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'''The Life of Brian''' (1979) was a film made by the [[Monty python]] team. Followinf the sucess of their 1975 film '[[Monthy Python and the Holy Grail]]' the ptython's sought another 'epic' theme to cover. Their chosen project was 'Jesus Christ - Lust for Glory'.  This subsequently evolved into the Life of Brian.  According to the Pythons the more they researched Jesus looking for things he said to satirise they more they realised that the subject matter did not lend itself to satire.

'''The Life of Brian''' (1979) was a film made by the [[Monty python]] team. Following the success of their 1975 film '[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]' the python's sought another 'epic' theme to cover. Their chosen project was 'Jesus Christ - Lust for Glory'.  This subsequently evolved into the Life of Brian.  According to the Pythons the more they researched Jesus looking for things he said to satirize they more they realised that the subject matter did not lend itself to satire but that other people's reaction to it did.

The film was set in first century [[Palestine]] and centred on a character called Brian, whose life paralleled that of [[Jesus Christ]]. It’s now hard to imagine the furore that surrounded the film's release, especially as it appeared to end on such a positive finishing song. Up to that point, no film had received the ferocity or amount of protests by religious groups as the Pythons did. Of course most of the protesters never saw the film – they had only heard rumors <ref> quote from a review: http://www.toxicuniverse.com/review.php?rid=10000748 </ref>.

The film was set in first century [[Palestine]] and centred on a character called Brian, whose life paralleled that of [[Jesus Christ]]. It’s now hard to imagine the furore that surrounded the film's release, especially as it appeared to end on such a positive finishing song. Up to that point, no film had received the ferocity or amount of protests by religious groups as the Pythons did. Of course most of the protesters never saw the film – they had only heard rumors <ref> quote from a review: http://www.toxicuniverse.com/review.php?rid=10000748 </ref>.

In fact the film went out of its way not to depict Jesus as the central character, with Brian foregrounded to make the point that this was about an entirely different person. Jesus Christ appears twice in the film; first at the end of the first scene (The Nativity) when the three wise men realise they have visited the wrong stable and go down the road to the stable with Jesus, Mary & Joseph divinely depicted; and the secondly the first scene after the credits when Christ is delivering the Sermon on the Mount.  In this scene the words of Christ are taken from the Bible unaltered and the camera pans back through the crowd to Brian's mother at the back who shouts 'Speak Up'.

In fact the film went out of its way not to depict Jesus as the central character, with Brian foregrounded to make the point that this was about an entirely different person. Jesus Christ appears twice in the film; first at the end of the first scene (The Nativity) when the three wise men realise they have visited the wrong stable and go down the road to the stable with Jesus, Mary & Joseph divinely depicted; and the secondly the first scene after the credits when Christ is delivering the Sermon on the Mount.  In this scene the words of Christ are taken from the Bible unaltered and the camera pans back through the crowd to Brian's mother at the back who shouts 'Speak Up'.

Unusually for a Python film Christ is not played by a Python but by Kenneth Colley, a respected Shakespearan and Television Actor with more than 100 film roles to his credit.

Unusually for a Python film the character of Jesus Christ is not played by a Python but by Kenneth Colley, a respected Shakespearan and Television Actor with more than 100 film roles to his credit.

The film does however satirize both political and religious ideology and what [[John Cleese]] (a leading member of the [[Monty python]] team) called 'closed systems of thinking' <ref> Dyke, Carl., 2002,  "Learning from The Life of Brian: Savior for Seminars."  Screening Scripture: Intertextual Connections Between Scripture and Film. Ed.George Aichele and Richard Walsh. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity </ref>.  There are some wonderful episodes in the film which demonstrate this admirably. The ''"What have the Romans ever done for us?"'' sequence particularly demonstrates how political ideology can blind people to evidence, and the ''"Tell us Master"'' sequence demonstrates within the space of a couple of minutes how religious movements can form, split, and evolve to the point where despite the fact that even the most blatant and abusive insults are being hurled, thinking is twisted around to interpret these statements and insults as revered messages. The ''"You are all different"'' section further demonstrates how rigid thinking blinds followers to the actual text of the message. In this sequence, the film's satire on the unthinking nature of religious devotion is epitomised by Brian's attempt to persuade an enormous crowd of his followers to think for themselves:

The film does however satirize both political and religious ideology and what [[John Cleese]] (a leading member of the [[Monty python]] team) called 'closed systems of thinking' <ref> Dyke, Carl., 2002,  "Learning from The Life of Brian: Savior for Seminars."  Screening Scripture: Intertextual Connections Between Scripture and Film. Ed.George Aichele and Richard Walsh. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity </ref>.  There are some wonderful episodes in the film which demonstrate this admirably. The ''"What have the Romans ever done for us?"'' sequence particularly demonstrates how political ideology can blind people to evidence, and the ''"Tell us Master"'' sequence demonstrates within the space of a couple of minutes how religious movements can form, split, and evolve to the point where despite the fact that even the most blatant and abusive insults are being hurled, thinking is twisted around to interpret these statements and insults as revered messages. The ''"You are all different"'' section further demonstrates how rigid thinking blinds followers to the actual text of the message. In this sequence, the film's satire on the unthinking nature of religious devotion is epitomised by Brian's attempt to persuade an enormous crowd of his followers to think for themselves: