Monday, March 15, 2010

The 'Life of Brian' Debate (1979)


From Wikipedia:
Shortly after the film was released, Cleese and Palin engaged in a what would become an infamous debate on the BBC2 discussion programme Friday Night, Saturday Morning, in which Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood, the Bishop of Southwark, put the case against the film.

Muggeridge and the Bishop had arrived 15 minutes late to see a screening of the picture prior to the debate, missing the establishing scenes which demonstrated that Brian and Jesus were two different characters, and hence contended that it was a send-up of Christ himself.

Both Pythons later felt that there had been a strange role reversal in the manner of the debate, with two young upstart comedians attempting to make serious, well-researched points, while the establishment figures engaged in cheap jibes and point scoring
*Repost

5 comments:

  1. I'm amazed the bishop got any laughs for those cheap insults.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Terry Jones is as much a historian as comedian and like they said, they went through great pains to make the film historically accurate, as they did with 'Holy Grail'. Christ followers don't seem to realize his story is not unique and as Monty Python implied, there was someone like him in every community.  I agree with Muggeridge's point of "so what?", his opinion of the film's mediocrity notwithstanding. You never hear much of religious people speaking out against Mel Brooks, 'South Park', fourth-graders everywhere, or pretty much every creative person.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can you imagine of these two old cunts actually had the power that the church used to have? Michael and John would have been no more! Bereft of life, they'd cease to be. These pricks would have burned them. 

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excellent Channel 4 Documentation
    Part I
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDCAJTrF1gg
    Monty Python - The Secret Life of Brian

    <span>Channel 4 Documentry about why it was banned </span>
    <span>in certain countries, blasphemy, etc.</span>

    ReplyDelete