The Monty Python troupe struggled with desert heat, reluctant financial backers, and, eventually, the denunciation of various churches, evangelists, and politicians to produce what may be their most consistent and coherent film. Funded by George Harrison after the initial backers withdrew, Life of Brian is not, as its detractors assumed, a blasphemous satire of Jesus Christ and Christianity, but a smart and, of course, achingly funny take on religious belief in general, militant politics, empire, and, most interestingly, the muddled and uncertain origins of what eventually becomes “gospel truth”Â? –all wrapped up in a parody of bloated Biblical epics.

The story follows poor Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman), a Jewish anti-Roman activist mistaken for the Messiah through a series of coincidences (he was, for example, born in the manger next door to that more famous stable) and near-constant misunderstandings and exaggerations by his growing band of followers who blithely ignore his repeated efforts to clarify his identity. Instead, they craft a religion based on his every off-hand utterance. Brian tries to do as much good as possible, but his story does not end happily for him –nor perhaps for anyone easily offended by a musical crucifixion scene. Both intelligent and silly (familiar Python traits), Life of Brian is also warm-hearted and provocative. On its initial release in the UK, the film was banned by several town councils (some of which had no cinemas within their boundaries). The film was also banned for eight years in the Republic of Ireland and for a year in Norway (it was marketed in Sweden as ‘the movie that is so funny, it was banned in Norway!’). Life of Brian was reissued (marketed as a “Second Coming”) in 2004 to nip at the heels of Mel Gibson’s wildly successful depiction of the Christ story.