by Alec Muffett
This is doing the rounds a lot at the moment:
…which is a extract from a much longer interview from 1979 regards the release of the Life of Brian, and the religious controversy of the time. At the 04:28 mark you get the blogpost title quote:
“You wouldn’t Guy Socrates, or make him appear as a clown”
…to which you can only say “Steve Martin would”.
…but then Martin is American, which would have doubtless been beyond the pale for the then Bishop of Southwark.
Probably largely sparked by http://boingboing.net/2012/07/12/furious-religious-establishmen.html
Also, let’s not forget the first Bill and Ted movie: “Dust. Wind. Dude!”
I rate “Life of Brian” as probably the finest piece of comic genius committed to film, thus far; it delivers on so many levels.
To give just three examples, “Romanes Eunt Domus” is schoolboy humour at its finest, with a Python meta-joke thrown in for good measure (“to go” does *not* take the locative), “What have the Romans ever done for us?” is a pretty accurate-while-funny starting list of the beneficial contributions of the Roman Empire (way before “Horrible Histories”), and “Judean People’s Front (Splitters!)”, the battle in the palace and some of the Herod scenes are almost “Yes, Minister, circa AD 33” in terms of being a view through a satirical lens of what the situation was probably like, in terms of multiple dissident and terrorist organisations fighting amongst eachother as well as against Roman occupation. OK, make it four; thinking about British politics at the time the film was made, the People’s Front of Judea meetings at Matthias’ place are a major satire on the Trade Union movement. There’s much more, of course.
I try to watch my DVD of the film, every Good Friday.
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