When the Pythons first thought of making a comedy about Jesus, they decided to actually read the gospels first. They discovered that his teachings were so good, he couldn’t be mocked. So they made a movie about Brian instead, an accidental messiah whose frustrations with ungrateful lepers and slow-on-the-uptake followers echo Jesus’ own. Many Bible movies flatter their audiences (“Of course we’d have been awestruck in Jesus’ presence!”), but Brian reminds us that the gospel is often obscured by the people who hear it and don’t quite get it. By getting us to laugh at these foibles, it brings to life a side of the gospels that other Jesus movies obscure.
—Peter T. Chattaway
Arts & Faith Lists:
2014 Top 25 Divine Comedies — #8