Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, also known as The Meaning of Life,
is a 1983 British musical sketch comedy film written and performed by
the
Monty Python

Monty Python troupe, directed by Terry Jones. It was the last film
to feature all six Python members before Graham Chapman's death in
1989.
Unlike Holy Grail and Life of Brian, the film's two predecessors,
which each told a single, more-or-less coherent story,[2] The Meaning
of Life returns to the sketch format of the troupe's original
television series and their first film from twelve years earlier, And
Now for Something Completely Different, loosely structured as a series
of comic sketches about the various stages of life. It was accompanied
by the short film The Crimson Permanent Assurance.
Released on 23 June 1983 in the United Kingdom,[4] The Meaning of
Life, although not as acclaimed as its predecessors, was still well
received critically and was a minor box office success, grossing
almost $15 million on a $9 million budget. It also screened at the
1983 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. The film
appears in a 2010 list of the top 20 cult films published by The
Boston Globe.[5]
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
3.1 The Crimson Permanent Assurance
4 Release
5 Reception
5.1 Box office
5.2 Critical reception
5.3 Accolades
6 Home media
7 References
8 External links
Plot[edit]
A group of fish in a posh restaurant's tank swim together casually,
until they look at the customers outside of the tank and see their
friend Howard being eaten. This leads them to question the meaning of
life. The question is explored in the first sketch, "The Miracle of
Birth", which features a woman in labour being ignored by the doctors
in favour of impressing the hospital's administrator. In Yorkshire, a
Roman Catholic man loses his job and returns home to tell his numerous
children that he will have to sell them off for scientific experiments
due to the Catholic church's opposition to contraception; this leads
to the musical number "Every Sperm is Sacred". Meanwhile, a Protestant
man and his wife discuss having non-reproductive sex.
In "Growth and Learning", a class of boys are taught school etiquette
and then watch their teacher have sex with his wife as part of their
sex education. One boy laughs, and is forced into a violent rugby
match against the higher grades as punishment. "Fighting Each Other"
first focuses on a
World War I

World War I officer trying to rally his men to find
cover during an attack, but they insist on celebrating his birthday;
then, an army RSM attempts to drill his platoon but ends up excusing
them all to pursue leisure activities. In 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu
War, a soldier finds his leg has been bitten off. Suspecting a tiger,
despite being in Africa, the soldiers hunt for it and find two men
suspiciously wearing two halves of a tiger costume.
"The Middle of the Film" briefly introduces a segment called "Find the
Fish", a surreal scene where bizarre characters asks the audience to
find a fish hidden in the sequence. "Middle Age" involves a
middle-aged American couple visiting a dungeon-themed Hawaiian
restaurant, where, to the interest of the fish, the waiter offers a
conversation about philosophy and the meaning of life. The customers
are unable to make sense of it and move on to a discussion of "live
organ transplants". "Live Organ Transplants" involves two paramedics
visiting Mr. Brown, a card-carrying organ donor, forcefully removing
his liver whilst he is still alive. Brown's mother speaks with a
musician who performs "Galaxy Song" while discussing man's
insignificance in the universe. The Crimson Permanent Assurance
pirates invade a corporate boardroom where executives are discussing
the meaning of life, but a tumbling skyscraper ends their assault.
In "The Autumn Years", the horribly obese
Mr. Creosote

Mr. Creosote visits the
restaurant, to the horror of the fish tank. He vomits continuously and
devours an enormous meal. When the maître d' gives him a wafer-thin
mint, Creosote's stomach explodes, the maître d' then giving him the
bill. Two staff members clean up Creosote's remains while discussing
the meaning of life. One leads the audience to his house, spouts some
philosophy, and then angrily dismisses them.
"Death" features a condemned man choosing the manner of his own
execution: being chased off a cliff by topless women and falling into
his own grave below. The
Grim Reaper

Grim Reaper thereupon enters an isolated
country house and invites himself to dinner. The guests try to guess
who he is until the Reaper tells them they all died from food
poisoning. They accompany the
Grim Reaper

Grim Reaper to Heaven, depicted as a Las
Vegas-style hotel in perpetual Christmas, where a Tony
Bennett-lookalike performs "
Christmas

Christmas in Heaven" to the cast.
"The End of the Film" epilogue features the host of "The Middle of the
Film" being handed an envelope containing the meaning of life. She
reads it out: "Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a
good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live
together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations".
Cast[edit]
Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman as Chairman / Fish No. 1 / Doctor / Harry Blackitt /
Wymer / Hordern / General / Coles / Narrator No. 2 / Dr Livingstone /
Transvestite / Eric / Guest No. 1 / Arthur Jarrett / Geoffrey / Tony
Bennett
John Cleese

John Cleese as Fish No. 2 / Dr Spencer / Humphrey Williams / Sturridge
/ Ainsworth / Waiter / Eric's assistant / Maître D' / Grim Reaper
Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam as Window Washer / Fish No. 4 / Walters / Middle of the
Film announcer / M'Lady Joeline / Mr Brown / Howard Katzenberg
Eric Idle

