Monty Python & The Meaning Of Life
 

After the surprising global success of Monty Python's The Life Of Brian, it seemed that the world was ready for a quick follow-up. Unfortunately, the Python team weren't. They dragged each other through frustrating annual writing sessions that got nowhere until one of the team facetiously commented that the movie they were trying to write wasn't "the meaning of life"...and from there on, everything fell into place.

So, 6 years in the making after "Brian", The Meaning Of Life is a glorious musical essay on the meaning of Life, as interpreted by six funny, silly, angry and sometimes vicious English boomers (Terry Gilliam is an honorary Englishman) and relayed by...fish (the working title was, in fact, "A Fish Film").

Well, it's certainly fishy when it starts, (after Gilliams's iconoclastic & beautiful  looking The Crimson Assurance Company short), because we find the Pythons, all dressed as fish (piscatorially sartorial?), swimming in an aquarium thanks to the magic that is blue-screen technology (explained in the DVD extras). The Python fish are all being terribly polite and English but we, the viewers, discover that the tank is actually in a restaurant where fish is on the menu! Soon our Python-fish discover that one of their bretheren is being served to one of the restaurant's patrons...for dinner.

[Lightbulb moment: Are we like the fish, oblivious to our impending doom at the whim of the Gods?]

The Meaning Of Life opening sequence

 
From there, of course, it's an easy leap to all the major stages in Life:

• Birth
• Learning & Education
• Fighting Each Other
• Middle Age
• Live Organ Transplants
• The Autumn Years
• Death

With a budget that finally allows the Pythons to really spread their wings, in particular with:

• the superb Oliver-style musical number Every Sperm Is Sacred
• Eric Idle's slyly wise number The Galaxy Song, featuring early 1980s state-of-the-art computer animation created from Gilliam's basic sketches &
• Cleese, terrifying as The Grim Reaper

All the cast are excellent in their own Pythonic way and I agree with Terry Gilliam in that, overall, The Meaning Of Life performances are certainly frequently amongst the best Python, ever.

My favorite performance is Terry Jones' Mr. Creosote, who eats himself to death, "egged" on by a gleeful John Cleese as the maitre-d. Eventually, after being tempted once too often, Creosote explodes raining internal organs over a roomful of unsuspecting diners. (This is covered in great glee on the director's audio track)

Other highlights include:

• some bizarre diversions into the Zulu wars in 19th Century South Africa
• enforced liver donations being carried out on a Jewish Rastafarian by a cockney Chapman while Cleese, his workmate,  tries to romance the dying man's wife and
• a stunning piece of surreal verbal & visual poetry by Terry Jones & Graham Chapman, entitled Where's The Fish?

In fact, it's the shock of Where's The Fish which rescues The Meaning Of Life from the half-way lull that most sketch movies have, enabling it to become what I believe to be the best "sketch" movie ever made.

Cleese, in particular, had huge reservations about doing this type of movie and went on to create the incredibly successful romantic comedy, A Fish Called Wanda. Nevertheless, it's the Monty Python sketch movies that he'll be remembered for, not Wanda.

The Meaning Of Life DVD

Not Recommended For Asthmatics: "...I'm not exaggerating when I say that I had an asthma attack watching this because I was laughing so hard...I had trouble breathing for days afterwards..." Amazon reviewer leth @ hknet.com

"...Most people I talk to seem to either have Life Of Brian or Holy Grail as their favorite. I was always alone in having this one as my favorite. Sure, it's a bit awkward (has no sequitar storyline). It's pretty much a long Flying Circus episode, but it has some of the best skits. Plus, its style kind of stands out. It's more macabre comedy than the others..." Amazon reviewer Christopher Ockram

"...Who'd have thought that Monty Python would figure out the meaning of life? Not only did they do it, they did it humorously..." Amazon reviewer Richard Ryan

The Meaning of Life soundtrack

By the time The Meaning Of Life came out, Python's members were all into their 40s and collaboration was becoming increasingly difficult. With Graham Chapman's illness and subsequent passing, The Meaning Of Life turned out to be Monty Python's swansong. They are gone but not forgotten.

Say no m-o-r-e!

The Meaning Of Life screenplay

"...This is the companion book to Monty Python's most outrageous film. Great color photos illustrate the script, but the REAL reason to own this is that it is the only place you may ever get to read/see some sequences cut from the film. These are:

• The Adventures of Martin Luther, in which Jones plays a very randy Martin Luther making the Jewish parents of two young daughters (mother Chapman and father Palin) quite nervous and
• an extended version of the Middle Age sequence featuring Carol Cleveland as a waitress in the Dungeon Room, waiting on Idle and Palin

The text to these scenes is what warrants the high rating - otherwise, it's simply a souvenier..." Amazon reviewer A Customer

The Meaning Of Life computer game

"...To be honest, you won't find out the true meaning of life with this game but you will have the most fun anyone can have with a computer...The first level deals with the Seven Ages of Man, mainly derived from the film...The second level is derived more from the Python TV Shows. The three sections are MATERIAL, SPIRITUAL, and DENTAL...The third level takes place in THE COTTAGE. Tons of new material from the Pythons! Again, there are not so many laughs, but the various stories from the items around the place are all wondefully surreal..." Amazon reviewer Pythonfreak

see also:

• wikipedia The Meaning of Life movie