The comedy team takes a look at life in all of its stages in their own uniquely silly way.
Take a look back at these Hollywood icons in their early days to see how far they've come in their careers—and how little they've visibly aged.
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Title: The Meaning of Life (1983)
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Plot Summary
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Plot Synopsis
Storyline
Why are we here, what's it all about? The Monty Python team is trying to sort out the most important question on Earth: what is the meaning of life? They do so by exploring the various stages of life, starting with birth. A doctor seems more interested in his equipment than in delivering the baby or caring for the mother, a Roman Catholic couple have quite a lot of children because "every sperm is sacred". In the growing and learning part of life, Catholic schoolboys attend a rather strange church service and ditto sex education lesson. Onto war, where an officer's plan to attack is thwarted by his underlings wanting to celebrate his birthday, and an officer's leg is bitten off by presumably an African tiger. At middle age, a couple orders "philosophy" at a restaurant, after which, the movie continues with live organ transplants. The autumn years are played in a restaurant, which, after being treated to the song "Isn't It Awfully Nice to Have a Penis?" by an entertainer, sees the ... Written by Arnoud Tiele (imdb@tiele.nl)
Taglines:
It took God six days to create the earth, and Monty Python just 90 minutes to screw it up. See more »Parents Guide:
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[points to the Old Lady]
"Captain" - Old Man taking charge after the Revolt: And you! Put the kettle on.
Old Lady (segment "The Crimson Permanent Assurance"): [salutes] Righto!
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Lyrics Eric Idle
Music by Eric Idle & John Du Prez
Performed by Eric Idle
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Did You Know?
Trivia
Graham Chapman, who was openly gay, asked to play God in this movie because he was frustrated at the Church of England for refusing to marry him and his partner, David Sherlock. At the time, same-sex marriage was not legal in the United Kingdom, nor recognized by the Church of England. See more »Goofs
When Mr. Creosote throws up for the first time in the movie, traces of vomit can be seen on the floor prior to his vomiting, presumably leftovers from previous takes/rehearsals. See more »Quotes
"Captain" - Old Man taking charge after the Revolt: [introductory segment "The Crimson Permanent Assurance"] Now, lads, let's move! You, you, and you, break open the weapons. You, you, and you, into the rigging.[points to the Old Lady]
"Captain" - Old Man taking charge after the Revolt: And you! Put the kettle on.
Old Lady (segment "The Crimson Permanent Assurance"): [salutes] Righto!
See more »
Crazy Credits
Not the Production Accountant....................Steve Abbott See more »Alternate Versions
Film prints and early video releases contain narration over the "Our [Short] Feature Presentation" pretitle cards that is not present on later video releases (such as later VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray). Both are in a low male voice. The first one says "There will be a short film of approximately ten minutes before our feature presentation" (even though the short film is about 16 minutes), and the second one, over a short organ fanfare, says "And now, our feature presentation." Later versions leave these completely silent. See more »Soundtracks
Galaxy SongLyrics Eric Idle
Music by Eric Idle & John Du Prez
Performed by Eric Idle
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Details
Country:
UKLanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
31 March 1983 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life See more »Filming Locations:
Cartwright Hall, Lister Park, North Park Road, Manningham, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK See more »Edit
Box Office
Budget:
$9,000,000 (estimated)Opening Weekend USA:
$1,987,853, 3 April 1983Gross USA:
$14,929,552Cumulative Worldwide Gross:
$14,949,697Company Credits
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The Meaning of Life finds the Monty Python boys going back to their Flying Circus roots in a film that examines the many stages of life, and reduces them all to the absurdity that one would expect from these six loons. A very neat short film from Terry Gilliam starts off this search for the meaning of life and we go from birth, to examining the benefits of being a Prostestant. From there we are treated to war, live organ transplants, a very bizarre middle section of the film, sex education, Terry Jones puking and exploding in what has to be one of the most disgusting but extremely funny scenes ever committed to film. It all leads up to death, and I personally like Grahm Chapman's way of execution. It all winds up in Heaven, where every day is Christmas and it's all set up like a Las Vegas lounge show. At the end, Michael Palin gives us the meaning of life. I think he's right.