Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life (DVD)

...can imagine the scene, the Monty Python boys are meeting, probably in Michael Palin's house ( I hear his wife makes great sausage rolls) to discuss ideas for their new, and final, movie. Having tackled organised religion in "The Life of Brian" and outraged the Church, they have to decide who to tackle, and thus offend, this time. Perhaps after rejecting several ideas, a voice from the back of the room, probably John Cleese returned from ...
...well known inspirational aid, shouts.

"I've got it guys! Lets do a movie that offends everybody!"

And bloody hell ,they did it.

So if you're at all sensitive and are either Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, a member of any religious body, male, female, black, white, American, Scottish, English, French, Northern, London urbanite, public school educated or offended by sexist comedy, strong language ... more

You can imagine the scene, the Monty Python boys are meeting, probably in Michael Palin's house ( I hear his wife makes great sausage rolls) to discuss ideas for their new, and final, movie. Having tackled organised religion in "The Life of Brian" and outraged the Church, they have to decide who to tackle, and thus offend, this time. Perhaps after rejecting several ideas, a voice from the back of the room, probably John Cleese returned from the toilet, the effect of urine on porcelain being a well known inspirational aid, shouts.

"I've got it guys! Lets do a movie that offends everybody!"

And bloody hell ,they did it.

So if you're at all sensitive and are either Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, a member of any religious body, male, female, black, white, American, Scottish, English, French, Northern, London urbanite, public school educated or offended by sexist comedy, strong language or scenes of extreme gore and violence, or female nudity or copious amounts of vomit you'll find something here to offend you, which goes for this op as well so you might want to look way now and I should say at this time that I do not subscibe to any views expressed in this movie or which may be described in this op.

Oh and before we get started proper, I must confess I'm come over all David Lean (not as disgusting as it sounds) as this review has a bit of the Epic's about it, so you might want to bring a packed lunch.

The movie, which is really an extended version of the tv show, is a series of sketches, linked very tenuously by the theme "The Meaning of Life". The sketches roughly trace out a life line thru birth to death, with various other skits on the human condition, but doesn't pretend to offer a profound comment on our existence or why are we here (would we expect it to?) and some of the sketches seem have no connection with this meaning of life theme (Live Organ Transplants?) but dang it all, it is all very funny.

As usual with the Python movies, all the major parts are played by the members of the team, sometimes having more than one role in a sketch.

The movie actual begins with a second feature (anybody here old enough to remember when you used to get a supporting feature when you went to the pictures?) about the pirates of the Crimson Permanent Insurance company...

..before going into the movie proper.

The sketches are split up into themed sections:

THE MIRACLE OF BIRTH - A woman gives birth in hospital, surrounded by the most expensive equipment in the hospital, including the machine that goes "bing!".

Hospital Administrator - "What are you doing this morning?"

Doctor - "It's a birth."

Hospital Administrator - "Ahh and what sort of thing is that?"

Doctor -"Thats when we take a new baby out of a ladies tummy."

Hospital Administrator - "Wonderful what we can do now adays."

Only a short sketch but succesfully attacks the way that modern medicine is more interested in achieving targets and meeting budgets than actually treating patients.

THE MIRCALE OF BIRTH -PART 2:THE THIRLD WORLD - In this case, Yorkshire. Terry Jones gives birth at the sink, "she" has hundreds of childern, because, you see, she and her husband are Catholics and of course Catholics must breed. Unfortunately father, Michael Palin, has lost his job at the mill so has to sell the children for medical experiments.

Features the song "Every Sperm is Sacred", the chorus goes:

"Every sperm is sacred
Every sperm is great
If a sperm is wasted
God gets quite irrate"

So having had a pop at the Catholics or rather the over populating of the world caused the opposition to birth control, we get balance by having a pop at the Protestants. Graham Chapman is the stereo-typical stoney faced Protestant bigot, waxing lyrical on condoms and sex.

Husband - "Because we don't believe in all that Papist clap-trap we can take precautions"

Wife - "What d'you mean? Lock the door?"

PART II GROWTH & LEARNING - After a short section of what I assume to be a typical church lesson at a public school, we get down to the main business of the day, sex education. No videos of humping bunnies, or birds & bees. this is the real thing. To ram home the point of his lesson, the teacher has sex with his wife in front of the class

Teacher - "Do stand up when my wife enters the room Carter"

A bit embarrassing if you watch it with your parents but pretty funny and gives John Cleese another excuse to get his kit off again.

PART III:FIGHTING EACH OTHER - In the trenches during WWI, a division of soldiers are about to go over the top, so the tommys have a wip round and buy some presents for their captain, unfortunately getting picked off one-by-one during the presentation. Bizarre but very funny.

