The Life of Brian

I thought that Life of Brian was moderately funny and I’m glad I watched it, but I think that it is the least funny of the three Monty Python movies.  Life of Brian did address a serious problem facing the United States today. In the movie Brian is mistakenly recognized as the messiah and towns people begin to follow him and refuse to believe that he is not the messiah. Following someone that blindly is a trait that both those towns people and the modern populace of America share.  The movie also shows the conflict between (monotheistic) religions and tells us to look on the bright side.

Brian, while trying to flee from roman guards falls on to a pedestal where he attracts the attention of many of the towns people he then began to spout of nonsense. The towns people questioned him at first and soon after began to follow him has he fled pelting him with questions. Very soon after, as the crowd began to grow the towns people started to claim that he was the messiah despite the fact that he had said nothing spiritual, influential, or noteworthy.

This is extremely similar to the modern American populace. Most Americans follow a religion, political figure, or “general fact” blindly. Meaning that they may know a few details but they claim that they are a follower, that a person represents them completely, or that they “know the facts”, when in fact most Americans are so completely ignorant claiming this untruthful. This is a huge problem. Americans should make educated decisions rather than just saying that they support something without knowing a single thing about it.

As a larger crowd begins to follow Brian, they begin to disagree amongst themselves about what he said. I compare this to the ongoing conflict between the, as I call them, “Big Three” monotheistic religions. All three, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are all essentially the same, but their followers fight claiming that they are not the same or similar. As a metaphor, they are Brian’s followers, fighting amongst themselves until they realize that they are following the same person and same ideals.

Finally Life of Brian reminds us to always look at the positives in life rather than the negatives. As Brian is being crucified one of the other prisoners bursts into song, singing “Always look on the bright side of life!” I think this should be taken into account because of the increasing negativity in the world. My mother has always told me that you reflect the side, positive or negative, that you feed the most. Perhaps this is why Americans are so overly negative in todays world. Most of American’s medium for information is the news. This medium only ever gives us negative news almost never positive. Maybe if the news was more positive Americans would be happier and more willing to get along with others.

Monty Pythons Life of Brian addresses many serious issues facing the world and especially America in modern times. But if we look on the bright side we may be able to overcome those problems.