- This page is about the Monty Python film; for the philosophical concept, see meaning of life.
The Meaning of Life was a Monty Python comedy film made in 1983. This film was
essentially a series of comedy skits about the various stages of life - in some ways a return to the sketch comedy format of the
original television series.
The resulting film is regarded as a little uneven, though which particular scenes are thought funny varies from person to
person. Some more generally praised scenes include:
- The Crimson Permanent
Assurance, originally conceived by Terry Gilliam as a 6-minute
animated sequence, later expanded to a 16-minute live-action piece, to the point
where it no longer fit into the framework of the film and became a pre-movie short
film in its own right. In an early satire of globalization, elderly
traditional office clerks rebel against their cold, efficient corporate masters at The Very Big Corporation of America, commandeer
their building and turn it into a pirate
ship, raiding financial
districts in numerous big cities before falling off the edge of the world.
There are echoes of Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981).
- The Miracle of Birth, Part I, is the opening scene of the film proper, where a woman in labour is ignored by doctors, nurses, Japanese tourists, and eventually
the hospital's administrator as they drag in more and more elaborate equipment,
including "the machine that goes PING!".
- The Miracle of Birth part II, which shows a Catholic family in industrial Yorkshire, England that has to sell their 63
children for medical experiments, because they don't believe in birth control. The skit culminates in the musical number "Every
Sperm is Sacred"[1] (http://www.taboo-breaker.org/religion/sperm.htm), a parody combining "Consider Yourself" from
the musical Oliver! with the ragamuffin dancing orphans of Annie, released the previous year. The segment satirises the Catholic Church's attitudes to
contraception and masturbation and follows with a burlesque of Protestant tolerance, always available but somehow never
used.
- Growth and Learning, in which a group of schoolboys watch in boredom as their
teacher (John Cleese) demonstrates sexual techniques with his wife.
- Fighting Each Other, in which World War I soldiers preparing to charge to their deaths have a few little gifts in
appreciation of their commander, including a grandfather clock.
- The Middle of the Film, in which Palin, as a woman, intoduces Find The Fish.
- Find The Fish, a sendup of surreal art house films, in which a drag queen,
a gangly playboy, and an elephant-headed butler (in fact dressed in the costume of a troll from Time Bandits) ponder the
location of a fish. The living room set was actually part of the operations floor at the former Battersea Power Station, Wandsworth.
- Live Organ Transplants, in which an organ donor card holder has his organs forcibly removed in his own front room.
- Galaxy Song, in which a man in a pink suit (Eric Idle) emerges from Mrs.
Brown's refrigerator to sing her a song about the wonders of the universe, all in an attempt to convince her to make an immediate liver donation.
- Middle Age, in which a husband and wife make a valiant attempt to discuss Philosophy they have ordered from a menu of
conversations.
- A Noel Cowardesque song about penises.
- Mr. Creosote, in which the eponymous gourmand, an impossibly fat man played by Terry Jones, waddles into a decorous restaurant, swears
at the waiter (Cleese), vomits copiously, eats an enormous meal while vomiting into
buckets, and finally — after being persuaded to eat one last "wafer-thin mint" by the
impeccable French waiter — explodes, showering the restaurant with offal.
- Social Death, in which a group of snobs at an isolated country house are visited by the Grim Reaper (Cleese), and spend a lot of time arguing
with him before finally being persuaded to leave the mortal coil.
- Christmas in Heaven as a night club act
- The End of the Film in which Palin, as a woman, concludes the film by reading out "the meaning of life".
Because the film was not intended for television, some scenes shows a much more black humour than the Monty Python TV series (for example Mr Creosote
or Human Organ Transplantation sketch).
In 2004 a "special edition" DVD was released with
director's commentary, deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes documentaries, both real and spoof.
During the title sequence, the title of the movie is first written as "The Meaning of Liff", and is corrected in a second by a
lightning strike. This appears to allude to the humorous dictionary Meaning of Liff (by Douglas Adams and
John Lloyd), released in the same year as the movie.
Ireland banned the film on original release, like it did
The Life of Brian, but was then rated 15 when it was released on video.
In Britain, it was rated 18
when released in the cinema and on its first release on video, but was re-rated 15 in 2000.
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