Monty Python’s Life of Brian

Monty Python’s Biblical spoof following a man born on the same day as Jesus Christ, and right next door. He somehow also gains followers and crosses paths with Pontius Pilate., Irreverent comedy about a reluctant Messiah whose life has some parallels with the life of Christ. Written by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin., On a midnight clear 2,000 years ago, three wise men enter a manger where a babe is wrapped in swaddling clothes. It is an infant called Brian…and the three wise men are in the wrong manger. For the rest of his life, Brian (Graham Chapman) finds himself regarded as something of a messiah — yet he’s always in the shadow of this other guy from Galilee. Brian is witness to the Sermon of the Mount, but his seat is in such a bad location that he can’t hear any of it (“Blessed are the cheesemakers?”). Ultimately, he is brought before Pontius Pilate and sentenced to crucifixion, which takes place at that crowded, nonexclusive execution site a few blocks shy of Calvary. Rather than utter the Last Six Words, Brian leads his fellow crucifixees in a spirited rendition of a British music-hall cheer-up song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” The whole Monty Python gang (Chapman, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam) are on hand in multiple roles, playing such sacred characters as Stan Called Loretta, Biggus Dickus, Deadly Dirk, Casts the First Stone, and Intensely Dull Youth; also showing up are Goon Show veteran Spike Milligan and a Liverpool musician named George Harrison., Irreverent satire of Biblical films and religious intolerance focuses on Brian, a Jew in Roman-occupied Judea. After joining up with an anti-Roman political organization, Brian is mistaken for a prophet, and becomes a reluctant Messiah., Biblical spoof, with Graham Chapman as a bumbling philosopher., Surreal but controversial comedy about a man named Brian who is mistakenly hailed as the Messiah by a trio of not-so-wise men. Brian is doomed to a life of public exposure after this and is doggedly followed by a troop of admiring worshippers. At the time of the film’s theatrical release, the glaring parallels with the life of Christ caused controversy on both sides of the Atlantic.