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Always look on the bright side of life... If life seems jolly rotten, There's something you " ve forgotten! And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing, Its now hard to imagine the furor that surrounded the 1979 release of the Pythons Life of Brian, a film that ends with such a positive finishing song. And until 1989 no film received so big amount of protests by religious groups as the Pythons did. Of course, most of those people ever hadnt watched the movie they had only heard rumors. And if you fear that the film may be blasphemous, have the courage to watch Life of Brian.
The Pythons are not bashing Christianity here, but they unmercifully take on the silly things that man has done with organized religion. If some groups consider the film as a threat, perhaps their faith is shallow and is challenged by the amount of historically accurate material the Pythons have included in their comedy. Brian parallels the life of Christ only in the fact that he lives at the same time and period as Christ. The parallels happen only due to the acts of others, as in the opening sequence that shows the three wise men approaching the wrong manger after following the star of Bethlehem. Some of the films funniest moments occur after the wise men shock Brians mother, Mandy: Mandy: What star sign is he?
WM 2: Capricorn. Mandy: Capricorn he, what are they like? WM 2: He is the Son of God, our Messiah. WM 1: King of the Jews. Mandy: And that's Capricorn, is it? WM 3: No, no, that's just him.
Mandy: Oh, I was going to say, otherwise there'd be a lot of them. After the wise men discover their mistake and take back their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to give to the proper Christ child, we go through Terry Gilliams hilarious cartoon credits sung to A Boy Named Brian, landing thirty years later at Christs Sermon on the Mount. We are at the back of the crowd where its difficult to hear what Christ is saying: Man: I think it was "Blessed are the Cheesemakers. " Wife: What's so special about the cheese makers? Gregory: It's not meant to be taken literally. Obviously it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.
As in all Python material, much of it works like scatter shot skits within the overall film. Even though Life of Brian is more unified than other Python films, some scenes work much better than others. The Pythons research pays off with a great stoning scene, as the women (actually men masquerading as women who in turn pretend to be men and if this is confusing, you havent seen enough Python) buy fake beards from vendor and can choose from 2 pointed or 3 pointed stones and bags of gravel for the stoning. Politics is always a ready mark for spoofing, and the Pythons take on the various splinter groups that exist in the Holy Land with a number of scenes with the black robed Judean Peoples Front, not to be confused with the Peoples Front of Judea. One early scene has the JPF being supremely politically correct about sexism: Stan: It's every man's right to have babies if he wants them. Reg: But you can't have babies.
Stan: Don't you oppress me. Reg: I'm not oppressing you, Stan -- you haven't got a womb. Where's the fetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box? (Stan starts crying. ) Judith: Here! I've got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can't actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans', but that he can have the right to have babies.
Francis: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother. Sister, sorry. Later, the JPF meets and begins bashing the hated Romans. Even that serves as fodder for Python humor, who now spoof the generic non-thinking cliches that most people come up with. Heres a brief excerpt from a meeting where the leader is attempting to rally hatred for the Romans: Reg: All right...
all right... but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what HAVE the Romans done for us? Xerxes: Brought peace! Reg: (very angry, he's not having a good meeting at all) What! ? Oh... (scornfully) Peace, yes...
shut up! So after running a gauntlet of political humor, sight gags like picking up bloody arms from the Childrens Matinee at the Coliseum, the Roman general (John Cleese) giving a Latin lesson to a graffiti writing Brian (Graham Chapman), a lisping Pontius Pilate who doesnt see the humor in the name Biggus Dickus and other uneven scenes we arrive at the point where Brian is mistaken for a Messiah. No matter what Brian says or does, hes stuck with these followers now and we end at the trickiest scene of all for the Pythons to pull off. How do you spoof the crucifixion respectfully? Those familiar with history will understand that this was a common practice for those times, and the Pythons end with one of their most well known songs: When you " re feeling in the dumps, Don't be silly chumps, Just purse your lips and whistle -- that's the thing! And...
always look on the bright side of life... Its difficult for me to see any blasphemy in Life of Brian. It spoofs human nature more than anything, notably the gullibility of people who behave as sheep and follow others blindly. The Pythons expect to challenge and their special brand of humor is often favored by geeks and thinking people. If youre a sheep... Well, I dont know many people who admit to being a sheep, but even if you are, its not so bad.
You can still rent the video and join in with that final song from the film: For life is quite absurd, And death's the final word. You must always face the curtain with a bow! Forget about your sin -- give the audience a grin, Enjoy it -- it's the last chance anyhow! So always look on the bright side of death!
Aside from being a neat spoof on the Hollywood epic, it's also almost incidentally one of the most realistic on-screen depictions of the ancient world -- instead of treating their characters as posturing historical stereotypes, Pythons realized what no sword 'n's and epic ever has: that all people are the same, no matter what period of history they live in. People always have and always will bicker, lie, cheat, swear, conceal cowardice with bravado (like Reg, leader of the People's Front of Judea), abuse power (like Pontius Pilate), blindly follow the latest fads and giggle at silly things ("Biggus Dickus"). In the end, Life of Brian teaches us that the only way for a despairing individual to cope in a world of idiocy and hypocrisy is to always look on the bright side of life. A beautiful film, a perfect comedy, and a gentle triumph of silliness over pomposity, self-importance, and intolerance - "Life of Brian" could be the best British comedy ever. Bibliography: web 2.
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Research essay sample on Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life
