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tackle some extremely touchy topics, none more sacred than the mindnumbing
conformity that occurs within collective structures, such as organized
religion and other dogma-defined groups, which were becoming
increasingly common in the fragmented years of the 1970s and early 1980s.
Cleese declares that the film takes on “closed systems of thought, whether
they are political or theological or religious or whatever; systems by which
whatever evidence is given to a person, he merely adapts it, fits it into his
ideology” (quoted by Hewison, 87).
Many scenes in the film parody the formation and trappings of modern
religious organizations. In the Street of Prophets scene, there is an
unseemly smorgasbord line-up of gurus, like a self-help section in a bookstore,
and the multiplicity of their messages suggests there is no “true”
message. The people who seek answers are depicted in a markedly negative
way, first hostile and demanding, then fawning and fanatic. When
Brian assures one of the seekers: “I am NOT the Messiah!” the man rudely
shoots back: “I say you are, Lord, and I should know, I’ve followed a few.”
After the followers of Brian unilaterally elevate him to Messiah, groveling
around him in an orgy of thoughtless submission, they suddenly split up
into rival factions with competing symbols (“Follow the holy gourd of
Jerusalem!”), in a biting send-up of religious schisms. The rabid and uncompromising
intolerance of some religious groups is satirized when the
old hermit, who represents the unpersuaded minority, denies that Brian is
the Messiah, and is thus persecuted as a “heretic.” The Pythons took clear
aim at this target, as Idle says: “It’s a very Protestant film, it’s about people
interpreting, people speaking for God and people wanting to kill for God
which is what they still do. To question people’s strong belief system
is very threatening to them” (quoted in Cleese et al., 305). True to the
Python sense of irreverence, the very threat of a blasphemy charge against
their film is lampooned in the scene where Matthias is sentenced to be
stoned for uttering the name of God during a particularly nice meal:
“Look, I’d had a lovely supper and all I said to my wife was, ‘That piece of
halibut was good enough for Jehovah.’” The Jewish official supervising the
execution goes berserk: “Blasphemy! He’s done it again!” Not surprisingly,
Matthias gets away, while the authorities get whacked.
Conformist group mentality among secular “special interest groups”
also comes in for the scathing Python treatment in Life of Brian. The anti-
Roman activist organization, the People’s Front of Judaea, exhibits a pretentious
and sanctimonious display of corporate equality, but the utterly
self-interested ambitions and desires of individual members form an
MONTY PYTHON’S LIFE OF BRIAN (1979) 189