I'm watching a documentary on the secret history of the Monty Python's Life of Brian, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. I remember watching it at Jeffry Cudlin's house when I was 10 or 11 on his dad's Betamax machine. Now, with nothing better to do, I'm watching a Channel 4 documentary on how it was put togheter.
I don't know if this is typical, but often I work into the night on one computer while the other one is showing something entertaining. Nothing live, as we don't have cable television anymore. But, this is even better.
The documentary ends up being about the documentary meeting the opposition of Mary Whitehouse, a crusader in the United Kingdom who went after anything she considered blasphemous. The documentary at about eight minutes in begins talking about Whitehouse's history. And then after two minutes, goes back to being about the writing of the film. The documentary is weaving two different threads at the same time, which may explain why this is one of my favorite films of all time.
As the documentary continues, there's footage from a debate where John Cleese and Michael Palin take on two religious figures in England. At that point, the British Film Licensing Board (or whatever it was called) was still discussing whether or not the film could be shown in the UK.
I enjoy that I love to be able to watch these things when I want like this. I'm amazed. Now, how do we make it pay people's salaries?
This article does not include links to all of the episodes. There are five installments on YouTube, and you'll have to poke around and find it. But it's there if you look for a moment or two.
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