Moving well beyond their (sometimes wonderful) sketch comedy, Monty Python corralled their stream-of-comic-consciousness style into this hilarious (and thoughtful!) parallel Christ parable. Graham Chapman gets both laughs and earnest empathy as Brian (’E’s not the Messiah. ‘E’s a very naughty boy!’), born in that manger down the block from you-know-who. Directed by Pythoner Terry Jones with more care than you expect on story and period detail; even at its silliest, it’s somehow more believable than your average Biblical Sword & Sandal outing. Plenty of belly laughs, too, without feeling gagged up, building to constant, helpless hilarity once ‘R’-challenged Pontius Pilate (Michael Palin) makes a lisping entrance, then right on until we reach endgame with a sing-a-long crucifixion finale. Plus, good dumb fun spotting all the multiple role playing. John Cleese keeps walking out as one character then coming immediately back as someone else. Look for Sony’s ‘Immaculate’ Edition, a significant improvement on Criterion’s soft/grainy image & muffled soundtrack.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Lots of religious controversy back when this first came out. Perhaps inevitable, yet an odd reaction as the film goes out of its way to be anti-blasphemous. Maybe the real problem was the surprising amount of fleshly display. A full-frontal Messiah, even a fake one, too much for today’s Pharisees.
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