Word: pythonism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Python's Venom The last paragraph of Richard Schickel's review of Monty Python's Life of Brian [Sept. 17] refers to "adults who have not had their basic premises offended, and therefore have not examined them, in too long." I don't know any adults -myself included-who don't have their basic premises offended nearly every day, and aren't constantly being called to reexamine, defend or reject them. Where in the world are these sheltered adults about whom Schickel speaks? Monty Python is so funny I will probably see the movie...
...attacking the Christian religion, committed-at least officially-to nonviolence and forgiving insults, the Monty Pythons know full well they are shooting at a sitting duck, capable of only a few gentle protests. If they profess to be daring, I challenge them to bring out a Life of Mohammed. If they do. some zealous Muslims will no doubt use the film credits as a hit list, and the Monty Python problem will be swiftly and satisfactorily resolved...
...because they blithely ignored traditional dicta of screenwriting and approached the movie as a two-hour set of manageable episodes. Life Of Brian does a more creditable job as a "full length feature presentation," as the studios call it, but its sanity actually works against it. The risks Monty Python used to take with its narrative line--bouncing characters from film to animation, for example--would fail as often as they succeeded, but they were a trademark, often responsible for the funniest moments...
...Monty Python crew had been less inhibited, Life of Brian would have been a much funnier movie. A few incendiary jokes remain to keep the screen aflame, and to keep fans happy. But the troupe's newfound concern for order leads them to repeat a few jokes as running gags that would have been better left to explode only once...
LIFE OF BRIAN does not do the job on the gospels that Holy Grail did on the Arthurian legends. The scope is more timid, the technique less audacious. We had a right to expect better, funnier, or at least wilder. The more slavishly Monty Python tries to follow conventions--the more they tailor their films to play in Peoria--the less anyone will laugh at them. The film remains only a funny shadow of what might have been--like Jesus Christ beating a dead parrot...