The Film
The stinging satirical comedy Monty Python's Life of Brian takes jabs at religious fundamentalism, imperialism, and everyone caught in between; from Jews and their Roman overlords to Christians of all denominations. The story follows the life of one Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman), a young man whose life parallels Jesus from the time he is an infant, born in the stable next to the Messiah. Thirty years later, Brian attends The Sermon on the Mount, but can't quite make out the words for all the bickering going on amongst the people in the crowd around him ("Blessed are the cheese makers?", "The Greeks shall in inherit the Earth?").
Eventually, Brian joins a group of underground rebels whom he first spots at the sermon, the Judean People's Front, in order to fight against the oppressive Romans, but the "JPF" is more caught up in their own bureaucracy, and their feud with the People's Front of Judea, to cause any real change. Still, through an odd string of events, Brian ends up being mistaken for the Son of God by an ever-growing group of followers, who take as their icons his cast-off sandal and discarded gourd. Of course, the Romans cannot allow this, so Brian is arrested and crucified; the film then bows out to the classic and highly controversial musical, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."
Life of Brian is filled with wry, sardonic humor and poignant, yet never preachy, commentary on religious fundamentalism. Much of the vitriol levied against the film seems to contend that The Pythons are criticizing Jesus. That claim is utter nonsense. Yes, the film pokes fun at the different approaches to religion and religious fundamentalism, but the teachings of Jesus are never ridiculed. In fact, they are treated with much reverence. What is joshed, however, are the misguided followers of Jesus who took his teachings, twisted them into something wholly unrecognizable and used them as excuses for all manner of war, persecution, and bigotry. Blessed are the cheese makers indeed.
For any fan of Monty Python, Life of Brian will offer a rewarding comedic experience. It is the kind of film that one must watch more than once to fully appreciate. The level of humor and intelligence is exactly what one would expect from a group of men educated at Cambridge and Oxford. The intricacies of the comedy are so that not all of the jokes immediately reveal themselves, so part of the fun, as is typical with Monty Python, is re-watching it and seeing what other amusing bits may be revealed to astute viewers. I highly recommend this release; don’t be afraid of a little controversy, and remember to always look on the bright side of life.
The Picture
Presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in a 1080p/24 high definition AVC encoding, there is just a slight bit of softness that pervades this release. With that aside, for a relatively older film, the source is clean, the flesh tones are natural, film grain is captured nicely and black levels, though not inky, are quite well done. There are no visible compression artifacts to be found on this release.
The transfer excels in the many brightly lit, outdoor scenes, where the color palette looks the best and both foreground and background resolution are at their optimum levels. I don't think this disc will ever become reference material, but surely it is the best version of this Python classic available on any medium.
The Sound
This release offers English and French Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless, English uncompressed PCM 5.1, and Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks. I listened mainly to the English DolbyTrueHD soundtrack, but switched to the PCM soundtrack every so often for purposes of comparison. There was no discernible difference in quality between the TrueHD lossless and the uncompressed PCM tracks.
The overall sound quality left much to be desired. There was not much discrete information in the rear channels and not much ambience, which made the sound far too dry. The film, being mostly dialogue driven, did not make much use of the lower frequencies either and also had a tendency to distort in louder passages. This soundtrack may be one of the rare instances where a 5.1 mix is truly overkill.
The Extras
There are a fairly decent amount of extras available on this release and, quite surprisingly, the hour-long documentary, "The Story of Brian," is actually worth watching. The Life of Brian documentary or "revelation," as it is referred to on the package, paints a picture of the film’s evolution; from its conception in the minds of the Pythons to its controversial release in theatres around the world, and all the struggles in between.
Also available on the disc are two separate audio commentaries: one by Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Terry Jones, the other by John Cleese and Michael Palin. Unfortunately, though I began listening to the audio commentaries with great anticipation at the prospect, they were both surprisingly dull and disappointing; a total letdown for what one would expect from the Monty Python cast. They were the typical boringly detailed and staid commentaries, going over all the minutiae of the creation and filming of the movie - hardly worth a listen for any but the most ardent of fans.
There is also a studio recording from 1977 by The Pythons of an early script read through illustrated with Terry Jones' original storyboard sketches that is quite hilarious in places and gives very intimate and detailed insight into the evolution of the script and the working process of the crew. It is definitely worth a listen Python fans, particularly for the vocal sound effects and chuckling that allows one to tell how much they were all enjoying the process.
In addition to the aforementioned, there are five deleted scenes (4:3/standard definition), original radio spots featuring, of all people, John Cleese's mother, Eric Idle's mother, Terry Gilliam's mother, and Michael Palin's dentist. A photo gallery and two high definition, widescreen trailers (Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition on Blu-ray and "Coming to Blu-ray") round out the offerings on this release.
Final Thoughts
With its sardonic and relentless criticism of religious fundamentalism, imperialism - and even politics to a degree - Monty Python's Life of Brian is still sure to raise the ire of many and will not be for everyone, but it is a classic nonetheless; a nonstop laugh riot, in fact. The Pythons were truly at their best here. The picture and sound on this Blu-ray Disc release are not reference quality material, but they are still superior to any other format on which this film has been released. I cannot recommend this release more strongly for fans of Monty Python or of intelligent comedy. It is a must have for any collection.
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Product Details
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