Post by klep on Jul 25, 2016 6:54:42 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/24: The Life of Brian
Movies about Jesus are usually controversial. Being the central figure of one of the world's major faiths, it's impossible to please everyone with a given depiction, and those who are displeased generally become extremely vocal. The Life of Brian engendered a similar reaction - sparking protests and demands that it not be shown nationwide - but the weird thing was that it isn't a film about Jesus. It's more Jesus-adjacent. Christ himself appears only twice and briefly in the film, first as an infant in the open and then seen speaking from a distance as the characters we're paying attention to bicker and mishear him.
The Life of Brian isn't about Christianity or Judaism or any specific religion at all - except insofar as the tensions between Jews and Romans at the time are used for narrative purposes. It's instead more generally about the ways humans allow themselves to be swept up in causes or ideas without thinking things through. The fundamental absurdities of human behavior were a favorite target of the Pythons, and that made this particular milieu a fertile ground for their brand of humour. We see squabbling revolutionary groups too obsessed with each other to get anything done, a bureaucratic Roman more concerned with proper grammar than vandalism, an ex-leper talking about how rough it is to be a beggar once some unthinking savior cures your malady, and more as the Pythons lampoon the ways that people adopt certain identities and allow those labels to define them even to their detriment.
As Brian fumbles his way around, he keeps running into groups of people who are either mindlessly looking for dogma or so wrapped up in their group identity that they forget why they joined the group in the first place. Even the street merchants are so set on haggling that they refuse to accept that someone would just give them the sticker price. As he becomes an accidental messiah, the unwilling Brian desperately attempts to dissuade his worshipers by encouraging them to think for themselves, but they're too far gone. And in their cleverness the Pythons have indicted us in this farce as well because you're all thinking the same thing right now. "We are all individuals."
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 8/1: Lady Snowblood
Our next Movie of the Week will be this tale of revenge from Toshiya Fujita. Jacob Roth will be stepping in for me as I recover from my move; I look forward to his contribution! Lady Snowblood is available on Hulu Plus and for rent from Amazon Instant Video.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 7/26: Ghostbusters (1984)
Wednesday we'll have a thread to talk about the first Ghostbusters along with the podcast. Ghostbusters is available for rent from Amazon Instant Video.
Movies about Jesus are usually controversial. Being the central figure of one of the world's major faiths, it's impossible to please everyone with a given depiction, and those who are displeased generally become extremely vocal. The Life of Brian engendered a similar reaction - sparking protests and demands that it not be shown nationwide - but the weird thing was that it isn't a film about Jesus. It's more Jesus-adjacent. Christ himself appears only twice and briefly in the film, first as an infant in the open and then seen speaking from a distance as the characters we're paying attention to bicker and mishear him.
The Life of Brian isn't about Christianity or Judaism or any specific religion at all - except insofar as the tensions between Jews and Romans at the time are used for narrative purposes. It's instead more generally about the ways humans allow themselves to be swept up in causes or ideas without thinking things through. The fundamental absurdities of human behavior were a favorite target of the Pythons, and that made this particular milieu a fertile ground for their brand of humour. We see squabbling revolutionary groups too obsessed with each other to get anything done, a bureaucratic Roman more concerned with proper grammar than vandalism, an ex-leper talking about how rough it is to be a beggar once some unthinking savior cures your malady, and more as the Pythons lampoon the ways that people adopt certain identities and allow those labels to define them even to their detriment.
As Brian fumbles his way around, he keeps running into groups of people who are either mindlessly looking for dogma or so wrapped up in their group identity that they forget why they joined the group in the first place. Even the street merchants are so set on haggling that they refuse to accept that someone would just give them the sticker price. As he becomes an accidental messiah, the unwilling Brian desperately attempts to dissuade his worshipers by encouraging them to think for themselves, but they're too far gone. And in their cleverness the Pythons have indicted us in this farce as well because you're all thinking the same thing right now. "We are all individuals."
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 8/1: Lady Snowblood
Our next Movie of the Week will be this tale of revenge from Toshiya Fujita. Jacob Roth will be stepping in for me as I recover from my move; I look forward to his contribution! Lady Snowblood is available on Hulu Plus and for rent from Amazon Instant Video.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 7/26: Ghostbusters (1984)
Wednesday we'll have a thread to talk about the first Ghostbusters along with the podcast. Ghostbusters is available for rent from Amazon Instant Video.