POP FILTER

VS.

THE CLASSICS OF 1979

LIFE OF BRIAN

How could you not be offended by Life of Brian? Well…I mean, I wasn’t, but that’s because I haven’t believed in a power higher than me since I was old enough to look in the mirror and whisper “Fuck that.” You weren’t, because you’re smarter than that; even those of you Filterinos who still believe in some sort of God know that your beliefs are your beliefs, and there’s nothing — not a person with a new religion for you knocking on your door, not a silly little satire from a group of famous British dudes — that can change that. But everyone else on the planet, none of which we know personally, but we’re all too aware that they exist, because how else would the Fox News Channel get any ratings? Of course their offended, and it’s all because Python knew how to do it. It’s not about shock and awe, it’s about being smarter than you, and sillier than you, all at the same time.

Let’s get this out of the way as soon as possible: Life of Brian isn’t super funny. You may have some sort of nostalgic connection to it, or have seen it so many times that you’ve uncovered layers of jokes buried under layers of jokes, but for this viewer, who put off his initial viewing for so long out of sheer embarrassment, there weren’t a lot of laughs. Python could probably be called a blind spot for me — I’ve seen, and loved, Holy Grail, and I remember catching a few episodes of Flying Circus when it was on Comedy Central when I was a kid, but someone of my age and gender has little choice but to be a die-hard fan. That’s not me. It’s mostly due to a lack of knowledge, but if I truly loved what I had seen, wouldn’t I have made it a point to seek it out? Maybe, but that’s not a good explanation for waiting for so long to see this, as it involves two of my favorite things: silliness and the skewering of religion. And there’s some titties, so I guess my four favorite things.

What the movie lacks in laugh-out loud moments, though, it makes up for in some pretty revelatory scenes, particularly for the time. At no point does Life of Brian go out of its way to directly offend Christians. Jesus is only in one scene, and he gives a pretty good speech, without the use of a single teleprompter. Outright making fun would have been too easy, and too easy to slap back in their face, with not a single person offended. Being offended isn’t even the point. The point is to think. Brian, played by Graham Chapman, even has a scene towards the end of the movie where he spells all of this out for the slower audience members (i.e. the ones who will probably get offended in the first place). He is mistaken for the messiah, or declared to be the new messiah, and he tells all of his followers that they don’t need one. They don’t need to be told what to do. This isn’t offensive because it explains how Jesus was a homo or a child molester or black. It’s offensive because it throws whatever beliefs you may have back in your face, and it’s upsetting for people to hear that what they’ve been doing their entire lives may have been a waste of time. And the best part, the best part of all great, offensive satire, really is that there’s nothing you can say back. You just got burned, son, and any sort of retort will just become a shovel for you to dig your hole deeper. You could shut up, have some confidence in your beliefs, and say “to each his own,” but we all know that that’s not what these people do.

Maybe because it’s more offensive, or maybe because this is Python, and that’s just how they role, the whole movie is shellacked with coats and coats of ridiculousness, in case you thought you were getting nothing but a message movie. This is where the movie feels hit-or-miss, almost like throughout this story of the non-messiah named Brian, we’re going to watch a skit show. Some of it is incredibly clever, if not laugh out loud funny, and some of it just doesn’t work. A segment where Caesar and Pontius Pilate address their people with dueling speech impediments, much to the delight of their audience, just doesn’t work, and goes on for far too long. A character named Mr. Cheeky, however, seems like it’s going to go on too long, but turns out to be one of the funniest things about the movie. None of this is surprising, as any movie that has this many jokes will tend to have a low batting average; luckily, enough of it works.

In the end, Life of Brian is a victory for 1979. I should have seen it sooner, as I wish I had the same relationship with this movie that everyone else does, but now that I have the first watch out of the way, it’ll be cool to see what the second and third one have in store for me. That, and I still have that fucking pesky Meaning of Life to get through.

-Ryan Haley