Eric Idle as Gunther / Fish No. 3 / 'Meaning of Life' singer / Mr
Moore / Mrs Blackitt / Watson / Blackitt / Atkinson / Perkins / Victim
#3 / Man in Front / Mrs Hendy / Man in Pink /
Noël Coward

Noël Coward / Gaston /
Angela
Terry Jones

Terry Jones as Bert / Fish No. 6 / Mum / Priest / Biggs / Sergeant /
Man with Bendy Arms / Mrs. Brown /
Mr Creosote

Mr Creosote / Maria / Leaf Father /
Fiona Portland-Smythe
Michael Palin

Michael Palin as Window Washer / Harry / Fish No. 5 / Mr Pycroft / Dad
/ Narrator No. 1 / Chaplain / Carter / Spadger / Regimental Seargeant
Major / Pakenham-Walsh / Man in Rear End / Female TV Presenter / Mr
Marvin Hendy / Governor / Leaf Son / Debbie Katzenberg
Carol Cleveland

Carol Cleveland as Beefeater waitress / Wife of Guest No. 1 / Leaf
Mother / Leaf Daughter /
Heaven

Heaven Receptionist
Simon Jones as Chadwick / Jeremy Portland-Smyth
Patricia Quinn

Patricia Quinn as Mrs Williams
Judy Loe as Nurse
Production[edit]
According to Palin, "the writing process was quite cumbersome. An
awful lot of material didn't get used. Holy Grail had a structure, a
loose one: the search for the grail. Same with Life of Brian. With
this, it wasn't so clear. In the end, we just said: 'Well, what the
heck. We have got lots of good material, let's give it the loosest
structure, which will be the meaning of life'".[2]
After the film's title was chosen,
Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams called Jones to tell
him he had just finished a new book, to be called The Meaning of Liff;
Jones was initially concerned about the similarity in titles, which
led to the scene in the title sequence of a tombstone which, when hit
by a flash of lightning, changes from "The Meaning of Liff" to "The
Meaning of Life".[2]
Principal photography began on July 12, 1982 and was completed about
two months later, on September 11. A wide variety of locations were
used, such as
Porchester Hall

Porchester Hall in Queensway for the Mr. Creosote
sketch, where hundreds of pounds of fake vomit had to be cleaned up on
the last day due to a wedding being scheduled hours later. The Malham
Moors were chosen for the
Grim Reaper

Grim Reaper segment; the countryside near
Strathblane

Strathblane was used for the Zulu War; and "Every Sperm Is Sacred" was
shot at Elstree Studios.
The film was produced on a budget of less than US$10 million, which
was still bigger than that of the earlier films. This allowed for
large-scale choreography and crowd sequences, a more lavishly produced
soundtrack that included new original songs, much more time could be
spent on each sketch, especially The Crimson Permanent Assurance.
Palin later said that the larger budget, and not making the film for
the
BBC

BBC (i.e., television), allowed the film to be more daring and
dark.[2]
The idea for the hospital sketch came from Chapman, himself a
physician,[6] who had noticed that hospitals were changing, with "lots
and lots of machinery".[2] According to Palin, the organ transplant
scene harked back to Python's love of bureaucracy, and sketches with
lots of people coming round from the council with different bits of
paper.[2]
During the filming of the scene where Palin's character explains
Catholicism to his children, his line was "that rubber thing at the
end of my sock", which was later overdubbed with cock.[2]
The Crimson Permanent Assurance[edit]
Main article: The Crimson Permanent Assurance
The short film
The Crimson Permanent Assurance introduces the feature.
It is about a group of elderly office clerks working in a small
accounting firm. They rebel against yuppie corporate masters,
transform their office into a pirate ship, and raid a large financial
district.
The short was intended as an animated sequence in the feature,[7] for
placement at the end of Part V.[8] Gilliam convinced the other members
of
Monty Python

Monty Python to allow him to produce and direct it as a live action
piece instead.
Release[edit]
The original tagline read "It took God six days to create the Heavens
and the Earth, and
Monty Python

Monty Python just 90 minutes to screw it up"[9]
(the length of The Meaning of Life proper is 90 minutes, but becomes
107 minutes as released with the "Short Subject Presentation", The
Crimson Permanent Assurance). In an April 2012 re-release held by the
American Film Institute, the tagline is altered to read "It took God
six days to create the Heavens and the Earth, and
Monty Python

Monty Python just 1
hour and 48 minutes to screw it up".[10]
Ireland banned the film on its original release as it had previously
done with Monty Python's Life of Brian, but later rated it 15 when it
was released on video. In the United Kingdom the film was rated 18
when released in the cinema[1] and on its first release on video, but
was re-rated 15 in 2000. In the United States the film is rated R.[11]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The film opened in North America on 31 March 1983. At 257 theatres, it
ranked number six in the domestic box office, grossing US$1,987,853
($7,734 per screen) in its opening weekend. It played at 554 theatres
at its widest point, and its total North American gross was
$14,929,552.[3]
Critical reception[edit]
Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 and a half stars
out of four, calling it a "a barbed, uncompromising attack on
generally observed community standards".[12] In The New York Times,
Vincent Canby