Then a small linking piece of Graham Chapman as a high ranking official army type explains why we will always need an army and "may God strike me down were it to be otherwise" <cue the hand of God> leads into Michael Palins sergeant major marching up and down the square.

Still with something to say on the this stage of life, we get another sketch this time set during the Zulu Wars. One of the British officers has been badly bitten during the night, so badly bitten that his leg has come right off at the knee, the culprit? A tiger. A tiger in Africa?. So of they go looking for the tiger which actually turns out to be........you wouldn't believe me. Very silly.

THE MIDDLE OF THE FILM - A fantastic link brings us to this part, which features a bizarre game "Find the Fish" which has Graham Chapman in a basque reciting a bizarre peom about a fish whilst a strange elephant headed creature fondles a plug dangling from Grahams crotch!?!?!

PART IV:MIDDLE AGE - A typical middle aged American couple are looking to eat in a typical American themed hotel and are guided to the Dungeon room, genuine Hawaiin food served up in an authentic medival English dungeon!! However there is no food on the menu, only conversations, so they go for philosophers, who of course attempt to describe the human condition and the meaning of life, yah see the connection? Yeh, perhaps just a little too clever.

PART V:LIFE ORGAN TRANSPLANTS - Graham Chapman and John Cleese are working for the liver transplant service, unfortunately their donors are still alive at the time of donation.

Potentail Donor - "But it says in the event of death."

Hervester - "No-ones ever had there liver taken out by us and survived."

The actual harvesting of the liver is horrific, altho you don't see the actual incisions, you see the flaying limbs of the donor, hear his tortured screams as Graham Chapman gets covered in tons of blood and gore and miscellaneous bits of flesh.

This tenuously links into a song, sung by Eric Idle emerging from a fridge in a pink suit to sing the "Galaxy Song":

"Pray that there's intelligent life some-where up in space
coz theres bugger all down here on Earth"

At this point the movie is invaded by the pirates from the supporting feature shown at the start of the movie!!(I'm not making this up), altho steps are taken to remove them.

PART VI:THE AUTUMN YEARS - This is definitely my favourite part. It's a posh restaurant. We begin with "The Penis" song from Eric:

"You can wrap it up in ribbons
You can pop in your sock
But don't bring it out in public
Or they'll put you in the dock"

And then in walks. Mr Creosote, a fat corpulent pig of a man:

Waiter - "Good afternoon sir and how are we today?"

Mr C - "Better"

Waiter - "Better?"

Mr C - "Better get a bucket, Im gonna throw up"

And by jingo he does, tons of the stuff, everywhere; in the bucket, on the carpet, on the menu, on the waiter, on the cleaning woman. By the end of the meal, which comprises the entire menu, twice and a several crates of brown ale, Mr Creosote is fit to burst, quite literally. The waiter tips him over the edge with a wafer thin mint. This causes Mr Creosote to balloon up and explode covering the restaurant and diners in tons of vomit and gore. Honestly it sounds disgusting but it is very very funny.

PART VIb:THE MEANING OF LIFE - No not really, the cleaning lady clearing up the remains of Mr Creosote, waxes lyrical on all the great places of learning she has worked in, and the fact that despite all the great works she has read she was no closer to formulating a theory on the meaning of life but at the end of all it at least she doen't work for Jews! She quite deservedly gets a bucket of vomit over her head.

PART VII:DEATH - The sketch involves a man who has been sentenced to death for making gratuitous sexist jokes in a moving motiton picture. He is allowed to choose the manner of his own execution, and chooses to be chased over a cliff by a dozen topless women, wearing nothing but thongs and cycling helmets, running in slow motion.

Next sketch has The Grim Reaper making a visitation on a dinner party to collect the diners, altho they seem to think he is a little deaf and has come to cut the hedge. They soon get the point when he explains that they have all been posioned by the salmon mousse. So of they go to Heaven which turns out to be the hotel from the earlier section of the movie, God has obviously been on a hotel management course with Howard Johnsons and allowed Disney to take up a franchise. Heaven here is Las Vegas dinner show, where it's Christmas Day every day. Sounds more like Hell! Final song "Its Christmas Day in Heaven"

THE END OF THE FILM - Finally, we get The Meaning of Life from Michael Palin, want to know what it is? Well its something about being nice to each other, not eating fat, reading a good book and living in peace and harmony. He then delivers a tirade on the sensationalistic nature of modern cinema.

"Family Entertainemnt. B*ll*cks! What people want is filth"

How true.

And thats it, one of the funniest and most politically incorrect movies ever made. But it is all so silly and over the top tho that I don't think anybody could be really all that offended by it.

The movie has an "18" certificate. For material likely to offend, see the op.

 

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