Upon Reflection

Rating: 4/10 (8 March 2007)

This was my favorite Monty Python film some years ago. Graham Chapman is the best serious actor in the group and I really liked the sudeo history of ancient Palestine. Like I said, at the time, I found this to be pretty funny and thought that it really wasn't offensive to Christianity.
But since I've taken my religion seriously in the past several years I have begun to see that it is offensive and mocking of Christianity.
"But it's Brian!!!" I know it's Brian. I do, however the Python boys themselves have stated publicly that their intentions were to parody Jesus and Christianity. They cleverly use the device that we are following Brian and not Jesus and obviously show Jesus seriously delivering a sermon in a quick shot and yet the whole picture is taking shots at Christians and making light of the miracles of Christ.
Sure if you don't believe or have a limited faith you might eat these "harmless" parodies up. After all the Jews are spoofed with their stonings and their revolutionaries and the Romans are poked fun at, so what's so bad about showing Brian? Well, Brian may not be the Messiah, but his followers think he is and the whole moral of the story seems to be that these people are just blindly following. Following Brian as they followed or currently follow Jesus.
We see them attributing miracles to Brian as a man falls into a pit, still blind! They are making fun of Christians, they are making fun of me. They are making light of the miracles of Jesus by using Brian as His representation. "But they showed the real Jesus... This is Brian..." Right! Sure! The catchy tune and the singing on the cross may be funny to some, me at onetime included, but if you truly believe in the sacrifice of Jesus; this torture is not funny. This movie ceases to become funny when one is looking at it from a point of view of faith.
The Monty Python gang was a talented group of people who liked to go overboard with the naughty bits. But this time they did go too far. Idle admits that the film is heretical and though they cloak their real motives with the invention of Brian the core message is one of disrespect for Christianity and "Jesus freaks" like myself.