My Favourite Films - Life of Brian (1979)

Comedy is the most subjective genre there is, it’s almost impossible to argue for or against them because it can all be summed up with “It made me laugh”. You have no idea how many times I’ve debated with people over a comedy that they like and I hate, I can give a 10-minute rant talking about how poorly it’s written, performed, directed, all they have to say it “It made me laugh” and shit, debate over. With that being said I could just simply leave this off by saying how much this film makes me laugh and be done with it. But I’ll try and get a little bit more detail out of it than that.

Life of Brian was directed by Terry Jones and it stars (and written by) the Monty Python crew. It is set in New Testament era and follows Brian, a normal man living a normal life who through a series of hijinks ends up being mistaken for the Messiah.

This film was made by the Monty Python crew, if you don’t know who they are-which sadly I’m finding out more and more people my age don’t-they’re a British sketch comedy group who had a hugely successful TV Series in the 1970’s and then moved on to making hugely successful films. Their first film ‘And Now For Something Completely Different’ was nothing more than a bunch of sketches all thrown together, some of which were from their TV Show, their next hit ‘The Holy Grail’ had a little bit more of a narrative tying it all together, but really, while it is very funny, it does still come across as a bunch of sketches that just so happen to take place in Arthurian Times. Which means both films share a similar problem, and it’s a problem most sketch comedies have, some of the sketches are great, some aren’t.

Life of Brian doesn’t have that problem by being much more narrative based, which not only works in making the film flow better but it also shows how the Monty Python crew are improving as filmmakers. True there are some scenes that feel more sketch based than others, but they still tie into the plot of the film and don’t feel out of place. But the film also still has that low budget, amateur style that made Monty Python so distinct from the rest of cinema at the time. All of the cast take on multiple roles, the cinematography is amateur at best and if the sound editing is anything to go by, they’re making this on pretty cheap equipment, hell there’s an editing mistake literally minutes into the film. But that also works to the film’s advantage, it’s not as rough as Holy Grail where they turned their minimal budget into a joke in the context of the film, but that style (If it counts as a style) makes their films just a little bit more charming. As if to say, even if their equipment and budget isn’t the best, this is a story they really want to tell and their going to tell it. Everything about their work usually screams passion project, because where there is effort, it really shows. The set design, the writing, the costumes, it’s all top notch in sucking you into this environment and those little signs that show where they put extra effort into what was already a low budget passion project just makes me appreciate the film all the more.

Of course when your film is a satire on religion, lots of people tend to get offended at this film simply for existing, but I don’t really see it as that bad. The film never says religion is bad, or Jesus was bad or even the followers are bad. The film is about average people just looking for answers and a little more guidance in their life so they turn to Brian, mistaking him to be a person of true wisdom and power given to him by god, going as far to take every little thing he does and overanalyse it to find a way how it’s a sign from the lord or it’s a secret message. Not to go too deeply into religious talk but let’s be honest, real or not it’s highly unlikely things went down the way they were recorded. But again, the key focus here is that no one is ever mocked for being religious. The followers aren’t idiots and they don’t have ill intentions, they just need someone to give them answers.

But in the end, none of this matters. The big reason why I love this film? It’s just so damn funny. This is in my opinion one of the funniest films ever made. It has so many quotable lines, so many entertaining characters and set-ups, even when the film is being completely random and nonsensical, something that I would usually hate, this film somehow has me bursting out laughing. Not to sound pretentious or anything, but I consider myself a hard person to impress with comedies, especially films. So many considered classic comedies, I just don’t find funny, and if I were to stay here and list them all then this post would be an extra 100 words long. But this is one of those rare cases where the film is just as good as people say and I would highly recommend for everyone to see, in fact it’s one of my favourite films to watch with people because no matter how many times I watch it, I always burst out laughing. It’s one of the best comedies ever made and one of my favourite films ever made.

-Danny