Cast

Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Kenneth Colley, Charles McKeown, George Harrison

Film description

The second of Monty Python’s feature-length films is the Life of Brian, the story of a man born two thousand years ago in Bethlehem at a camp right beside a certain famous stable. While trying to lead a normal life in these unusual times, he must cope with an authoritarian mother, narrow-minded Roman soldiers, members of the Judean People’s Front, and a fanatic crowd of followers, who insist he is the messiah.

Bearing in mind the difficulties in putting cooperative visions to film during the making of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Terry Gilliam chose not to work with Terry Jones again, directing only occasionally when the latter took part in shots. Still, Gilliam is billed as the production designer (not all his sets were used in the film), he created the brilliant animated credits, and pure nonsensical science fiction sequence. Because of indirect religious allusions, the film raised furious hackles, distribution bans in some localities and thus even greater ticket sales in others. Widely recognized as the Monty Python troupe’s peak achievement, it is firmly entrenched in the top rankings of the funniest films of all times.