What did 'Life of Brian' ever do for us?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/6679546/What-did-Life-of-Brian-ever-do-for-us.html

by rglovejoy • 17 years ago

51 32 17 years ago

telegraph.co.uk

brtzsnr• 17 years ago

I saw the movie second time while smoking pot. Almost suicidal because I had trouble breathing from so much laugh. I suggest you try it.

ojbyrne• 17 years ago

"However, current tastes and sensitivities make it highly unlikely that a comedy group would even attempt making a film like Brian today"

It seems from the article that it was highly unlikely that a comedy group would even attempt making a film like Brian in 1979.

I highly recommend Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) - it's a great documentary about Python. The author of the article appears several times.

oikujhyghjm• 17 years ago

The difference is in 1979 it wasn only illegal to blaspheme against the church of England.

Today in more enlightened times it's illegal to make jokes about any religion, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rowan-atkinso...

hristov2• 17 years ago

Did that law get passed?

DanielBMarkham2• 17 years ago

However, 30 years on, that same film is regularly touted as the funniest British comedy of all time

I love everything that Monty Python ever did, but I would hardly call Life of Brian the funniest British comedy of all time.

Respectfully, I disagree. I think the author overstates his case. LOB could easily be made today.

redcap2• 17 years ago

If you don't mind, could you list some of the films that you regard as funnier than the Life of Brian?

krav• 17 years ago

I'd like to know as well - seriously.

DanielBMarkham2• 17 years ago

Off the top of my head? The top two are definitely Python.

Holy Grail reached a cult status that LOB never reached, for instance.

Meaning of Life is an odd duck -- most people didn't like it as much overall but love all the scenes in it. I'd still rank it (a bit) over LOB.

earthboundkid• 17 years ago

Indeed, The Invention of Lying by Ricky Gervais makes the case that religion wouldn't exist at all in a world without liars and peddlers of false hope. That seems pretty damn blasphemous to me.

protomyth• 17 years ago

an interesting premise given one of the commandments is no false witness, not to mention some of the eastern religions.

roundsquare4• 17 years ago

LOB could easily be made today.

Maybe without the one scene... (where he wakes up to a crowd of his followers.).

pmjordan• 17 years ago

In Britain? Nah. The UK has become less gymnophobic over time, not more.

charlesmarshall3• 17 years ago

Hmm.. I can't think of one, which ones are you referring to?

RyanMcGreal• 17 years ago

> However, current tastes and sensitivities make it highly unlikely that a comedy group would even attempt making a film like Brian today.

Dogma?

mechanical_fish• 17 years ago

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut?

drinian2• 17 years ago

Actually, any of a long list of South Park episodes. Although, for the most part, SP tends to be far more blunt and direct with its message.

tybris• 17 years ago

They meant comedy.

roundsquare4• 17 years ago

Good call... but I don't know that the comparison is fair. Dogma basically ends with an obvious "god is good" message which LOB doesn't.

On the other hand, Dogma does suggest that none of the organized religions we have is correct...

hristov2• 17 years ago

Dogma was not done by a comedy group and was not funny. Or insightful. Or good in any way.

So no Dogma, should not be compared to Life of Brian.

gnosis• 17 years ago

I agree. Dogma was simply awful, unless your idea of wit is fart jokes.

roundsquare4• 17 years ago

While I respect your opinion, I think your missing the point.

The point is that in both cases, a movie was made about religion that was also (an attempt at) a comedy.

That aside, I agree that LOB was more insightful, but I think there is something interesting about what Dogma did. It was an attempt to look at the modern day implications of taking the bible literally. You can say they sucked at it if you want, but its a neat idea.

stonemetal• 17 years ago

Dogma wasn't made by the British.

charlesmarshall3• 17 years ago

Dogma is good, but nothing as cutting as the stoning scene or the mass crucifixion

dhimes• 17 years ago

"Vidi, vici, veni"

Classical brilliance.

trevelyan• 17 years ago

My favorite is Reg's easily missed summary of the Sermon on the Mount:

"As far as I can tell, blessed is just about everyone with a vested interest in the status quo"

charlesmarshall3• 17 years ago

"He's not the messiah, hes a very naughty boy"

drinian2• 17 years ago

The script was then rejected by every major movie studio before Idle and producer John Goldstone turned to former Beatle George Harrison, who quickly secured the required $4 million.

Right, but besides Sgt. Pepper, Life of Brian, and the invention of the CT scanner [1], what have the Beatles ever done for us?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_scanner#History

geedee77• 17 years ago

I used to work for EMI and I'd never heard of that before. I think that just goes to show part of the problem with the big record companies now, they don't seem to like getting their name out there attached to good things anymore.

andrewcaito• 17 years ago

Until pretty recently, the top google result on my name for years was this 1997 haiku contest: http://orangecow.org/pythonet/haiku.html

It's interesting to me that this showed up on HN, as I remember Monty Python being a huge part of my first experiences with the internet. Before searching was so easy, I would spend hours looking up quotes, scripts, clips, and so on.

I might be tempted to say something else that 'Life of Brian' did for us was give people like me reasons to become more familiar with the internet, leading to careers in programming, etc.

What did 'Life of Brian' ever do for us?

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