Monty Python's The Life Of Brian Analysis

CWOF Final: Short Answer

Satire:

Satire is the use of humor and humorous situations to cast light on social issues. Satire is brought forth through many different forms of media such as plays, news articles, comics, TV shows and movies. Some examples of satire in our everyday life include The Onion and SNL Skits. In our Classical World on Film class we watched the satire Monty Python’s the Life of Brian.

Fantasy Film Genre:

The genre of fantasy covers a massive swath of material. Aliens, climate change, the future, myths, other worlds, and more. Many of these contain the same elements of a hero like main character going on an unbelievable adventure. Fantasy movies and shows usually contain supernatural elements such as magic or nonexistent

Directed by Terry Jones and with a cast consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin it turned out both hilarious and thought-provoking. The scene in question where The People’s Front of Judea (PFJ) are talking about their aims plays an important role in the narrative, even if it is a short scene. The scene helps set up how ridiculous the policy making within the different resistance groups are. Deeper though, it brings up a few moral dilemmas though satire. First is the tendency for political groups to be “all talk and no gain.” They will deliberate for days on end, but should it come to action, nothing will get done. Slightly subtler the scene touches upon woman’s rights and how touchy of a subject it is for some people. When Stan(Loretta) says that he (she) wishes to be a woman, one person just scoffs at him, while the others rally around her. The Mise-en-scène was well done for this scene as well, you can see that the PFJ is sitting in some sort of stands that are reminiscent of the Coliseum, which earlier and later scenes confirm. They are all wearing sandals and light weight black robes that seem fitting for the time. As for the camera work, Jones chooses to swap between the faces of the PFJ and a group shot helping us identify who is speaking. As for sound, the choice of only the actor’s voices and no music allows the viewers to focus on the conversation fully. When released this film caused a bit of a stir. Many thoughts that Monty Python was taking aim at the Christian religion. The writers assured the public that this was not the case and the movie thankfully moved forwards. It took aim at some of the major issues of the time such as religion as a while, education, woman’s right, and more. The movie was such a success due to the way