The Life of Brian's popularity as one of the best known and loved comedy films is often overshadowed by the controversy it sparked even before it went into production. EMI famously pulled out of the project after been pressurised by Mary Whitehouse's moral majority organisation and the threat of been charged with breaching the blasphemy laws. The production was saved by George Harrison setting up Handmade Films to finance the venture and bring it to the screen.
The soundtrack album was for many the only way to hear, if not see, the film until the advent of video rental shops with its limited run and it's being banned from television for a decade.
It is of course a record moving on from Monty Python's previous records to make a more coherent structure but with still the same sketch routine slightly retained to give the Cleese, Palin, Jones, Gilliam and Idle ensemble a cast of timeless characters to interact with Chapman's faultless portrayal of Brian a man living at the same time as Jesus and his being taken for the messiah, `He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy'. The links added to the Python soundtracks are limited here to give us as much of the film as would fit on a single LP.
Classic pieces of Python fill this soundtrack from the death to all Romans, except those concerned with drainage, roads, housing and those who have contributed to all Jews of both sexes and hermaphrodites, to the crowd demanding the welease of woger and of course the song `Always look on the Bright Side of Life'. Fantastic from start to finish, well worth the risk of being damned for all eternity.