The Meaning of Life

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with the short film The Crimson Permanent Assurance, where a group of elderly office clerks work 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 rest of the film is split into seven chapters made up of distinct sketches.
The first, "The Miracle of Birth", 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 jobs and returns home, instructing his children on the church's opposition to contraception, leading to the musical number "Every Sperm is Sacred", before selling his children off for scientific experiments. 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 make love to his wife as part of their sex education. One boy laughs, and is forced into a violent rugby match against the teachers as punishment. "Fighting Each Other" first focuses on a 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 restaurant and dislike the literal conversation offered by the waiters about the meaning of life. "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 return to invade a corporate boardroom discussing the meaning of life, but a tumbling skyscraper ends their assault.
"The Autumn Years" features a posh restaurant being visited by the horribly obese Mr. Creosote, who 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 falls into his own grave below. The Grim Reaper 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 to Heaven, depicted as a Las Vegas-style hotel in perpetual Christmas, where a Tony Bennett-lookalike performs "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." She then introduces the end credits.

Tags: comedy, psychedelic, philosophical

Review:
Amplify the Ping Machine!. I really don't think there is a better exposure you can get to British humor than the Python group and while I'm sure I'll be threatened with many a flesh wound, this movie is their most hilarious, mostly because instead of telling a cohesive story, it contains shorter vignettes of the stages of life that allowed them to pack in the lunacy without being contained within an extended storyline. There's the absurd and unsentimental miracle of birth, bashing Catholics and a musical number about sperm, live demonstration in a sexual education class, the casual nature of British military commanders, the repulsive last meal of the world's fattest man, organ donation and finally, death and a glimpse of heaven. So much timeless ridiculousness. If you haven't seen it, get your head out of your arse and do. 9/10. Not classic 'Python,' but still better than most of today's offerings. First of all, are you a 'Python' fan? If the answer is 'no' then you'll probably hate The Meaning of Life. If, on the other hand, the answer is 'yes' then there stands a chance that you'll like it.Casual fans of the Pythons may not have followed their exploits over their six TV series and only seen their previous films - The Life of Brian and The Holy Grail. Those two were indeed classics - brilliantly written, with plenty of laughs and a great (if surreal) storyline.Perhaps that's the reason The Meaning of Life was not as well received. For a start it's not a story. It's basically a sketch show, loosely tied together with the theme of searching for the meaning of life (obvious, huh?). And, with any sketch show, some of them work and some don't.Even a die hard Python fan such as myself couldn't see the humour in the opening (short) film entitled 'The Crimson Permanent Assurance.' I actually skip that opening segment completely as I barely raise a smile at any of it.However, this is Python after all and, with every 'miss' there are still plenty of 'hits,' most famously of all the (disgustingly) hilarious 'Mr Creosote' sketch which deserves a mention simply because of its brilliant make-up.So, if you're not expecting a film up to Brian/Grail's standards and are prepared for a few lulls in the humour, then give this a go. It may not be up to the highest standard of Python, but it's still better than most of the 'comedies' around today.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/