Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7438 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-12-17
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 86 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Perhaps only the collective brilliant minds of the Monty Python film and television troupe are up to the task of tackling a subject as weighty as the Meaning of Life. Sure, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, and their ilk have tried their hands at this puzzler, but only Python has attempted to do so within the commercial motion picture medium. Happily for us all, Monty Python's the Meaning of Life truly explains everything one conceivably needs to know about the perplexities of human existence, from the mysteries of Catholic doctrine to the miracle of reproduction to why one should avoid the salmon mousse to the critical importance of the machine that goes ping! Using fish as a linking device (and what marvelous links those aquatic creatures make), The Meaning of Life is presented as a series of sketches: a musical production number about why seed is sacred; a look at dining in the afterlife; the quest for a missing fish (there they are again); a visit from Mr. Death; the cautionary tale of Mr. Creosote and his rather gluttonous appetite; an unflinching examination of the harsh realities of organ donation, and so on. Sadly, this was the last original Python film, but it's a beaut. You'll laugh. You'll cry (probably because you're laughing so hard). You may even learn something about the Meaning of Life. Or at least about how fish fit into the grand scheme of things. --Jim Emerson

Synopsis
The Monty Python team get together for this last feature-length outing. The Pythons explain it all in this episodic, bawdy adventure as they satirise religion, birth control, British politics, Americans, hospitals and of course sex. Amongst the highlights are the "Every Sperm is Sacred" episode that starts off the film, and the grim reaper visiting a bourgeois dinner party where there are some fishy goings on, and the gross Mr Creosote.

Customer Reviews

Good - but could have been better...
They couldn't find a theme that allowed the film to flow the way that "Grail" and "Brian" did. The film feels disjointed and uneven, and would always rate behind the other two movies for that reason.

Having said that, some of their finest and funniest stuff is in this film - "Crimson Permanent Assurance", "Every Sperm Is Sacred", & "Mr Creosote" leave me helpless every time. Other sketches have a fair number of laughs (especially when "Crimson Permanent Assurance" breaks back into the main film), though other sketches ("Fishy, Fishy, Fishy" for instance) make you wonder whether Chapman was back on the booze when it was written.

The piece de resistance, though, comes immediately after "Every Sperm...". Graham Chapman & Eric Idle play the Protestants who live across from Palin & Jones' Catholic Family; the writing and acting come together so perfectly that I'd have to rate that short sketch as the culmination, the zenith, of all things Python. Almost worth buying for that short sketch alone.

Funniest film ever!
This is one of the funniest Monty Python films ever. From the start with the Crimson Premium Assurance Insurance Company to the end, it's pure quality. A must see for all Monty Python fans.

The Breakaway Python Project
Monty Python's final attempt of a third feature film, the Meaning of Life, looked as if it was "really" starting to drain the team out. They had come this far with famous montolagues like the dead parrot sketch, the crudy animation links, the Spanish Inquistion and Bicycle Repair Man, that it seemed as if they had reached their peak with Brian and they were now at their end of their tether.

The material can be rather tedious, fruitless and aganising to watch, even dated in some cases, like the mention of Betamax video system and the numerous Jaws films, the set especially for Heaven and things like this.

Some scenes were fun to watch, even joyous, especially the Every Sperm is Sacred, protraying a rather insulting tongue-in-cheek reference to the povetry in Industrial Yorkshire as so poor, it can be compared to a third world country. Others were embarrasing, like the waiter taking us on a journey to his own birth place.

Monty Python and their creative control was finished, it was no more and now it was time to seek new things to do with their spare time, they had changed as people and their oppertunities deepened. Palin went into travel, Gilliam went into full-time film directing, Jones went into History (something he had studied at University) and Cleese became a comedian. Only Chapham never found a profession to stick with, which was a big shame.

Grace the material that is here and disgard the rest.