Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't need to follow me... You've got to think for yourselves! You're all individuals! Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals! Brian: You're all different! Crowd: Yes! We're all different! Man: I'm not. Crowd: Shhh!
Monty Python's Life of Brian is a tremendously popular and very funny film by Monty Python, following the misadventures of Brian (played by Graham Chapman), who was born just down the street from Jesus Christ. Dissatisfied with his life as a Jew in Roman territory, Brian attempts to join La Résistance (though mostly because there's a very pretty girl there) and ends up fleeing from the Romans. In the middle of this, he accidentally starts a cult, becomes a Messiah figure, gets captured by the Romans, and is crucified.Upon its release, this film drew a lot of controversy, mainly in the form of criticism from various religious groups and orders due to what was perceived as a disrespectful mockery of Jesus Christ (which in turn was frequently based on the erroneous belief that Brian was intended to be / actually was Jesus, rather than just someone whose life paralleled him in several ways). Rather than mocking Jesus, however, the film actually treats the source material with a lot of respect. It just points out that Christianity may have missed the point on some of what Jesus taught. It is not unheard of for the movie to be regarded as an Affectionate Parody by actual ministers.A made-for-TV comedy film, Holy Flying Circus, about the controversy surrounding the film was released on BBC 4 in 2011.See also Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Monty Python's Life of Brian provides examples of the following tropes:
Pilate: Who is this "Wodewick" you speak of? Man: He's a "wobber"! Other man: And a "wapist"!! Woman:And a pickpocket!
Away In A Manger: Brian is born at the same time as Jesus, in the manger next door.
Been There Shaped History: Brian's life intersects with Jesus and he keeps getting mistaken for the Messiah.
Be Yourself: Not blindly following dogma is a theme of this film, but the Pythons were savvy enough to both recognize this could be a Lost Aesop in all the silliness, and that the trope itself is a built-in Broken Aesop. So they got around both by having a scene where Brian explicitly states the message, and people still screw the message up. At least, not blindly following dogma you made up yourself because a guy really really seems like the messiah to you.
Berserk Button: Don't refer to Mr. Bignose's... Big Nose. He was surprisingly 'patient' when it's pressed so many times, until he snaps.
Big Damn Heroes: Repeatedly subverted in the final scene, as Brian's allies show up, group by group, and do nothing whatsoever to save him.
Birthday Suit Surprise Party: Brian's girlfriend Judith Iscariot - an Expy of Mary Magdalene - tries to convince the Virgin Mandy (Brian's mum) that he is special (whilst naked, as Mandy had barged in on the two of them). It doesn't work. And earlier when after awaking, Brian opens his blinds...
Brian's mum : He's not The Messiah! He's a very naughty boy!
Blind Obedience: Lampshaded by a crowd who eagerly parrots a speech against eagerly parroting points of view and ideas.
Blinding Bangs: One of Brian's "acolytes", in the Sermon from the Window scene.
Chekhov's Army: Subverted with the Judean People's Front in the final scene. After many hushed references to them by the other Judean resistance groups, they charge into the crucifixion site at the end, leaving the Roman soldiers fleeing in terror... then promptly kill themselves en masse, revealing that they're actually the JPF's "crack suicide squad".
Comically Missing the Point: Both the aforementioned scene with people missing the message of individuality, and the scene where the centurion corrects Brian's Latin, ignoring the fact that the phrase itself is treason.
Much of the complaining about the film itself falls into this category.
Country Matters: Reg would've used the word had the censors not demanded he say "klutz" instead. The page features the full uncensored quote.
Deadpan Snarker: Mandy, Reg, Brian, Mr. Cheeky, Mr. Big Nose, The Old Man at the Stoning, Ben, The Ex-Leper... It's basiclly a World of Snark.
Denied Parody: The Monty Python team have always denied that the film was a parody of the Jesus story - instead it's just a story about a guy called Brian living around the same time who is mistaken for the Messiah. The parody is about the various trappings of the religion - things like emphasis on symbols and extreme sectarianism and interpretations of Jesus's teachings that completely miss the point, while the teachings themselves are left intact. They never said they weren't making fun of religion, they just said they weren't making fun of Jesus. And they weren't. At least, not more than a couple of times. ("Bloody do-gooder.") They rejected their initial concept of Brian as a forgotten disciple of Jesus because the laughs stopped dead whenever Jesus was around — none of them felt comfortable directly making jokes about Him because there's nothing to really mock about the man Himself.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: The crowd starts arguing about whether the sign is the shoe or the gourd. And even if it's a shoe or a sandal.
