 175 thousand pounds and made 7.7 million world wide. A follow up was all but guaranteed. In 1979 we got,  "The Life of Brian."

  The story revolves around  Brian, who happened to born one stable down and on  same night as Jesus.  Brian becomes intrigued by a young rebel, Judith. To try to impress her, Brian joins the  movement against the Roman Empire. While running from the Romans, he recites some of the teachings he heard from Jesus. This ends up getting the  crowd to believe he is the Messiah. 

The film was a commercial success earning 19.4 million on a 4 million budget. The reception of the film was a bit of an interesting one. On the critic side it was well received. In the religious side this movie was panned. They thought it was blasphemous. For those that don't know, blasphemy means essentially, saying offensive things about God or religion. Whether or not it is, I will leave that up to you. That is not the point of this article.

 When it comes to looking at satires, what makes them good? To me it really comes to how well it is written. This movie knows how to get a good joke out of Jesus/ Roman time situations. It does feel clunky sometimes, because more often then not it does feel like a series of run together sketches. Laugh out loud though.

I do love the fact that the members of the Monty Python group play forty different characters through the film. If you are not on board with the film it can be distracting. having them constantly on screen in some form it does help keep a consistent tone. There are many scenes you can see the different actors breaking characters, but it did not take me out of it. If anything, it made it funnier.

I may have a hot take in this, but this is the best Monty Python movie.

GRADE:A-