This film breaks my heart.

It’s about a young boy who is written off at school for being thick, but actually, in his spare time, he’s a genius.

He has a pet kestrel and is a master of the art of falconry, but because his teacher is focused only on his academic performance in the classroom, he writes him off and humiliates him on a daily basis.

It is only when the boy plays truant that the teacher is forced to leave his world and go and seek the boy in his home environment. There is an extraordinary moment when he arrives at a park and from a distance, he finally realises that this young boy, who he has been relentlessly mocking, is both deeply committed and extremely skilled, just not in the areas of life the teacher had hoped he would be.

I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

To me Tom Hanks could be like any handsome dad you might meet on a school sports day,

But there is something inside him that means virtually every human emotion can come out through the wrinkles and tiny muscle movements of his face.

So he can play a part as a prison warden in this film where every single button is pressed, and you get to see a human being on a real rollercoaster that pushes them up to the limit and then beyond.

This is about as scary a film as I can watch. I have no stomach or desire to watch violence and horror, I’m too tuned in to the real thing out there in the world, to need more during my free time when I’m trying to relax.

But there is also something deeply redemptive and beautiful and spiritual about this film.

The thing that most made me want to watch this film when it came out was that our headmaster tried to slap an outright ban on it.

He was part of what is known as the CofE synod at the time - so I’m sure he found it extremely challenging.

But having come to faith in adult life and re-read the Gospel narratives as a mature man, I feel I understand Jesus better and I will put good money on the idea that if Jesus saw Life of Brian, (which I imagine he has!) – he would just belly laugh at it with the rest of us.

Like lots of famous creative artists, the Monty Python team are not atheists. Many like them have sought faith in Jesus Christ and found him irresistible. They have also found the kind of church structures and doctrines they have been exposed to unpalatable. So many have withdrawn into a private faith.

These guys decided to make a statement against unhelpful religion, just like Jesus did.

Although I’ve worked in the medium of film all my working life, I’m not really a film buff

Many of my friends talk of watching certain films a dozen or more times – that would bore the pants off me.

But this film is an exception thanks to a screenwriting coach years ago whose class I was privileged to sit in.

He deconstructed Casablanca in the way that a GCSE teacher might deconstruct Othello and bring it to life so that it becomes accessible.

Because I understand a lot of the craft and thinking behind the film, I am absolutely amazed by how good it is.

This film made me laugh and cry, but above all, it is a film with profound resonance on the whole subject of young people and education.

I scored pretty well in exams, but sitting in the classroom for years as a young boy almost drove me to insanity.

Seeing my daughter also be quietly crushed in her first year at secondary school made me long for a new kind of school. I even gave it a name, Kids Who Can.

I long to see more children seen early in life for who they really are, and where their potential lies.

Roll on education reform, before even more young children are medicated for not being able to sit still and learn about the ins and outs of inorganic chemistry and the like.

I can’t stand watching Jack Nicholson in his most recent films covered in make up and basically caricaturing his earlier performances.

But in his day, for my money, he was simply spellbinding.

Chinatown runs a very close 2nd to this movie set in a mental asylum.

The stand-off between Nurse Ratchet and Jack Nicholson is just brilliant.

I suppose the mark of a good film is that it stays with you.

When I recently re-watched the first Godfather film and the credits rolled, I walked around the house, switching lights off and locking doors ready to go to bed and I literally felt like I was a character in the film. As I pulled back my duvet, I was expecting, there might be a horse’s head lying on the bedsheet.

And how amazing to make a film that stays near the top of pretty well every “best film ever made list”.

I don’t know many Christian friends who actually like films with Jesus in them – he is so often portrayed as some kind of wafty, holy figure, and not the radical subversive that I believe he was.

But I know a lot of Christians love this film because it gives them an insight into what has happened to them when they come to faith.

It’s as if you are suddenly part of another hidden world and the secrets of the one you left have been unmasked.

I’d love to meet the guy who had the initial idea for this film and find out where he got his inspiration.

Three of my favourite comedy moments of all time are in this movie.

It’s the sort of film I dreamed of working on when I was younger and one day I did get to work on a TV commercial with the film’s director, Bill Forsyth and Hollywood actor, Burt Lancaster.

I was just a runner on the set and remember making a cup of tea beside Burt Lancaster at the tea van and he was mumbling about how frustrated he was with the crew.

Didn’t strike me as the kind of guy I would like to work with but hey ho.