The Saudis at that time were mostly wild men ~ biggest problem with them was they had no idea how to argue a point or debate with strangers (people outside their immediate family), and would stab each other over minutiae!
Since that time they've obviously improved ~ probably getting to travel outside that country helped ~ but it's not very long since an IKEA opened up in Riyadh and 16,000 Saudi men tried to get inside the building simultaneously and there were dozens of deaths! It was actually a riot.
What I've heard from friends who've been there is that there's little entertainment and what little they have is fought over.
More recently we've heard about the executions for gays ~ they are public, they draw thousands of observers, and are considered good quality entertainment (there).
When thinking about the Saudis we on the right tend to focus on their religious issues, but forget their economic ones. At least since OPEC skyrocketed crude oil prices 40 years ago, most Saudis are essentially welfare cases. A lot of the real work is done by foreigners, often poorly treated and relatively poorly paid people from poor muslim nations. Most Saudis live off of government handouts funded by oil revenues. They don't have to and often don't want to work. They've had a population boom and must have many second and third generation welfare cases. Some conservatives will lack much insight into Islam, but most will understand the effects of multigenerational welfare on people's behavior and thought processes. We just don't think to apply that insight to the "rich" Saudis, but we should! The price of crude has been relatively stable for some time, but their population keeps growing so their per capita take from the dole must be declining. We also should be able to understand how they'll react to that. Think of them as Detroit, before the money ran out, but with Imans instead of union bosses running everything, and they may make more sense to us.