Review Larsen...explicates allusions to the 1979 film Monty Python's Life of Brian with the same exhaustive, erudite attention and unstuffy style as in his similar A Book About the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Proceeding sequentially through the film's 31 scenes, and bolstered by copious endnotes and a lengthy bibliography, the author's detailed analysis unearths abundant connections to literature, art, history, religion, economics, sociology, sports, politics, and entertainment and pop culture. Wry comments keep the scholarly text from becoming dry. In the introduction he discusses the comedy troupe's influences and draws parallels between late-1970s Britain and the Pythons' version of the holy land some 2,000 years before: religious and political zealotry, terrorism, protest, and cultural change. The introduction also notes the film's relative lack of historicity (compared to The Holy Grail), emphasizing its reflection of contemporary events and culture. VERDICT The organization (by scene rather than by theme) can make it challenging to mine the gems here, but film students, social and cultural historians, and, naturally, fans, will find riches to pore over.-- Patricia D. Lothrop, Library Journal Read more About the Author Darl Larsen is professor in the media arts department and the Center for Animation at Brigham Young University, where he teaches film, animation, screenwriting, and popular culture studies. He is the author of Monty Python, Shakespeare, and English Renaissance Drama (2003), Monty Python’s Flying Circus: An Utterly Complete, Thoroughly Unillustrated, Absolutely Unauthorized Guide to Possibly All the References (Taylor, 2013), and A Book about Monty Python and the Holy Grail: All the References from African Swallows to Zoot (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Read more
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