Vincent Canby declared it "the Ben Hur of sketch films, which is to
say that it's a tiny bit out of proportion", concluding it was
amusing, but he wished it were consistently amusing.[11] Variety staff
assessed it as disgusting, ridiculous, tactless, but above all,
amusing.[13]
In 2007, Empire's Ian Nathan rated it three of five stars, describing
it as "too piecemeal and unfocused, but it possesses some of their
most iconic musings and inspired madness".[14] In 2014, The Daily
Telegraph gave the film four stars out of five.[15] In his 2015 Movie
Guide,
Leonard Maltin

Leonard Maltin awarded it three stars, calling it "A barrel of
bellylaughs", identifying the
Mr. Creosote

Mr. Creosote and "Every Sperm is Sacred"
sketches as the most memorable.[16] The review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 90%, based on 30 reviews,
with an average rating of 7.4/10.[17]
Accolades[edit]
The Meaning of Life was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 1983
Cannes Film Festival.[18] While the Cannes jury, led by William
Styron, were fiercely split on their opinions on several films in
competition, The Meaning of Life had general support, securing it the
second-highest honour after the
Palme d'Or
.svg/331px-Blason_ville_fr_Cannes_(Alpes-Maritimes).svg.png)
Palme d'Or for The Ballad of
Narayama.[19]
At the 37th British Academy Film Awards, Andre Jacquemin, Dave Howman,
Michael Palin

Michael Palin and
Terry Jones

Terry Jones were also nominated for Original Song
for "Every Sperm is Sacred." The award went to "Up Where We Belong" in
An Officer and a Gentleman.[20]
Home media[edit]
A two-disc
DVD

DVD release in 2003 features a documentary on production
and a director's cut,[21] which adds deleted scenes into the film,
making it 116 minutes. The first is The Adventures of Martin
Luther,[22] inserted after the scene with the Protestant couple
talking about condoms. The second is a promotional video about the
British army, which comes between the marching around the square scene
and the Zulu army scene. The third and last is an extension of the
American characters that Idle and Palin do; they are shown their room
and talk about tampons. In Region 1, it was released on
Blu-ray

Blu-ray to
mark its 30th anniversary.[23]
References[edit]
^ a b "MONTY PYTHON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE (18)". United International
Pictures. British Board of Film Classification. 26 April 1983.
Retrieved 21 July 2013.
^ a b c d e f g h Michael, Chris (30 September 2013). "How we made
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life". The Guardian. Retrieved
2013-10-01.
^ a b "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life". Box Office Mojo. Internet
Movie Database. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
^ McCall, Douglas (2013-11-12). Monty Python: A Chronology, 1969-2012,
2d ed. p97. McFarland. ISBN 9780786478118.
^ Boston.com Staff (27 December 2010). "Top 20 cult films, according
to our readers". boston.com. The Boston Globe. Retrieved 1 February
2016.
^ Ess, Ramsey (September 20, 2013). "Dick Cavett's Semi-Serious Talk
with Graham Chapman". Splitsider. The Awl. Retrieved September 21,
2015.
^ Hunter, I. Q.; Porter, Laraine (2012). British Comedy Cinema.
Routledge. p. 181. ISBN 0-415-66667-8.
^ McCabe, Bob (1999). Dark Knights and Holy Fools: The Art and Films
of Terry Gilliam: From Before Python to Beyond Fear and Loathing.
Universe. p. 106. ISBN 0-7893-0265-9.
^ Birkinshaw, Julian; Ridderstråle, Jonas (2017). "Linking Strategy
Back to Purpose". Fast/Forward: Make Your Company Fit for the Future.
Stanford University Press. ISBN 1503602311.
^ "
Monty Python

Monty Python at the Movies". American Film Institute. Retrieved 22
July 2017.
^ a b Canby, Vincent (31 March 1983). "MONTY PYTHON, 'THE MEANING OF
LIFE'". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
^ Ebert, Roger (1 April 1983). "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Movie Review (1983),". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 22 February
2016.
^ Staff (31 December 1982). "Review: Monty Python's The Meaning of
Life". Variety. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
^ Nathan, Ian (1 March 2007). "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Review". Empire. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
^ Chilton, Martin (20 April 2014). "Monty Python's The Meaning of
Life, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
^ Maltin, Leonard (2014). Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide. Penguin.
ISBN 0698183614.
^ "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster.
Retrieved 27 July 2014.
^ "Festival de Cannes: Monty Python's The Meaning of Life".
festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 12 January 2012.
Retrieved 16 June 2009.
^ Dionne, E.J., Jr. (20 May 1983). "JAPANESE FILM AWARDED TOP PRIZE AT
CANNES". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
^ "Original Song Written for a Film in 1984". British Academy of Film
and Television Arts. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
^ Murray, Noel (22 September 2003). "Monty Python's The Meaning Of
Life (
Special

Special Edition DVD)". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 22 July
2017.
^ "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life: 2-Disc Collector's Edition".
DVD

DVD Talk. 2 September 2003. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
^ Heilbron, Alexandra (8 October 2013). "Monty Python's The Meaning of
Life 30th Anniversary Blu-ray". Tribute. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
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