Wait a moment! You’re thinking. That’s not a Christmas movie! Is it? Quite correct. It is not. But then, technically neither is “Home Alone”. It is merely a movie that happens to take place at Christmas, and the same can be said of many other films. While Monty Python’s notoriously controversial tale of the misadventures of Brian of Nazareth, a simple Jew who almost surpasses John Lennon at being bigger than Jesus Christ, might be considered more of an Easter flick with its climax involving crucifixion on a hill, I feel it still counts as a Christmas film, partly due to its opening scene being a parody of the Nativity, but also due to its take on the role that organised religion plays in so many people’s lives. While many of us see Christmas as simply a nice day in December when we get to take a day off work, see the family, exchange some gifts and stuff our faces until we couldn’t move if the house caught fire, Christmas is first and foremost a religious holiday. This was Python’s target: religion and the way it controls our lives. But let us steer clear of the controversial stuff. The Pythons were good at that, I am not.
Let’s face it…how many of us actually go to church at all for Christmas anymore? Being the devout atheist that I am, I never have, but I have plenty of friends who are religious who (at least as far as I can tell, and they are willing to admit) do not. How religious is Christmas any more anyway? Go for a walk around your neighbourhood this evening (go on, humour me, take a walk), have a look at all the Christmas lights and displays up, and count how many nativity displays you see. I doubt you’ll see many, if any at all. It’s all candy canes, snowmen, reindeer, and one rotund old man attempting to wriggle down chimneys in an act which flies in the face of laws governing break-and-enter attempts, but apparently we can make an exception here. That’s what the kids all love about it, right? We might as well face it, Christmas is not the religious holiday it used to be. Nor, come to that, is Easter. And why? We just don’t tend to think that way anymore. Even with the Apocalypse faithfully promised by the Mayans all but upon us, is anyone seriously worried? Do you see anyone repenting? Suddenly finding God? Neither do I. All of which brings us back to “Life Of Brian”. (Well, actually it doesn’t, but I had to get back to it somehow.) “Life Of Brian” is the Christmas movie for cynics like myself. People who like to cut through all the religious twaddle, and sanctimonious preaching about loving and sharing you see on children’s cartoons. If you want a nice blasphemous laugh at the expense of what Christmas is traditionally all about come Christmas night, or just a plain old fashioned laugh, then “Life Of Brian” remains an ideal choice of viewing over the silly season.