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Comedy

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

- It took God six days to create the heavens and the earth...and Monty Python ninety minutes to screw it up.

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.

Release Date : 1983-03-31

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Celandine FilmsThe Monty Python PartnershipUniversal Pictures

Production Country : United Kingdom

Alternative Titles : Monty Python's The Meaning of LifeThe Meaning of Life

Cast

Terry Gilliam

Character Name : Various Roles

Original Name : Terry Gilliam

Gender : Male

Graham Chapman

Character Name : Various Roles

Original Name : Graham Chapman

Gender : Male

John Cleese

Character Name : Various Roles

Original Name : John Cleese

Gender : Male

Eric Idle

Character Name : Various Roles

Original Name : Eric Idle

Gender : Male

Terry Jones

Character Name : Various Roles

Original Name : Terry Jones

Gender : Male

Michael Palin

Character Name : Various Roles

Original Name : Michael Palin

Gender : Male

Carol Cleveland

Character Name : Various Roles

Original Name : Carol Cleveland

Gender : Female

Simon Jones

Character Name : Cedric

Original Name : Simon Jones

Gender : Male

Patricia Quinn

Character Name : Mrs. Williams

Original Name : Patricia Quinn

Gender : Female

Judy Loe

Character Name : Nurse #1

Original Name : Judy Loe

Gender : Female

Andrew Bicknell

Character Name : (Segment "The Crimson Permanent Assurance")

Original Name : Andrew Bicknell

Gender : Male

Andrew MacLachlan

Character Name : Groom

Original Name : Andrew MacLachlan

Gender : Male

Mark Holmes

Character Name : Severed head

Original Name : Mark Holmes

Gender : Male

Valerie Whittington

Character Name : Mrs. Moore

Original Name : Valerie Whittington

Gender : Female

Jennifer Franks

Character Name : Bride

Original Name : Jennifer Franks

Gender : Male

Imogen Bickford-Smith

Character Name : Nurse #2

Original Name : Imogen Bickford-Smith

Gender : Female

Angela Mann

Character Name : Second guest's wife

Original Name : Angela Mann

Gender : Male

Sydney Arnold

Character Name : Pirate Captain (segment "The Crimson Permanent Assurance")

Original Name : Sydney Arnold

Gender : Male

Guy Bertrand

Character Name : Chief Executive (segment "The Crimson Permanent Assurance")

Original Name : Guy Bertrand

Gender : Male

Matt Frewer

Character Name : Cornered Executive who Jumps (segment "The Crimson Permanent Assurance")

Original Name : Matt Frewer

Gender : Male

Michael Caine

Character Name : British Soldier (uncredited) (segment "Fighting Each Other")

Original Name : Michael Caine

Gender : Male

Barrie Holland

Character Name : Teacher At Rugby Match (uncredited)

Original Name : Barrie Holland

Gender : Male

Jane Leeves

Character Name : Dancer (uncredited)

Original Name : Jane Leeves

Gender : Female

Reviews

G

Gimly

@Ruuz

2021-06-23

Doesn't hold up as well as some of Monty Python's other work, but there's enough classic moments in here to make it worthwhile watching. _Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go._

F

Filipe Manuel Neto

@FilipeManuelNeto

2023-05-08

**I expected much more: this film is a shadow of what it should have been.** I think it's redundant to say what everyone already knows: the Monty Python represents the pinnacle of British humor, and if each of those comedians is excellent alone, seeing them together is always an added bonus. This film, however, is a late work by the group, when each of them was starting to have a solo career and the group's notoriety was consolidated. There are incredible partnerships in the artistic world, and if we think about it, we will think of huge music bands, television series or troupes of actors that worked incredibly well and were successful for a certain time. The issue is that many of them did not know how to harmonize a joint existence with the growing commitments of individual agendas. And I think that's what happened with Python, and that helped complicate this project. The film makes us laugh, it has some good moments, but it is a shadow if we try to compare it to “The Holy Grail”, for example. That's the crux of the matter: it's not bad, but it should have been much better, considering the talent of those involved! For me, a good part of the problem comes from the fact that it is a succession of humorous sketches with almost no obvious correlation between them. We can admit that in a TV comedy show, it is done routinely, and it works very well. In a film, greater cohesion, unity and homogeneity are expected. It's not an unbreakable rule, but it was an expectation I had. Another problem with this film is the quality of the humor. We already know that the humor has more puerile moments and others that are frankly acidic, but the film resorts too much to easy laughter and simplistic and unrefined humor: a man who is condemned to death and chooses to fall off a cliff after being chased by naked women; an enormously obese man who, in a fancy restaurant, vomits everything around him and eats a regimental dose of food; a sex education class for totally naive boys (something impossible to believe, even considering the time when the film was made) and with the right to practical and very visual exemplification of the act in the classroom... what's the funny in all this? As I said, the movie has some good moments. I loved the delivery room sketch, I think it's an absolutely delicious sarcasm and that it still works as a critique of the general state of public health services. I also liked Crimson Insurance, which is nothing more than a gigantic parody of Errol Flynn's piracy films, especially “Sea Hawk”, but which has a sympathetic touch and a critique of globalization and unbridled capitalism. Much less pleasant, but equally hilarious, was the huge musical sketch of Irish Catholics, stuffed to the bone with political incorrectness and with very accurate stings to the rejection discourse that the Catholic Church was maintaining with regard to contraceptive methods.