I believe that Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is the
most perfect film. Everything about The Godfather is to my mind exquisite. It is
both personal and epic in scope. It has nothing but brilliant acting
performances throughout, especially that of Al Pacino.
I had a suspicion that The Godfather was special after the
first scene in the Don’s home office. That suspicion was confirmed during
Michael Corleone’s sit down with Sollozzo and McCluskey. This film left me with
a thrill going up my leg (word to Chris Matthews). I get that feeling every
single time I watch this film - it never ever goes away.
I first saw The Godfather when I was 15 years old and for
over a decade I haven’t seen anything like it or anything that has come close
to giving me that thrill, that awe-inspiring feeling that I will unlikely
forget.
That was until I watched The Life of Brian.
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The Life of Brian is a truly outstanding film and it is a
film that I have been unable to stop thinking about for two months. I compare
it to The Godfather for one simple reason, it is a pure joy to watch and that
feeling that you are watching something pure hasn’t dissolved
in my six views of the movie.
Brian ultimately has a harder job than Coppola’s classic to
succeed simply because it is a comedy. As I have said before on this blog,comedy is a hard genre to get right because everyone’s taste in comedy is a uniquely personal thing.
But Brian is a brilliantly funny, thoughtful and surprisingly
epic film. There is also stuff in this film that is just jaw droppingly
genius but difficult to fathom.
...
There is a section in this movie where Graham Chapman’s Brian is being chased
by Centurions after he has escaped from Palin’s Pilot. Brian is chased to the
top of the exceedingly tall building where he has no choice but to jump to his
death. Out of nowhere an alien spaceship cushions his fall, while it is itself being
chased.
There is something mad about this bit and although I didn’t laugh
during the first few showing I noticed that I had a silly grin on my face (I was told in fact). I consider
myself to be a creative person but not in a million years would I think of that
scene and even if I did I wouldn’t have the balls to include it in the film.
I feel that this scene perfectly encapsulates the wonder of
The Life of Brian. Barmy but brilliant.
...
That’s not to say that the alien scene is the crème-de-la-crème
of this film, it is not. It’s not even close in fact.
Life of Brian is jam packed with belly achingly funny moments
and is as quotable as anything movie I have ever seen – including The Godfather.
From the ‘big nose’ scene, to the public stoning – from the confusion about the
name of the rebel movement (People’s front of Judea?), Bigus Dickus and the
crucifixion walk - this film brings the funny. It is actually scary to
think about how many near classic comedy moments there are in this one film.
It is interesting because all of the scenes feel like
improvised sketches yet the film works very well as a coherent story. Each
scene shows the Python at their best, taking a situation to its extreme
silliness without compromising the film (yes, I'm talking about the same film with aliens).
I was also surprised about how quickly I got used to the
Pythons playing multiple characters. Unlike other films I have seen this done,
it doesn’t pull you out of the movie – you rarely notice it. It’s actually
important to state how very well acted this film is. Every single character
from almost every Python is well played (I just didn’t love Jone’s Mother
character). Graham does a fantastic job anchoring the whole film as Brian, the voice of reason.
Idle is underused in my opinion but is wonderful whenever he appears. Cleese would have stolen the show with his numerous character, best of all the Centurion,
if it wasn’t for Palin’s masterful display. And I mean every single one of
Palin’s characters in this film are masterful - including the ex-Leper. Palin
is a genius.
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I really don’t want to talk about religion because I think
that subject matter is a distraction that takes away a lot of the good about
this film – so let me get back to the comparisons with The Godfather.
Like 1972 classic, I fell head over heels in love with The Life
of Brian from just one sitting. Unlike Inception, The Life of Brian seems to
get better after each watch. I am extremely proud that this is a British film.
It has shown me that you really don’t need an extraordinary amount of money to
make something epic and grand and thoughtful and everlasting – you just need
ambition and imagination. And let’s not kid ourselves, you need a god given
talent because these six men were/are special.
Life of Brian is now my second favourite film of all time. I
still don’t think it is as good as The Godfather but it certainly deserves to
be mentioned in the same breathe and in my life that is a mind blowing achievement.
Oh, and then there is the ending
