One of the more common themes Roman epics is the idea of being rewarded for suffering. In Ben-Hur Judah suffers as a slave for many years leading him to meet Quintus Arrius which creates a whole cascade of events leading to his revenge. In Quo Vadis the Christians suffer while singing while being massacred, which eventually creates enough unrest in the Roman populous to make them want to overthrow Nero. Even in the much more recent Gladiator, Maximus’ suffering from his family being murdered and his time spent in the arena are vindicated when he kills Commodus and dies himself, going to his paradise. All these characters in these movies suffered, but by the end they were rewarded for their pain. Life of Brian subverts this theme by having Brian’s life be essentially worthless. No one revolted against their oppressors, or were sent to a paradise, or had their eternal soul saved. Brian’s life ended in excruciating pain surrounded by people singing, effectively showing no reward for all for the suffering he had gone through.

              Roman epics also commonly have a message about politics imbedded in them. In Spartacus the fall of the Roman senate is shown and has a heavy political take on how too much power being given to one man ruins government. While in Cleopatra (1963) the audience sees the backlash of having too much political ambition and how it can ruin someone. Even in Gladiator and Quo Vadis there is a heavy message about how the power is not in the hands of an emperor but the people they rule over. All these movies have a political message that criticizes monarchies and absolute power. Life of Brian takes a slightly different approach, and instead of idolizing democracy the way other Roman epics do, it takes potshots at it, showing the tendency of political groups to get so confrontational with each other that none of them get anything done with the many Judean groups. The movie also shows how democracy and modern government are so concerned with their meetings that they never actually take any action, with the many long and drawn-out meetings of The People’s Front of Judea. Life of Brian does not glorify modern political forms, instead it takes the time to criticize them making it stand out from other films of its genre.

              Many Roman epics also have themes deeply connected with Christianity. Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis are deeply rooted in a Christian theme with many of the teachings of the faith being blatantly obvious to the viewer. Life of Brian was created as a sort of parallel story to Christ. Much like Ben-Hur in this fashion, Life of Brian teaches the audience something by having the story of Brian be parallel to the Christ. Instead of showing the cleansing force of Christianity like Ben-Hur does, Life of Brian seeks to show the absurdity of the religion. Taking moments from the Bible and juxtaposing them by having Brian, who the audience knows is not the Messiah, be the Jesus character in them makes the whole religion look silly. The creation of the cult around Brian seems much less holy and divine, but instead it seems fanatical and idiotic. When Brian says the line “You are all individuals” and the entire cult chants it back to him in synch effectively showing that the entire group has given up on their own individuality. Life of Brian pulls no punches when it comes to religion, and completely throws the classic beliefs about religion on its head.

Life of Brian takes the Roman epic genre and changes the themes to fit an edgier and more comedic set of themes. Glory becomes gritty, selflessness becomes selfishness, and everything that the audience is supposed to revere becomes the butt of a joke.