Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
Directed by Terry Jones
Life's questions are 'answered' in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. Then there's the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor. The world's most voracious glutton brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise.
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What critics compared Monty Python's The Meaning of Life to
…the greatest torrent of barf onscreen since Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life ensues…
…would make Monty Python’s Mr Creosote blush…
One of the latter — The Meaning of Life’s Mr. Creosote — could be the inspiration for the orgy of bodily fluids that eventually follows, though the Monty Python sequence had the good sense to last for a few minutes…
In Östlund’s mind, it would look like the Mr. Creosote sketch in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.
Östlund’s flair for on-the-nose comedy reaches a zenith on a stormy night at sea, when a shellfish dinner goes awry and cues the largest volume of bodily fluids depicted on screen this side of Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life (1983).
…con un approccio satirico che raggiunge l’apice in una scena, già mitica dopo le prime proiezioni a Cannes, di conati di vomito che non hanno nulla da invidiare al celebre Mr. Creosote di montypythoniana memoria.
Gilliam, whose origins as an animator show up in the images he dreams up for every one of his films, already had a lot of fun with some of these concepts in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983).
However, Gilliam and his amazing Monty Python cohorts did that way better with The Meaning of Life many years ago.
Never mind that "The Zero Theorem" is essentially an obscure synonym for the already-taken "The Meaning of Life."
Even Monty Python fans will have trouble watching Mortal Engines without thinking of The Meaning of Life and Terry Gilliam’s brilliant short film The Crimson Permanent Assurance , which features a building traversing a post-apocalyptic wasteland (though with sails, not wheels).
Although sketch comedy has been done with great success over the years on television, it has rarely found much favor on the big screen--even a group of comedic minds as formidable as Monty Python struggled to overcome its limitations with their all-over-the-map 1983 swan song "The Meaning of Life."--and "Movie 43" does little to elevate the reputation of the format.
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The final movie made by the troupe was The Meaning of Life, which hit screens in 1983.
On a technical level, it's masterful, a warm-up jog for the filmmaker before his career-crunching time with "Brazil," but it's a taxing icebreaker that washes out the Python magic, bludgeoning the viewer before subtle, silly comedy is introduced.
The film is without debate Terry Gilliam’s most ambitious work, referenced keenly in his prior efforts: Time Bandits has a fascistic game show that tempts contestants with elaborate and unnecessary home maintenance equipment; Gilliam’s prologue for The Meaning of Life involves a mutiny against a consumerist corporation.
The final feature-length offering from the entire Monty Python gang unfortunately doesn't live up to their best-known efforts, 1975's Monty Python and the Holy Grail and 1979's Life of Brian.
After the success of narrative-driven films such as "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian," it seems regressive for the lauded comedy group (including Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Terry Gilliam) to return to their sketch-show origin with "The Meaning of Life."
Python neophytes are best off starting with their Flying Circus television series or Monty Python and the Holy Grail or The Life of Brian before tackling Monty Python's The Meaning of Life to give them a firm grip on their sarcastic, surreal, and often "nerdy" humor where the men play multiple roles and often don women's clothing and speak in squeaky falsetto to humorous effect.
Life of Brian was directed solely by Terry Jones, who previously co-directed Monty Python and The Holy Grail with fellow Python (and acclaimed director) Terry Gilliam, and later co-directed with him again on The Meaning of Life .
While the group, especially John Cleese, have said they think The Meaning of Life is one of their weaker works, that’s actually one of my favourites to be honest.