"Life of Brian" 1979 Dir. Terry Jones.
In class we viewed "Life of Brian" as a piece of shocking cinema. With it's religion based themes it does pretty much mock the idea of religion and bringing Jesus into it (for christians) is pushing it. But the film is pretty light hearted in it's humour and does not necessarily directly laugh god in the face at any point.
What ways can "Life of Brian" be viewed as a shocking text?
The way in which it shows how people can be swayed into believing in false idols so easily is quite shocking, like how from Brian's rambling so the gaurds don't catch him he gets a following. It also makes storys of the bible and turns them into a bit of a joke, like when the three wise men go to the wrong baby and become objects of humour.
Does it shock you?
Personally not at all, the only way it would be shocking for me is just a points involving Jesus but that is only shocking in the sense of "Oh no he di'nt" or "he did not just say that" thinking about the context in which religious people are gonna view it.
For deeply religious people i'm sure they were quite shocked at the portrayl of Messiah and the story of the big JC.
