Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)

Okay, so this typically madcap and irreverent Monty Python romp doesn't actually answer the major existential question posed by the title, but that quietly simply doesn't matter considering how delightfully brash, rude, and outrageous this movie often is. The humor ranges from crude to surreal to super dry and deadpan, with a majority of the gags scoring bull's eyes. Among the more inspired and uproarious sketches are the amazing opening short in which a bunch of oppressed elderly white office workers revolt against their employers, the grim reaper crashing a posh party, the infectiously jaunty "Galaxy Song," a grotesquely obese man literally puking gallons of vomit at a fancy restaurant, a live man having his liver gruesomely removed, a teacher wearily demonstrating sex to his bored and disinterested students, and, most sidesplitting of all, the positively gut-busting "Every Sperm is Sacred" song and dance number. John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, and Graham Chapman are all in fine form. An absolute riot.

Taking their final bow as a team with this being their final collaborative film project, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life finally hit cinema theaters back in 1983. Dispensing with the the more conventional narrative that they utilized with their previous two movies, they opted for the sketch format that they had become most renowned for with their classic TV series. Given the foreseeable hysteria that had met them with the controversy surrounding their magnum opus, Life of Brian; it might have felt like something of a relief that their last offering was not met with same outraged devour. That's not say there Isn't anything contentious or potentially offensive however as they up the bad taste and vulgarity factor to inspired effect. From challenging Roman Catholic Dogma with their elaborate, showstopping Every Sperm is Sacred musical routine to John Cleese playing a public schoolmaster teaching sexual education to is pupils by having sexual intercourse with his wife in front of them; it has moments of perverse brilliance. Team member Michael Palin himself noted that that it's increased budget of $9 million meant they could afford to be more "daring and dark". Accompanied by Terry Gilliam's short film, The Crimsons Permanent Assurance, a typically surreal prelude to what's to come. Showcasing his aesthetically distinctive style that show was utilized to greater prominence with his first solo directorial work; Time Bandits, and later with 1985's; Brazil. Concerning a group of elderly office clerks who work in a a small accounting firm, they figuratively throw off the shackles of their employment by rebelling against their corporate bosses. Becoming pirates they turn their office building in to one big ship, and pillage financial areas. Gilliam's short would be amusingly woven in to the fabric of the subsequent film due to a interruption, and a voice over apologizing for it "due to an attack by the supporting feature."Director Terry Jones who took sole directorial duties as he did with Life of Brian does a bang up job, and the film does have something of an overall more polished feel than the last two films, largely due to it's larger budget. He still never the less displays his considerable prowess and no more so in the aforementioned musical number. However further musical moments that include Eric Idle's quirky and colourful rendition of The Galaxy Song, which examines the humbling nature of the vastness of the Universe and our relative insignificance is truly inspired. It is complimented by visually magnificent high-tech computer generated sequence, that while dated now would have impressed movie-going audience back then. Arguably most memorable however and for it's vomit inducing bad taste is the sketch entitled "The Autumn of Our Years", which introduces the glutinous and grotesquely overweight Mr. Creosote as portrayed by Jones. A vile, repulsive character who disgustingly stuffs his face in a restaurant (where he is served by John Cleese's caricatured french waiter) to such an extreme that it culminates with a memorable gross out punchline of eye-popping proportions. Amusingly when the The Meaning of Life won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, he joked that it might have been because Orson Welles, who was on the judging panel, identified with Mr. Creosote. Where it fails to completely hang together as a cohesive whole is it suffers although not frequently from self indulgence. It's at times strange for the sake of being strange to some degree, and while it does work at times it results in a scene involving two insanely bizarre characters played by Jones and fellow team member, Graham Chapman in a segment called "Find the Fish". Also the sketch format, which worked well for myself personally as an enthusiastic Python fan would not had the same appeal for a general mainstream audience. With the film just taking under $15 million at the box office as opposed to Life of Brian's $20 million that strikes me as likely being the case. And given that one member of the team stated that the main theme and concept of the film was so they could weave together a series of unrelated sketches, you feel as if they weren't quite as committed to their endeavour and the impetus behind the movie was a shallow attempt to profit off of their success. Even so, looking at the end product as it stands, they still invested much creative effort even if it doesn't quite reaching the dizzying heights their first two proper movies. (And Now For Something Completely Different was nothing more than a collection of their sketches from the TV series which were re-shot for American film audiences in an attempt to introduce their brand of comedy to the U.S. market) Inventive and more polished due to less financial constraints which still doesn't guarantee high quality, it's an outing that I still enjoy revisiting when I get the chance, and still gains a stamp of approval from dedicated fans

