| | Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life
(1983) |
kay, truth time. Have you ever been doing something and then paused to wonder, "What is it that I'm doing here?"..."What is the meaning of life"?
Well, those brash Brits of Monty Python's Flying Circus take on this heady topic in their own "offend-everybody-pull-no-punchhes-and-take-no-prisoners" attitude.
Before we can get to the subject matter at hand, we are first treated to the tale of "The Crimson Permanent Assurance"...
This group of British bankers decide one day to become the ultimate Wall Street pirates (Yep, Monty Python was tackling money hunger while Oliver Stone was still writing "Scarface" and Schwarzenegger movies).
This group of hearty men take over all firms they come across until the filmmakers decide that the gag's gone on long enough and they sail off the edge of the planet. With that, the film actually begins, and we see a group of fishes (the Python gang of course). Amidst the usual surreal talk, one brings up the issue of "The Meaning Of Life", and with that, we go to the opening credits, where we hear a song by Idle that teases us with the big questions:
"Why are we here? What's life all about? Is God really real? Or is there some doubt?".
The credits end, and life begins in our first chapter, where a woman has a baby and she's tended to by a group of doctors who are keen on experiments. Cleese plays one of these doctors who is very fond of "The Machine That Goes 'PING!'"...these doctors get a kick out of tormenting a young mother. Yes, there's blood in this scene...it's the Pythons, what would you expect?
Moving on, our next sketch sees Michael Palin and Graham Chapman as men of countering religions who speak of their views on...um, Well, actually, Palin sings his views in a tribute to a rather delicate subject which cannot be discussed on a family-friendly website such as this. Still, Palin's song and Chapman's spoken rebuttal are hilarious.
From here, we move on to schooling, where boys learn of stuff they should learn as teens, young kids get brutally beaten in football matches and the entire system is under the rule of the Church (Palin as minister: "O Lord, Ooh, you are so big, so absolutely huge, Gosh, we are all impressed down here, I can tell you. Forgive us, O Lord, for our dreadful toadying, but you are just so super. Amen.")
We now move on to the lunacies of men in war, where a birthday party is held for an army official. Palin, Idle and the rest serve up gifts and cake amidst shrapnel and downed officers. We then move to Africa, where Cleese tries to explain why he's in a tiger costume. Gilliam appears out of a Zulu costume to announce that we've arrived at The Middle Of The Film.
In this bizzaro segment, an oddly-dressed Chapman and Jones recite odd verse while encouraging the audience to look for a fish, leading us back to the fishes from the film's beginning, who are in a tank at a fancy restaurant.
In this restaurant, Idle impersonates Noel Coward with a typically tasteless tune to entertain the patrons. In the film's most remembered scene, Jones plays the obese (and THAT'S an understatement) Mr. Creosote, who eats like a pig and pays for it when he chews and swallows a wafer-thin mint. That's right...He explodes, propelling vomit all over the restaurant. He's still alive, but we can see his fat-coated heart beating like a war drum. In the next segment, Idle plays a waiter who tells us his meaning of life, and when no one likes it, he has a hilariously crude denouement for his audience.
A different restaurant is seen with Palin, Idle and Cleese putting on American accents and talking amidst hula-dancing waitresses in an old-fashioned British dungeon (take my word for it, it's very funny).
Now we move on to "Live Organ Donation", with Palin as a man who has his intestines removed while still alive. As his wife Jones contemplates the lost life, Idle appears to sing "The Galaxy Song", a rather true song about how none of us really matter in the big scheme of things.
Gilliam gets his animated piece in with a short about leaves committing suicide, which leads into Chapman as a criminal who meets his death being chased by women off a cliff. Now we arrive at the end of life, with Cleese's Grim Reaper taking the lives of a dinner party. Now everyone from the movie is seen in Heaven. Buckle up, folks, because if the Pythons are right, Heaven may be a slightly more tacky version of Las Vegas, complete with Chapman as Tony Bennett singing of how it's always "Christmas In Heaven" ("It's Christmas In Heaven/There's great films on TV/'The Sound Of Music' twice an hour and 'Jaws' 1, 2 and 3".)
Palin appears to tell us the meaning of life...I won't spoil it for you, though, except to say it leads into a funny rant about the state of filmmaking circa 1983.
The film ends with a TV floating into space. Notice how it plays the opening credits of the series "Monty Python's Flying Circus". It's rather poignant in its own way...this is the last movie the Pythons made as a whole (Chapman would die of cancer in 1989 a day before the 20th anniversary of the group), and this could be seen as their way of coming full circle.
Don't forget that Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life is now available to order on Widescreen DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...
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| | | Well, what can I say? It's everything you would want from a "Monty Python" movie... Offensive, sacreligious, tasteless, and hilarious.
Thought by many to be the weakest of the Python movies, I thought it was a great piece of work myself. Good songs, good performances, brilliant lines, grandly defined surrealism... The last Python movie was very enjoyable.
Rest In Peace, Graham Chapman.
