Product Description

On a Midnight Clear 2000 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, non-exclusive 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, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam) are on hand in multiple roles, playing such sacred characters as Stan Called Loretta, 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12148 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2008-01-29
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
• Dubbed in: French, Hungarian
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
"Blessed are the cheesemakers," a wise man once said. Or maybe not. But the point is Monty Python's Life of Brian is a religious satire that does not target specific religions or religious leaders (like, say, Jesus of Nazareth). Instead, it pokes fun at the mindless and fanatical among their followers--it's an attack on religious zealotry and hypocrisy--things that that fellow from Nazareth didn't particularly care for either. Nevertheless, at the time of its release in 1979, those who hadn't seen it considered it to be quite "controversial." Life of Brian, you see, is about a chap named Brian (Graham Chapman) born December 25 in a hovel not far from a soon-to-be-famous Bethlehem manger. Brian is mistaken for the messiah and therefore manipulated, abused, and exploited by various religious and political factions. And it's really, really funny. Particularly memorable bits include the brassy Shirley Bassey/James Bond-like title song; the bitter rivalry between the anti-Roman resistance groups, the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea; Michael Palin's turn as a lisping, risible Pontius Pilate; Brian urging a throng of false-idol worshippers to think for themselves--to which they reply en masse "Yes, we must think for ourselves!"; the fact that everything Brian does, including losing his sandal in an attempt to flee these wackos, is interpreted as "a sign." Life of Brian is not only one of Monty Python's funniest achievements, it's also the group's sharpest and smartest sustained satire. Blessed are the Pythons. --Jim Emerson

Amazon.com
"Blessed are the cheesemakers," a wise man once said. Or maybe not. But the point is Monty Python's Life of Brian is a religious satire that does not target specific religions or religious leaders (like, say, Jesus of Nazareth). Instead, it pokes fun at the mindless and fanatical among their followers--it's an attack on religious zealotry and hypocrisy--things that that fellow from Nazareth didn't particularly care for either. Nevertheless, at the time of its release in 1979, those who hadn't seen it considered it to be quite "controversial." Life of Brian, you see, is about a chap named Brian (Graham Chapman) born December 25 in a hovel not far from a soon-to-be-famous Bethlehem manger. Brian is mistaken for the messiah and therefore manipulated, abused, and exploited by various religious and political factions. And it's really, really funny. Particularly memorable bits include the brassy Shirley Bassey/James Bond-like title song; the bitter rivalry between the anti-Roman resistance groups, the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea; Michael Palin's turn as a lisping, risible Pontius Pilate; Brian urging a throng of false-idol worshippers to think for themselves--to which they reply en masse "Yes, we must think for ourselves!"; the fact that everything Brian does, including losing his sandal in an attempt to flee these wackos, is interpreted as "a sign." Life of Brian is not only one of Monty Python's funniest achievements, it's also the group's sharpest and smartest sustained satire. Blessed are the Pythons. --Jim Emerso

Customer Reviews

Very Funny In Parts But Overall Ages Well!
This one-disc version of Python's historical (note I did not say historically accurate)comedy set at the time of Jesus is rare among comedies in that it's still able to retain most of its humour value over the years and hence ages quite well. Although not all the scenes remain funny, there were some that left me in stitches such as the "Biggus Dickus" scenes with Pontius Pilate while the UFO scene was just stupid and actually in my opinion took away from the comedic value of the film a great deal. Like "Ben Hur" this film is set at the time of the birth of Christianity but other than that the story has really very little to do with Christ or Christianity in general other than as a minor sub-plot.

The story here is about a group of sinners who try to scrape a living by surviving the brutality of the Romans and particularly one of them, Brian, who is mistaken for a prophet and for a while the Messiah. Historians will tell you that in real life, many people at the time of Jesus were mistaken for the Messiah and even John the Baptist was as well and so there's nothing unusual here. They will also tell you that crucificion was the norm and not the exception as a form of punishment in those days and so I chose to take this comedy at face value and I never felt insulted in any way as a Christian myself. In any case, if your faith is founded on strong foundations, comedies like these shouldn't faze you. In fact, I thought the film was rather respectful of Christ himself and that the only buffoons were the cast who misunderstood his teachings and if you recall even in real life he faced a lot of sinners who misunderstood him and so again, nothing out of the ordinary here. If any historical figure was made to look like a jackass here it would have to be Pontius Pilate and some of the Roman soldiers and I'm sure not many people would have complaints about that.

This widescreen format dvd version though has decent picture quality although at too many spots the white circle that signals the start of a commercial is present which is really unacceptable and the sound quality is poor although those with a Pro Logic setup can more or less simulate surround sound and there are not special features at all. The best thing to do is to wait for a properly restored and remastered standard or Blu-ray version to surface with much, much improved picture and sound quality with at least 5.1 surround sound options and if a Director's Cut version is to be done to please remove the ridiculous UFO scene from what is otherwise an intelligent and funny comedy.

As entertaining as ever, and packed with extras
Not a lot to say about this movie to anyone who is a Monty Python fan, and anyone who isn't should see it anyway, it's a story packed with brilliant humor about biblical times.

It's NOT about Jesus, it's simply a very funny story happening in the same time period, when messiah cults were the norm, and Brian may be the only person who isn't crazy.

Great blu-ray edition of this movie, the behind the scenes extras and radio spots and other features are great, and the quality is excellent (no apparent clean-up work done, unlike say, Blade Runner, but the film grain makes it feel all the more theatrical in a way).

As always it has one of the most unforgettable endings in movie history. :)

2.5 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:

Despite a solid premise, Life of Brian consists mainly of uninspired stretches of comedy that stretch on too long in an attempt to milk every joke for all they're worth.