From: petertrei@gmail.com   
      
   On 10/13/2024 11:03 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:   
   > THE MT VOID   
   > 10/11/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 15, Whole Number 2349   
      
   >   
   > MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN (1979):   
   >   
   > Professor Aldrete goes through the movie, noting how the film   
   > parodies every cliche of previous Roman epics: the birth of Jesus,   
   > the outdoor oration, the gladiators in the arena, the exotic Roman   
   > food, ...  But here the birth is undercut by showing a reverential   
   > scene with the Three Wise Men, only to have them suddenly realize   
   > they are in the wrong manger.  The crowd at the Sermon of the   
   > Mount is not awed; they are baffled, because they cannot hear the   
   > speech,  And so on.  Even the film poster uses enormous stone   
   > block letters in the same style as that of BEN-HUR, but here the   
   > stones are cracking and crumbling.   
   >   
   > There is the classic scene where someone painting "Romans, go   
   > home!" on a wall is not arrested by a centurion, but instead   
   > instructed in tedious detail of all the grammatical errors he has   
   > made.   
   >   
   > As a summary of Roman accomplishments, one could do worse than the   
   > question one character asks: "All right, but apart from the   
   > sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order,   
   > irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what   
   > have the Romans ever done for us?"   
   >   
   > And one timeless trope is the rival religious/political groups:   
   > the Judean People's Front, the People's Front of Judea, and the   
   > Judean Popular People's Front.  (One is reminded of the old joke   
   > that if you ask two Jews, you get three opinions.)  Just last   
   > summer, David Horovitz wrote an article in the Times of Israel   
   > comparing the various groups then protesting actions by the   
   > government and how they end up fighting (either verbally or   
   > physically) with each other.   
   >   
   > [-ecl]   
      
   Two bits of background.   
      
   I attended an English boarding "public school" (ie, private and   
   expensive) in the 60s and 70s. Latin was mandatory.   
      
   John Cleese's torturing the correct grammar out of Brian matches   
   my Latin teacher's approach (barring  the sword to the throat),   
   and instantly recognizable as such.   
      
   Similarly, the litany of resistance groups was a   
   clearly a play on the alphabet soup of Palestinian resistance   
   groups opposing the Israeli government at the time the film   
   was made.   
      
   Here's just the P's:   
      
   Palestine Liberation Army   
   Palestine Liberation Organization   
   Palestinian Freedom Movement   
   Palestinian Joint Operations Room   
   Palestinian Liberation Front   
   Palestinian Liberation Front (Abu Nidal Ashqar wing)   
   Palestinian National and Islamic Forces   
   Palestinian Popular Struggle Front   
   Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (1991)   
   Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine   
   Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command   
   Popular Resistance Committees   
      
   Plenty more at   
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Palestinian_militant_groups   
      
   pt   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)