Life of Brian

This is an important movie, not just for Brianists, but for Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews as well. Its universality should touch everyone, in this unhealthy age of rampaging religious fundamentalism.

Put quite simply, Monty Python's The Life of Brian makes quite as much sense as any other organised religion, and is a whole lot funnier.

This movie was made in 1979, several years after the Monty Python team had broken up to go their separate ways. John Cleese, for instance, teamed up with Connie Booth to create the classic Fawlty Towers -- and married her for a short while as well. Michael Palin came up with the very splendid series Ripping Yarns.

But fortunately for us, the six Pythons (the Famous Five Cambridge University students plus American animator/director Terry Gilliam) did periodically get together long enough to make three Python movies, and this, the second, is regarded by many as the best. If not the best, then definitely the second-best.

For Life of Brian, our team assembled in Tunisia, bringing along with them a few assorted other players including Spike Milligan, and even friend and Executive Producer George Harrison, who has a cameo appearance.

Brian, played by Graham Chapman, is ruthlessly exploited by a Judaean Liberation splinter-group he has been foolish enough to join. The other members plot and scheme; he is the mug they send out on idiotic 'liberation' assignments. And it's while escaping from one assignment that he has to pretend to be an messianic preacher -- the rubbish he spouts convinces a growing crowd that he is in fact their promised Messiah.

"Brian: Blessed are they who convert their neighbour's ox, for they shall inhibit their girth. Onlooker: RUBBISH....."

Well, it sort of makes sense, doesn't it.

The Python humour is very English middle-class schoolboy, and it's very easy to trace its lineage from the pioneering radio show The Goon Show. Its lunacy is endearing, and just as with their television program, there are moments here which just grow steadily funnier each time you revisit them.

All the Python gang are in top form, including Terry Gillam, usually present only as animator, who plays a wonderfully repellent prison guard. Michael Palin in particular excels with his multiple roles, including playing a Roman soldier who has to instruct Jews on how to get ready for their mass crucificion parade.

He plays Roman soldier Nexus Wettus. "Crucifixion? he asks each Jew in line. "Good. Out of the door. Line on the left. One cross each. Next. Crucifixion?" And so it goes....

The Life of Brian, although satirising religion, is more pointedly satirising sects which feud between themselves -- the People's Front of Judea sees as its chief enemy the Judean People's Front, not the Romans. And the Python's satire is as true of Ireland as it is of the Middle-East today -- or of the Australian Labor Party, for that matter.

Did Brian die in vain? Well, not really, because he did at least provide us with a few laughs. And that surely is as good a legacy as anyone can leave this world.

Look right at the end of the closing credits for a lovely subtle joke which I think quite a few might have missed. "If you have enjoyed this film, why not go and see La Notte?, the small-print read. Yes, right. Go seek out this Antonioni movie, and see one of the most vapid and depressing movies of all time, matched only by Pasolini's Teorema. The La Notte reference is a gag they repeat, in slightly different fashion, in the preview trailer for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. One Python member sure hated that movie!

This is a widescreen anamorphic transfer which is in generally very sound condition. I suspect there wasn't a huge budget for the filming, which was done on location in Tunisia, because some of the scenes are very dim indeed, while the colour in some outdoor scenes seems somewhat dull.

But the print itself seems free of damage, and the version we've ended up with on DVD seems quite as good as anything we would have seen during its original cinema run.

The original two-channel stereo presentation is missing. What we get instead is presumably preprocessed 5.1 Dolby Surround. There is, fortunately, no great exaggeration of effects; the dialogue is left pretty well centred and is mostly legible, although I fear the original sound-recording left quite a bit to be desired.

It's a shame the original two-channel version wasn't presented as an alternative; very often these seem more direct and clearer than the reprocessed efforts.

The two great songs -- at the film's opening and closing - are perfectly reproduced. The opening song, sung by Sonia Jones, is a wonderful parody of a Shirley Bassey James Bond theme-song. At the close, Eric Idle delivers his own unbeatable Sermon on the Mount, 'Always Look at the Bright Side of Life'. Great stuff.

The first Extra Feature is an outstanding animated menu-board from Terry Gilliam in typical Pythonesque style, with suitable sound-effects. It's quite long and you want to see it all before moving to select the movie or special features.

The main Extra Feature is a documentary made in Tunisia by the BBC during shooting of the movie. It's a look at the process of making the movie, and brings in the history of the Pythons, and describes what each member had been doing in the years between the close of the series and the making of the movie.

It's full-screen, fairly worn and showing lots of age-artefacts, but is serviceable enough for pleasant viewing, and is full of interest.

There's an anamorphic but basically routine trailer for The Life of Brian and previews for three more modern comedies, Eight Crazy Nights, I Spy and Mr Deeds. Routine, boring stuff.

The longish short for Monty Python and the Holy Grail is, however, a work of comic-art in itself. Watch for a beautifully realistic self-assessment of the movie, another La Notte joke and a wonderful parody of Bergman's Seventh Seal -- this is three minutes of Pythonesque bliss.

This is pure undated delight. Relevant. Important. It will change your life. Or maybe it won't, but give it a try, anyway. Definitely one to keep at hand as a fast-acting antidote, in case the Archbishop of Sydney, the Reverend Nile or someone equally asinine lets rip.

I considered giving disc Gold status, despite the very slight reservations about sound and image quality. I think those minor problems were inherent in the original filming of the material -- this is as good as this film is ever going to get on DVD.

It misses out on Gold however because this edition lacks the worthwhile Audio Commentaries from the five surviving Python members (Graham Chapman died only a few years after making this movie), and the deleted scenes, all of which are found on the Region One Criterion edition.