Life of Brian (1979) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

As a quick refresher, it's about a guy who was born in the next stable down from Christ. From the very beginning of his life, people seemed to get him confused with his famous neighbor. First it was the Magi, who followed the star to Brian's stable, only to realize that star navigation is somewhat less precise than GPS, and the real Messiah was just one door down. That would not be the last time people tried to worship him. Brian lived in a time that was obsessed with the Messiah. Various people in that time were convinced that they were the Messiah - from Herod to Caligula to Livia, the wife of Augustus. It was not only the famous who felt themselves chosen. Many minor claimants, sane and mad alike, joined the messianic frenzy that gripped the age. This film pictures the people of that time as being aware of the Messiah's presence, but not his identity, thus shopping around from soap box to soap box trying to find the authentic redeemer among the pretenders. At one time, Brian seemed to be the flavor of the month.

'Nuff said. It's a comedy classic, and it has been re-issued in the Criterion Collection with two full-length commentaries, which between them include all of the living Pythons! I think I'll offer some personal reminiscences.

I lived in the United States when this film was released, and I remember well the controversy. I liked it of course, but one had to be very careful about admitting that because religious people opposed it vociferously. Catholic groups protested the film and wanted attendance to be considered a sin. Fundies virtually shut it out of the Bible Belt states, forcing theater operators to avoid it or to close it early. The same sorts of protests worked against Life of Brian in the U.K., where a group called Festival of Light successfully lobbied many towns and shires to ban the film. The people who protested it, as usual, had no idea what they were talking about. The film does not concern itself at all with Christ or Christianity. Christ is only mentioned once, when an overflow crowd struggles to hear The Sermon on the Mount from a great distance. "Did he say blessed are the cheesemakers?" The film does not ridicule Christianity at all. Brian just happens to have lived in the same time and place as Jesus, and that time is ridiculed. Of course the controversy also fueled the curiosity of a different segment of the population, and the box office total was $19 million in the United States alone, a minor hit by 1979 standards, and highly profitable for the investors who spent $4 million on production. To illustrate its popularity, it took in about as much as Norma Rae or The Rose, for example, and that achievement seems even more impressive when one considers the competition. It came out the same weekend as Apocalypse Now.

The film went on to cult status in the States, but never achieved more than that. It never became embedded into our consciousness as an integral part of the culture. It has admirers among intellectuals and Python fans, but it's never been the kind of universally recognized film that Jay Leno could quote from and everyone would immediately get the joke.

Years after its release, I moved to continental Europe, and eventually lived in several different countries there, where I found out that this film is viewed very differently on the continent. Virtually every educated European has seen the film, can recognize the famous quotes, and can sing along with "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," the cheery finale sung by an unlikely chorus of crucified men. Life of Brian IS a cultural touchstone in Western Europe. I would guess that this film is as familiar to Western European adolescents as Star Wars is to Americans the same age.

I am back in the United States now, but there's something about Western Europe's affection for this movie that continues to give that region a special spot in my heart.

Above - a documentary about the making of the film and the reaction of fundamentalists.