Delightful as well as hilarious film but plenty with profanities , nudism , sex , grossing humor and obscenity . This film being the last Monty Python explores the meaning and aim of life in a lot of sketches from conception , boyhood , adult world , war , to death when the group suffered from food poisoning , then Grim Reaper brings for the final stage of human life and beyond .Irreverent and often sidesplitting satire of religion , Catholicism , Protestantism , traditional family , God and many other things . Monty Phyton performs a series of sketches about the life cycle from birth , existence to death in this often uproariously funny , sometimes tedious , movie . According to Michael Palin , the picture ranges from philosophy to history to medicine to halibut . Here the comedy team takes a look at life in all its stages in their own uniquely silly way , as they satirize and humorize almost everyone . ¨The meaning of life¨ , originally called "Monty Python's Fish Film" will probably offend some catholics , including many political and social comments . As it has a mercilessly critique to Roman Catholic in a sketch when a couple has quite a lot of children because 'every sperm is sacred' (the kids who sang the song later said they had no idea what they were singing about) ; being unknown to the rest of the team until later, director Terry Jones spent most of the budget for the film on the dancing and singing sequences . 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 . The best part of the film results to be the beginning with a stand-alone 17-minute supporting feature entitled The Crimson Permanent Assurance stunningly directed by Terry Gilliam ; it was filmed as if it were a completely separate project , Gilliam got his own sound-stage, crew and cast . This segment continued to expand because, according to Gilliam, nobody told him to stop . Furthermore , special mention to the death sketch, where Arthur Jarrett , Graham Chapman , has chosen to die while pursued by naked girls . Six cast members played a lot of characters such as Graham Chapman , John Cleese , Terry Gilliam , Eric Idle , Terry Jones and Michael Palin . The talented cast also conceived and wrote all of the material . The characters they are seen playing last are as following: Graham Chapman as Tony Bennett, John Cleese as Death, Terry Gilliam as Howard Katzenberg, Eric Idle as Angela, Terry Jones as Mrs. Brown and Michael Palin as the Lady presenter . The last shot featuring all the Pythons together is when Death shows the six dead people 'Paradise' . You don't have to be British to enjoy the various political asides and lampoons . Lively Original Music by John Du Prez , including jolly final song sung by Eric Idle . Colorful as well as evocative Cinematography by Peter Hannan and Roger Pratt in segment "The Crimson Permanent Assurance". The motion picture was well directed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam in animation and special sequence ; it won the Special Jury Grand prize at the Cannes film festival . 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) . In 1965, filmmaker Terry Jones with his friend Michael Palin, made The Late Show (1966) for television, which was his first success and he wrote for many other TV shows . But Jones' greatest success was the zany Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-74) (with Palin, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle) and other hits such as Jabberwocky , The meaning of life , Monty Python and the Holy Grail and ¨Life of Brian¨ , this is the tale of of a man whose life parallels Jesus ; it results to be the most sustained and funniest film from Britain's bad boys that may prove offensive to some and a sheer delight to others .

A fun filled sketch comedy that will have you giggling like a grade school kid again. The Meaning of Life is Monty Python's dry humored look at the world we live in and his comical take on the big questions that people have been asking throughout history. His answers to the big questions are quite funny.To enjoy this film, one should have an open mind, get dry and odd humor and have enough curiosity about life's big questions and ready to receive a comical answer. This is a good film to watch as a Sunday manatee and would make a great double feature with films like "History of the World: Part I", "Wholly Moses!" or even "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".8.5/10