Also, apparently politics in the Middle East haven't changed all that much...
Double Take: The two aliens inside the spaceship do a double-take at the sight of Brian. More exactly, their eyestalks do a double-take.
Downer Ending: "Cheer up, Brian. You know what they say: some things in life are bad...." Pretty much subverted by being a very cheery downer ending.
Do Wrong, Right: The above-mentioned scene with the centurion making Brian change his (treasonous) graffiti to be correct Latin.
Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Pontius Pilate. It was actually considered sophisticated to have a speech impediment back then. They did their research. So it's even applying Deliberate Values Dissonance to make it funny.
Enforced Method Acting: When the guards hold their laughter before Pilate, in the scene where Brian is brought before him. Michael Palin was deliberately teasing them into trying to fight the urge to laugh (you can see their flat-out despair when trying not to laugh).
Exact Words: How Brian's followers interpret his instructions.
Failure Is the Only Option: After Brian is crucified, just about everyone arrives to have a final word with him, never bothering to try and save him.
Fanservice: The film features a naked Graham Chapman as well as a naked Sue Jones-Davies (Judith). Amusingly, although Judith is seen for a second or two in front view, there is no risk whatsoever of the viewer actually catching a glimpse of her private parts, as she is blessed with pubic hair of heroic proportions.
Genre Deconstruction: Though it portrays Jesus in a favorable light, the movie is a pretty harsh deconstruction of society's romanticized view of life in the time of Christ, and of Biblical stories in general. As it points out, the Romans weren't just cruel oppressors with 0% Approval Rating — they did more to improve the Judean people's lives than anyone before them. Conversely, "God's chosen people" had criminal justice that could be just as brutal and unfair as the Romans', and they were never a noble La Résistance — they spent more time getting involved in petty squabbling amongst themselves than they did resisting the Romans. And in any case, having a cult of devoted followers who expect you to solve all of their problems isn't nearly as cool as you would think. And getting betrayed by your friends and "sacrificing" yourself on the cross? It's only inspiring when it's not happening to you!
Hope Spot: The ending takes sadistic delight in twisting the screw further and further for Brian. Once Brian's being crucified, one of the other victims notes that lots of people end up getting rescued, which is followed by everyone who might have a reason to rescue Brian showing up... and spectacularly failing to even try and rescue him. Still, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life...
Hypocritical Humor: A key theme of the movie is many of the hypocrisies and Double Standards present in organized religion and, in a broader context, in society at large. This being a movie by the Pythons, it becomes a rich source of humour as well.
In one specific example, the beginning of the movie features a ceremony where a man who used the Lord's name in vain is about to be stoned to death ("All I said was 'that bit of halibut is good enough for Jehovah'!"). However, except for Brian all of the people attending the stoning are women... who, in that women are not permitted to participate in the stoning, are breaking the Jewish religious law just as much as the poor sod they're about to stone to death.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: Judith, who really doesn't seem to have a problem defending a nice Jewish boy's integrity to his own mother even when she herself is stark naked and very obviously someone that the boy has recently had sex with. You do wonder what flavour of Jewish Judith herself could possibly be. (People's Front of Judea, obviously.)
Jesus Was Way Cool: Really, the film doesn't mock him at all. The closest thing is that the "Life of Brian" is designed to be something that could be mistaken for Jesus' in time.
The only joke aimed at Jesus himself is people mishearing his words during the Sermon on the Mount, which is more mocking people for misunderstanding him.
A joke then carried one step further on Not the Nine O'Clock News — clip here, detailed explanation here.
Jewish Mother: Brian's mother, Mandy, who nags him even when he's on the cross.
Subverted, when the Legionary commander arrives at the prison with orders to release Brian, it turns out they've already left.
And again when the Crack Suicide Squad arrives to free Brian.
La Résistance: The several groups to free Judea from the Romans, and how they suck at it.
Large Ham: "We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front..." Played with, making fun of a man for forming the Popular Front.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" compares death to the end of a production from the actors' perspective. It's played at the end of the film.
