The Life of Brian’s initial scene of Jesus and Brian sets up the rest of the film because it shows the three wise men following the star which they thought was pointing to Brian. Once they realize that he is actually not the messiah they quickly come back for the gifts and go to visit the real messiah next door. The story of Jesus is explored through the character of Brian by showing him always being followed by groups of people. Although he continues to explain to the people that he is not the messiah they still seem to want to follow him because they are so worried about having a leader to follow. They believe Brian may be the messiah because his views and teachings are so different from the first century Jewish culture. Throughout this movie Brian teaches about unity and how everyone needs to come together as one group. He also goes about teaching about how they are all individuals.

The film offers satirical portrait of first-century Palestine by making fun of Jewish and Roman cultures throughout the entire movie. The PFJ wants to overthrow the Romans along with many other independent groups. Instead of all of these groups working together to work towards their main goal they never seem to get anywhere because they are too busy fighting amongst themselves. This was represented well when the PFJ runs into another group while trying to take Pilate’s wife and they get so caught up about who was there first that they never even get close to taking her. Another thing the film represented well was when at the end Brian thinks that the PFJ is coming to rescue him, but instead they come to think him for what he’s doing and for being a martyr.

The satire of this film invites the audience to rethink Jesus as a human being and a divine icon of the Christian faith because what if the messiah that we know today was mistaken like Brian was. This film allowed me to see how people in first-century Palestine reacted to messiahs and it showed me how badly they looked for one to follow. 




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