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A Linear Plot
The Story
The tale opens with the birth of the protagonist, Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman). Born the same night as Jesus, Brian’s life will become an unfortunate parallel of Christ. The Three Wise Men show up to deliver gifts to the newborn Messiah, however, bring them to Brian’s mother, Mandy (Terry Jones), on accident. She is far from the Virgin Mary, but that doesn’t stop her from taking the gifts anyways. The Wise Men realize that they made a mistake and come back inside, retake the gifts, slap Mandy, and bring them to the proclaimed savior. Brian grows up to be a typical nobody. That is until he joins the People’s Front of Judea (not to be confused with the Judean People’s Front). After completing tasks to gain the trust of the leader, Reg (John Cleese), he becomes part of the operation to take the Roman official Pontes Pilate’s (Michael Palin) wife. It fails, and while escaping a large following of people claim Brian as their messiah to his dismay. He is captured once again and is crucified.
Organized Chaos
A structured story is rather unusual for a Python film. Typically, the films are arranged like a long episode of the Flying Circus; just a compilation of disconnected skits. The Holy Grail has some links between the different routines, but not in the same lineage as Life of Brian. There were no real established characters throughout the show or films. The presence of a straightforward plot creates an environment where characters can be developed, antagonists can be created, and a setting can be established. Without this, most of the gags made would not land as effectively. There is no Brian if he does not get his character arc. Brian’s journey is used to parody Roman epics and hypocritical religious followings.