Give a Whistle

The Life of Brian was a very interesting movie. I’ve never seen it before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. After hearing about the controversy this movie apparently incited, I was actually kind of disappointed. To me, this movie wasn’t very controversial, even from a religious point of view. I actually found the jokes and themes of this movie funnier for having known the bible and the culture it made fun of. Obviously the humor of this movie is more directed at the people who are familiar with the themes addressed, therein.

            The main joke this movie makes at the religious community, I think, is blind faith. This movie really makes a point to show how ignorant people can be, under the excuse of religion. As shown in the movie, people don’t even try to think for themselves, even when told to do so. They will always think what’s being “preached” applies to other people or to those around them, but it doesn’t apply to them. In the scene where Brian addresses the “multitude” from his bedroom window, I saw a theme of groupthink. This process started after Brian fell out of the window of the official headquarters for the people’s front of Judea. Brian’s ramblings started with the people taking everything he said with a grain of salt, and ended with people gobbling every tiny thing he did up. When Brian shouts at the people from his bedroom window that they need to think as individuals, they reply as a hoard. This illustrates the idea of groupthink pretty well, and under this circumstance, people don’t think as individuals and just blindly go along with whatever the others around them are doing.

            Another theme I found really funny, was the rebellion and the different groups of Jewish people who were trying to overthrow the Roman rule. With all these different factions that war more amongst themselves than against the common enemy, and war for something that isn’t really explained, in the movie, at least, was another theme I found to be very interesting. When the PFJ is making plans to kidnap Pontius’s wife, and the head of the faction says “what have the romans ever done for us”, he is met with discourse of all the advancements and improvements to their civilization, the romans did bring. This brings up the notion that the Jewish populace might actually be biting the hand that feeds them, and shows the cost of what their rebellion would bring about. In this movie, the Jews start reflecting on the things they have and although it’s not stated, things they will more than likely lose.

Something I personally found extremely funny was when Brian was painting “romans go home” in Latin on the walls of Caesar’s palace. Having studied Latin, it was really funny watching the roman guard correct Brian’s misuse of the different classes of nouns and grammar he was using. This just reinforces some of what the rebellion brought up at their meeting, that they might be biting the hand that feeds them. This brings up the human condition that is tied to such dramatic acts that will upset the way people live. People can continue to go on in their lives where they have some nice things, but are probably being mistreated, or they could try to turn things on its head and possibly lose what they do have. This movie brings that to light with this meeting, even though they do (seemingly) go through with their rebellion, there is doubt.

            I found this movie, as well as most Monty python films, to be about human nature and the times when we act just plain stupid. On every level, in every class, people can be ridiculous. From the entire view of power, or in this case, the Romans, the half-baked rebellious factions and the incorrigible nature to blindly follow things, people can act quite dumb. And this movie serves to showcase that, bring to light some of the things we do that are ridiculous and make light of it in a well done, comical way.