Misaimed Fandom: invokedPretty much the message of the entire film. People obeying someone they mistake for the Messiah and misinterpreting everything he does or says.
Missed the Call: The Three Wise Men visit Brian's house first by mistake while Following a Star. They have to take their gifts back from Brian's quarrelsome mother.
Mundane Made Awesome: The theme song. Musically, it's an anthem fit for a Biblical epic, with bombastically triumphant horns and a very dramatic singer. Lyrically, it details Brian's perfectly mundane life as he matures from a perfectly mundane baby into a perfectly mundane man.
Brian The babe they called Brian. He grew... Grew, grew and grew... Grew up to be... GREW UP TO BEEEEEEEE... A boy called Brian.
The Musical: Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy), a comic oratorio written by Eric Idle and John du Prez (the same team of Spamalot). Besides many original compositions are Python mainstays "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life" and "The Lumberjack Song".
Oh Crap: One of the guards' face screams of this when Pilate tells that Biggus Dickus "has a wife, you know". The actors playing the guards were specifically told not to laugh, so the reaction is most likely a real one.
Only Sane Man: In as much as a Monty Python movie can be said to have a "sane" man, Brian usually fulfills this role. Of the Romans, the centurion played by John Cleese seems to be the only one with his head screwed on straight.
During a stoning, all the women in the group are wearing fake beards in order to participate. There's even a vendor right outside the stoning grounds openly selling these beards.
When Brian returns to the People's Front. Seriously, hiding under a rug? They do it a second time when the Romans come to search the headquarters for Brian. They then joke about it when they come back a third time, "You haven't given us time to hide!"
The Prankster: The guy played by Eric Idle, titled as "Mr. Cheeky", is actually one, starting from igniting the whole "Big Nose" incident, and later dashed Brian's chance to be freed by claiming himself to be Brian for kicks.
Recursive Crossdressing: The stoning, in which the Pythons were men playing women pretending to be men. It gets even more recursive when you consider the fact that some of the women at the stoning are, in fact, played by women attempting to do a man's impression of a woman's voice with actual women's voices. In essence, women playing men playing women pretending to be men.
Right on Queue: "..Out of the door, line on the left, one cross each.."
Shown Their Work: They managed to get a lot of historical details right in the film, not surprising since a historian (Terry Jones) directed it.
When it comes to the controversy about the film, it rapidly becomes clear that the Pythons know what they're talking about a lot more than the Moral Guardians do.
Speech Impediment: Pilate, as stated above in Elmer Fudd Syndrome. His subjects like to make fun of it by asking that he release prisoners named in such a way that would make them laugh (Roger, for instance). Biggus Dickus as well. He has Sylvester The Cat Syndrome, which causes problems when he lists the names of some of the actual prisoners (Samson the Saducee Strangler, Silas the Syrian Assassin, several subversive scribes from Ceaserea...), which only makes the commoners laugh harder.
Stupid Sacrifice: The "crack suicide squad" attempts to save Brian from crucifixion.
Not by Brian himself, but his followers left him to die on the cross, so he could become a martyr.
Suicide Mission: Played for laughs by the "crack suicide squad". They shows up at the crucifixion, their leader cries "Attack!", whereupon all of the members stab themselves and die at Brian's feet.
That showed 'em, huh?
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When the Big Lipped Alligator Moment during the flying saucer scene occurs, a man is watching Brian, standing nearby when the alien craft crashes. When Brian crawls out of the wreckage, he merely comments "You lucky bastard." Later, the Roman guards chasing him (that didn't fall off the tower) pass by the wreckage without batting an eye.
Verbal Tic: "Oh, don't worry about him sir, he's deeeaahhhh... he's deeeaahhhh..." It turns out he can speak perfectly normally, he just likes to fuck with the Romans.
We ARE Struggling Together: The Trope Namer. This is a bit of a Genius Bonus: while any idiot could see the reference to the British Left in the late '70s (which was about to get much, much worse), the truth is that the actual Judaean rebels really were incredibly divided and often couldn't get it together enough to fight the Romans.
Also a research flub as they credit the Romans with stuff they did not introduce to Judaea — wine, for instance had been around for ages (it is mentioned in the very first book of the Bible), religious purity laws covered at least some aspects of sanitation, fresh water systems and public health, and other of the mentioned items had been introduced by previous occupiers such as the Persians (famous roadbuilders) and the Greeks.
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