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The names of companies owned by the Very Big Corporation of America (listed on the wall in the board room and being added to by the sign painter) are a repeating list, some of which are puns or in-jokes having to do with events in the rest of the movie. They are:
Acme Construction Company Payne, Bickers & Dogood Ltd. Stn. Pendons Ltd. V. Rich and Son Doneys (Florence) Mirage Land Co. Arctic Geo. Lab. Co. Liver Donors Inc. World Wide Wine Corp. Universal Amalgamations Ltd. Consolidated Steel Co. Micro Computer Inc. Moonscape Products Ltd. Rubber Goods Incorporated D.Odgey Enterprises Ltd. Money Factor Printers Ltd. Better Plastics Corps. D.Crepid Holdings Super Big Ltd. Space Propulsion Lab Interstellar Travel Corp. Dawking's Mining Co. Lange and Sons (International) Cooper's (Purveyors) Dickinson Kincain Association The All Enveloping Co. Ltd. O. Verpaid Associates Ltd. E. Normons & Sons A. Maze and Lee Huge Horace Mann & Yure Ltd. R. Devious Inc. Wakefeld & Daughter Vast Holdings (Europe) Ltd. Phil Thevich Consortium Fastness & Vast Co. Ltd Star Bright Merchandise Org. X. Tortion World Wide Ltd. Cartwright Tutorials Black & White Picture Co. Ltd. R. J. McArthur Parks Ltd. Walker, Walker & Jones Bros. Data Travel and Experiments (list repeats)
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Jane Leeves of "Frasier" is an extra in the 'Christmas in Heaven' musical sequence.
In the opening scene of the actual movie, Graham Chapman is seen playing a doctor. In real life, Graham actually went to college to become a doctor, but instead opted for Python. Aren't we all glad?
This is the one Python Movie that doesn't feature one of the classic Pepperpots from Flying circus.
Which one character has been in all of the Python movies? Give up? God, in one way or another! [Thanks to Kat]
Scorpio from Gladiators was one of the running topless girls. It was her first job in London after having been in Miss World earlier that year. [Thanks to Mike]
Originally called "Monty Python's Fish Film".
While writing this film, the Python troupe decided to take a break and put on some shows at the famous Hollywood Bowl, which were filmed and released as Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982).
Sensitive to the young actors in the "Every Sperm is Sacred" scene, Michael Palin actually says "... those little rubber things on the end of my sock"
During the opening sequence, the title is struck by lightning on the bottom of the final "e". The resulting words, "The Meaning Of Liff", is also the title of a book written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in 1983. The coincidence was discovered shortly before either movie or book were released, but too late in production to change either.
In the Find The Fish sketch, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman are joined by a green, elephant-like waiter creature that was a left over (unseen) costume from Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981).
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| | | Python refused to show Universal Studios a film script, figuring, as Eric Idle said, "If we couldn't work out how to make a Monty Python film, they couldn't tell us." Instead they showed them a poem, which was a summary of the film and a budget projection. "And to their credit," says Idle, "they paid for the film on that."
Michael Palin's line, "Hey, but I didn't eat the mousse," is a rare Python ad-lib and was not in the script.
During an interview to promote the film when it was first released, one of the members of the team said the meaning of life concept was the only way they could think of to tie together a lot of unrelated sketch material.
For "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" segment, the real building that was briefly used for the location shoot was The Lloyd's of London Maritime Insurance Building.
The score for "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" segment was inspired by the works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, especially his score for the pirate epic The Sea Hawk (1940).
The bizarre "Find The Fish" sketch was filmed in the main control hall of Battersea Power Station, London. It was supposed to represent the weird dreams that we all experience from time to time. Terry Gilliam later expressed his regret that this aspect wasn't given a little more explanation.
Terry Jones wrote the "Mr Creosote" sketch with Terry Gilliam in mind to play the title character, but Gilliam then convinced Jones that he should do it himself.
"The Crimson Permanent Assurance" segment was filmed as if it were a completely separate project. Terry Gilliam got his own soundstage, crew and cast. This segment continued to expand because, according to Gilliam, nobody told him to stop.
Written by Terry Jones, the "Mr. Creosote" scene was roundly rejected by the group on its initial read-through. It was saved from oblivion several weeks later by John Cleese, who, Jones said, "had realized the waiter was the funniest part."
During the WW1 scene, when Eric Idle dies, he's being held by Michael Palin. When Mike's rocking Eric's body, at the end of it, he starts to giggle. It's not heard, but seen. [Thanks to Georgia]
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| | | | | Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life
Locations |
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| | The Meaning of Life was filmed on location in England and Scotland.
London's Battersea Power Station was used for the race
Porchester Hall, Porchester Road, London W2 - restaurant in which Mr Creosote explodes. [Thanks to David Boothroyd]
The Royal Masonic School of Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England was used for the "School Days" segment.
The 'every sperm is sacred' song was film at Cartwright Hall, Lister Park, Bradford, Yorkshire, England. [Thanks to David Kellett]
Can you help? Do you know any of the UK filming locations used for Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life? [Please send them in]
| | | | | | | Trailer, Commentary, Featurette |
| | | | --- |
| | | | The soundtrack featured all the songs from the movie, as well as audio versions of the sketches. Track Listing:
1. The Meaning Of Life 2. Galaxy Song 3. Accountancy Shanty 4. The Not Noel Coward Song 5. Christmas In Heaven 6. Every Sperm Is Sacred 7. Anthem 84 8. Heart 9. Old Road 10. Love Is The Way 11. Eagle And The Bear 12. Third World Warrior 13. Aguila Del Norte 14. Hero 15. Don't Let The Bastards (Get You Down) 16. Love Of Money 17. Third World War 18. Jesse Jackson 19. Mal Sacate 20. Sandinista
Soundtrack Available:
On CD
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