万世魔星

"He's making it up as he goes along!" That might be the funniest and most trenchant line in "Monty Python's Life of Brian," the 1979 comic classic that is being rereleased this summer as a sort of satiric antidote to the sanctimony that has taken over screen religion in recent months. The scene takes place in A.D. 33, when a Judean citizen named Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman) finds himself taken for the Messiah. The more he demurs -- he actually pretended to be a prophet while trying to escape from the Roman guards who were chasing him -- the more his protestations sound to his followers like divine pronouncements. As one disciple says, the surest sign that someone is a Messiah is that he denies being the Messiah. Such are the tautologies, inconsistencies and self-fulfilling prophecies of organized religion that the Pythons poke fun at in "Life of Brian," which in the years since its original release in 1979 has retained nearly every bit of its cheeky good humor. From the opening sequence, in which Brian is born in a manger next door to Joseph and Mary's, to the classic closing musical number of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," sung by a chorus of crucified criminals, "Life of Brian" leaves no piety unscathed. And it's the apotheosis of Pythonesque humor, an absurdist grab bag of the non sequiturs, puns and bawdy Britishisms that endeared the comedy troupe to the generation of Americans who came of age during the run of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" on TV in the 1970s. If a few of the jokes are dated -- who can laugh wholeheartedly at any line involving terrorists these days? -- the movie still holds up beautifully, as both pointed satire and silly, stakes-free comedy. The memorable set pieces still work, from the crowd scene at Jesus's Sermon on the Mount ("Did he say, 'Blessed are thecheesemakers?' ") to the hilariously interminable sequence during which Michael Palin's Pontius Pilate invokes over and over again a friend back in Rome whose Latin name is a sophomorically funny double-entendre. (You won't watch "Gladiator" again anytime soon without cracking up at Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix's somber Latinate intonations.) The Pythons may have been brilliant, but they weren't above the broadest humor available, including giving speech impediments to Pilate and his friend; viewers are advised to go ahead and laugh -- there will be plenty of time to hate themselves in the morning. It's easy to forget that, as much fun as the Pythons have at religion's expense, "Life of Brian" was just as much a sendup of lefty sectarian politics. For the first half of the movie, the title character is a member of an anti-imperialist political cell that is determined to rout the Romans out of Judea. With their spot-on depictions of the movement's endless meetings, earnest self-seriousness and rhetorical excess, it's clear that the Pythons were impaling political correctness long before the term made its way into the public vernacular. John Cleese, who like his fellow cast members takes on multiple roles in "Life of Brian," is particularly effective as Reg, the hypocritical tyrant who leads the People's Front of Judea, a splinter group of the Judean People's Front. Whether he's playing an ancient version of a Weatherman or a Roman guard who forces Brian to correct his Latin while painting "Romans Go Home!" on a garrison wall, Cleese nearly steals the show in "Life of Brian," as does Terry Jones as Mandy, Brian's mother ("Now you listen here," Jones screams in his familiar falsetto when her son's followers show up at her home, "he'snotthe Messiah, he's avery naughty boy."). Chapman is suitably bland as the naif who becomes the repository of his disciples' most profound projections and anxieties. And it's in these sequences that "Life of Brian" isn't just ridiculous but sublime. Given "Brian's" combination of secular humanist whimsy and surprising theological wisdom, it's hard to believe that it was such a controversial film when it first came out. (It was banned in Norway, Ireland and parts of England for blasphemy; in America, Jewish, Catholic and Protestant leaders all denounced it.) Of course, given the current heightened tenor of religious rhetoric and paranoia, it may well wind up pushing brand-new buttons today. To quote Michael Palin quoting Jesus, "There's just no pleasing some people."

结局听到游戏中熟悉的always look on the bright side oflife，才知道原来出自这部电影！必须大赞。开头三位从东方来的智者受星相指引来到耶路撒冷，指示弥赛亚的降世，向其表示敬意，却走错了地方，来到brain家中。长大的brain加入people's front of judean，行动中被罗马大兵抓。反对罗马人要把罗马人赶出去的brains此时声称自己是罗马人（他的母亲玛丽亚说自己被罗马人强奸），机缘巧合的brain逃出了监狱，为躲避大兵假装在街上传经，结果却被信众狂热追捧。他急切的想要大家不要追随他了，“不要祈祷别人告诉你怎么做。你们每个人都是不同的个人”，信众们得到指引依然狂热近乎无脑。最后brain被绑上了十字架，所谓的信仰者赞许他的牺牲肯定他的伟大，并支持他的死去。

brain大概是耶稣的形象，所以大概能理解为什么影片开始就被喷了。

很喜欢那一段，想做女性、想要拥有一个小孩的男士，所以男性的生育权的确是我之前没有想过的事情。很棒了，//m.douban.com/note/710874944/?type=rec

还有一段也很搞笑，brains把葫芦给了一个人，在被信徒追赶的路上掉了一只鞋，结果人们也会因为靠那个东西作为指引而吵架而分道扬镳

但是罗马大兵和brain那段关于时态主谓宾的对话点在哪里？没有看懂，愚蠢与腐朽吗？

宗教的狂热，在位者的昏庸以及联盟的分裂多方位的讽刺

信仰的本质无外乎是逃避自己做决定的责任。

‘Life of Brian’的智慧更在于消解和揭示，而非建构和规劝。

原来每一个人一开始都是耶稣基督，我们说的话，就像小混混Brian，他为了驱赶信众所说的“永远不要追随别人，不要相信别人告诉你们的，你们是特别的一个人你们自己”，只要我们相信，我们的话就是神喻，我喜欢有人说的那句，“生命本没有/也不需要超越于其自身意义的意义”，任何附加的意义都是荒谬的，就像我们对耶稣的解释那么荒谬。