Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786305388456
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 6305388458
Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Starz / Anchor Bay
Release Date: January 27, 2004
Running Time: 93 minutes
Sales Rank: 20109
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Theatrical Release Date: August 17, 1979
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Editorial Review:
Description:
The Gospel according to Monty Python: In Judea, a boy is born in a manger a short distance from and about the same time, as Jesus Christ. Three wise men from the East are for a time deceived by this proximity into believing that he is the promised Messiah, but it soon becomes apparent that he is, in fact, only a hapless peasant named Brian. However, the 'Life of Brian' causes plenty of commotion for the Roman Empire and leaves him desperate to escape his burgeoning popularity.
Amazon.com essential video:
'Blessed are the cheesemakers,' a wise man once said. Or maybe not. But the point is Monty Python's Life of Brian is a religious satire that does not target specific religions or religious leaders (like, say, Jesus of Nazareth). Instead, it pokes fun at the mindless and fanatical among their followers--it's an attack on religious zealotry and hypocrisy--things that that fellow from Nazareth didn't particularly care for either. Nevertheless, at the time of its release in 1979, those who hadn't seen it considered it to be quite 'controversial.'
Life of Brian, you see, is about a chap named Brian (Graham Chapman) born December 25 in a hovel not far from a soon-to-be-famous Bethlehem manger. Brian is mistaken for the messiah and, therefore, manipulated, abused, and exploited by various religious and political factions. And it's really, really funny. Particularly memorable bits include the brassy Shirley Bassey/James Bond-like title song; the bitter rivalry between the anti-Roman resistance groups, the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea; Michael Palin's turn as a lisping, risible Pontius Pilate; Brian urging a throng of false-idol worshippers to think for themselves--to which they reply en masse 'Yes, we must think for ourselves!'; the fact that everything Brian does, including losing his sandal in an attempt to flee these wackos, is interpreted as 'a sign.' Life of Brian is not only one of Monty Python's funniest achievements, it's also the group's sharpest and smartest sustained satire. Blessed are the Pythons. --Jim Emerson
Amazon.com:
'Blessed are the cheesemakers,' a wise man once said. Or maybe not. But the point is Monty Python's Life of Brian is a religious satire that does not target specific religions or religious leaders (like, say, Jesus of Nazareth). Instead, it pokes fun at the mindless and fanatical among their followers--it's an attack on religious zealotry and hypocrisy--things that that fellow from Nazareth didn't particularly care for either. Nevertheless, at the time of its release in 1979, those who hadn't seen it considered it to be quite 'controversial.' Life of Brian, you see, is about a chap named Brian (Graham Chapman) born December 25 in a hovel not far from a soon-to-be-famous Bethlehem manger. Brian is mistaken for the messiah and therefore manipulated, abused, and exploited by various religious and political factions. And it's really, really funny. Particularly memorable bits include the brassy Shirley Bassey/James Bond-like title song; the bitter rivalry between the anti-Roman resistance groups, the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea; Michael Palin's turn as a lisping, risible Pontius Pilate; Brian urging a throng of false-idol worshippers to think for themselves--to which they reply en masse 'Yes, we must think for ourselves!'; the fact that everything Brian does, including losing his sandal in an attempt to flee these wackos, is interpreted as 'a sign.' Life of Brian is not only one of Monty Python's funniest achievements, it's also the group's sharpest and smartest sustained satire. Blessed are the Pythons. --Jim Emerso
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - IMHO, the funniest film ever
The Python's most complete work. Packed with one-liners, a good plot, real pathos at the end and a message, "You don't need me, you don't need anyone!" which has even more relevance now than when it was originally released.
Should be compulsory viewing
Rating: - CLASSIC!
OK, so it's no Holy Grail, but if you're a fan (or even a partial fan) of Monty Python, this is pure pleasure. If for nothing else but the final song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Not for the easily offended, as Monty Python take shots at every Christian tenet they can. Absolutely hilarious, in a totally blasphemous and disgusting way.
Rating: - A hidden, crude, poignant and remarkable work!
First at all: you may argue the racism in movies have reached the saturation point, and may be you decide to pass down this offer. But let me tell you that this criterion may shadow the possibility to watch one of the most potent and admirable performances in years of an enviable cast.
Consider the Dennis Hopper's performance. I think Dennis has made through his career, six outstanding portraits: Hoosiers,The American friend,Blue Velvet, Black widow, True Romance and this one. Second argument Ed Harris as the implacable investigator is superb too. Third: Barbara Hershey makes a penetrating and brilliant acting as the sensitive wife of Hopper.
Finally,the script by itself: we have a crude and terrible drama in the forties: Hopper plays a role of a convinced racist (and facist too, if you want)who considers the brutal murder means less tha nothing. His out of mind actions are so enrooted in the most stinking beliefs and prejuices.
The sequence of the crime is plenty of high caliber realism and dramatic intensity that makes us to remind Parker's Mississippi burning, but the best is yet to come when the fury, rage and sick obsession becomes gradually in a true state mind, deeply neurotic and obsesive. His familiar relationship is just sinking; his progresive process isolation is told with superb handle camera.
I recommend this work due its undeniable virtues. Tension, hard to follow story due the merciless argument but plenty of good sequences.
... Read More
Rating:  - a real downer
In case you missed the last 100 movies out of Hollywood on racism in the south---here's another one. Although it does remind us of the sickness history has taught us about,especially around the period the movie is set in(circa 1949),it is too shocking brutal and unforgiving to offer any hope,let along enjoyment.Dennis Hopper's performance is fantastic!He is sadistic and paranoid and eventually pathetic.Hersey and Harris are excellent as they almost always are.The problem lies with the pattness of the movie.It's the familiar plot taken a little(or a lot)further for the shock value.I don't think I like this director and the screenplay might have been done by one of those slasher/gore types.The two stars are for the performances and that's about it.
Rating: - Sad and troubling story of a sadistic Southern bigot
Produced in 1991, and based on the novel by Peter Dexter, this film which was produced for theaters but wound up on HBO, stars Dennis Hopper as a sadistic Southern bigot in the late 1940s. Not only does he cruelly abuse his wife in a most humiliating way, he goes to the home of a poor black family to collect a debt and viciously shoots a woman several times and murders her 12-year old daughter. His lawyer, played by Ed Harris, defends him at his trial but gradually becomes disgusted with his client and befriends and then romances Hopper's wife, played by Barbara Hershey. Only tragedy can result from this; it is just a matter of how and when.
All performances are excellent, especially that of Hopper, who again plays the perfect villain. He's deranged and sinister, far beyond even the tolerated racism of the time, and his cruelty knows no bounds. His performance sent chills down my spine, as I stayed glued to the small screen holding my breath as the story unfolded. Darnita Henry played the role of the young girl with a combination of terror and innocence that endeared her to my heart. I identified with her and mourned her death with a sense of revulsion at the casual way in which Dennis Hopper perceives it. Tina Lifford, the young girl's mother who survives the attack, gives a fine performance as she testifies in court with a quiet dignity. The audience knows the truth and then sees the horror of the twisted justice meted out at that time. This film is sad, without a shred of humor ... Read More
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