lew@ihlpa.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) (03/18/85)
To me the movie was more of an alternate view than it was an antithesis.
True it lampooned religiosity. (After I posted my comment that I didn't
think it was sacrilegeous "at all" I thought, "well, a bit!") But please
note that it was the Romans and the Peoples Front of Judea that bore the
brunt of the fun making. Anyway, this alternate view is in agreement with
the teachings of Jesus to a large extent. When Brian was forced to speak
as a prophet his "teaching" was that of Jesus. These teachings were
decidedly NOT being lampooned. In fact, I thought the tone of desparate
pleading that Brian gave them was quite poignant.
Rich Rosen cites the history of the film's making as evidence that Jesus
was being satirized directly. Well, they didn't make THAT film even if they
originally planned to. I hold that a work stands on its own.
With regard to the philosophy espoused in the closing song, I took this
as the genuine "authors' statement". No one has mentioned that the crew
of the Shefield (sp?) (sunk by the Exocet missle in the Falklands war)
sang this song on the deck as it sank. I heard this on the David Letterman
show when Terry Gilliam was a guest.
In the Intro to THE ANNOTATED ALICE, Martin Gardner talks about the
god of humor ("Tim Pan Li" or something like that) and quotes a poem to the
effect that this god is a source of some consolation, but that he abandons
us in our darkest moments. I don't think this is necessarily so.
Goethe wrote a poem in which a bird was about to be devoured by a wolf
or something, and laughs at the last moment. The poem ends with the
line: "Die Vogel hat Humor"
Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihlpa!lew