Themes: Rise and Fall Stories, Mistaken Identities
Main Cast: Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam
Release Year: 1979
Country: UK
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
On a midnight clear 2,000 years ago, three wise men enter a manger where a babe is wrapped in swaddling clothes. It is an infant called Brian...and the three wise men are in the wrong manger. For the rest of his life, Brian (Graham Chapman) finds himself regarded as something of a messiah -- yet he's always in the shadow of this other guy from Galilee. Brian is witness to the Sermon of the Mount, but his seat is in such a bad location that he can't hear any of it ("Blessed are the cheesemakers?"). Ultimately, he is brought before Pontius Pilate and sentenced to crucifixion, which takes place at that crowded, nonexclusive execution site a few blocks shy of Calvary. Rather than utter the Last Six Words, Brian leads his fellow crucifixees in a spirited rendition of a British music-hall cheer-up song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." The whole Monty Python gang (Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam) are on hand in multiple roles, playing such sacred characters as Stan Called Loretta, Biggus Dickus, Deadly Dirk, Casts the First Stone, and Intensely Dull Youth; also showing up are Goon Show veteran Spike Milligan and a Liverpool musician named George Harrison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Blissfully sacrilegious and completely irreverent, The Life of Brian was banned in a number of places upon its initial release. Any film that featured a messiah telling his followers to "f*ck off" and a musical interlude staged at a mass crucifixion was bound to seem objectionable to more than a few people. For those familiar with Monty Python's dependably absurd, subversive brand of humor, however, the film was an almost instant classic, the best of the four theatrically released Python excursions. Featuring some of the more memorable Python characters -- Biggus Dickus, Mr. Big Nose, Brian himself -- and scenarios -- a lesson in proper graffiti grammar, surprise alien abduction, and, of course, the crucifixion scene -- it is an intoxicating celebration of the bizarre, outlandish, and unthinkable. Or, simply put, it is Monty Python at their ridiculous best. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Kenneth Colley - Jesus Christ; Spike Milligan - Spike; Gwen Taylor - Young Girl; George Harrison - Mr. Papadopoulis; Terence Bayler - Revolutionary/Masked Commando; Carol Cleveland - Mrs. Gregory; Susan Jones - Judith; Chris Langham - Revolutionary; Andrew Maclachlan - Revolutionary; Bernard McKenna - Official Stoner's Helper; John Young - Stonee; Graham Chapman - 1st Wise Man; John Cleese - Official; Terry Gilliam - Revolutionary; Eric Idle - Mr. Cheeky; Neil Innes - Samaritan at the Forum; Terry Jones - Simon; Charles Knode - Passer-By; Charles McKeown - Stig; Michael Palin - Pontius Pilate; Peter Brett
