A Book about the Film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life: All the References from Americans to Zulu Nation

by Darl Larsen

Overview

This reference identifies and explains the cultural, historical, and topical allusions in the filmMonty Python’s Meaning of Life, the Pythons’ third and final original feature as a complete group. In this resource, virtually every allusion and reference that appears in the film is identified and explained —from Britain’s waning Empire through the Winter of Discontent to Margaret Thatcher’s second-term mandate, from playing fields to battle fields, and from accountant pirates to sacred sperm. Organized chronologically by scene, the entries cover literary and metaphoric allusions, symbolisms, names, peoples, and places; as well as the many social, cultural, and historical elements that populate this film, and the Pythons’ work in general.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538115978
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/29/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	444
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Darl Larsen is professor in the Media Arts department and the Center for Animation at Brigham Young University, where he teaches film and animation studies and screenwriting. He is the author of Monty Python, Shakespeare, and English Renaissance Drama (2003), Monty Python’s Flying Circus: An Utterly Complete, Thoroughly Unillustrated, Absolutely Unauthorized Guide to Possibly All the References (2013), A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (2015), and A Book about the Film Monty Python’s Life of Brian (2018).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Abbreviations

SCENE 1 The Crimson Permanent Assurance

SCENE 2 Fish Tank

SCENE 3 Animated Opening Titles

SCENE 4 Part I: The Miracle of Birth—Labor and Delivery

SCENE 5 Part I: The Miracle of Birth, Part 2: The Third World—

“Every Sperm Is Sacred”

SCENE 6 Part I: The Miracle of Birth, Part 2: The Third World—Protestantism

SCENE 7 The Adventures of Martin Luther (Elided Scene)

SCENE 8 Part II: Growth and Learning—School Chapel

SCENE 9 Part II: Growth and Learning—Sex Education Class

SCENE 10 Part II: Growth and Learning—Rugby Football vs. the Masters

SCENE 11 Part III: Fighting Each Other—World War I

SCENE 12 Part III: Fighting Each Other—Military Lecture

SCENE 13 Part III: Fighting Each Other—Marching Up and Down the Square

SCENE 14 Part III: Fighting Each Other—First Zulu War 1879

SCENE 15 Part III: Fighting Each Other—Tiger Skin

SCENE 16 The Middle of the Film: Find the Fish

SCENE 17 Part IV: Middle Age—Conversation Restaurant

SCENE 18 Part V: Live Organ Transplants

SCENE 19 Part V: Live Organ Transplants—“Universe Song”

SCENE 20 Attack of the Supporting Feature

SCENE 21 Part VI: The Autumn Years—Mr. Creosote

SCENE 22 Part VI: The Autumn Years—Gaston Goes Home

SCENE 23 Part VII: Death—The Death of Arthur Jarrett

SCENE 24 Part VII: Death—Falling Leaves (Animation)

SCENE 25 Part VII: Death—Mr. Death Comes to Dinner

SCENE 26 Part VII: Death—“It’s Christmas in Heaven”

SCENE 27 The End of the Film

SCENE 28 End Credits

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

05/11/2020

Larsen (Monty Python’s Flying Circus), a film and animation professor at Brigham Young University, presents an exhaustive, and sometimes exhausting look at Monty Python’s last film, 1983’s The Meaning of Life. Larsen posits that the film is a pessimistic look at life during the time of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. For example, the film’s opening featurette of elderly office accountants rebelling against their corporate masters is a deep critique of America’s “financial dominance” of London, which created the conditions for Thatcher’s “strict sado-monetarist policies had proven so effective at reducing inflation, but also reducing employment.” No line in the film is without comment (some lines get a tedious multiparagraph examination). A brutal look at hospital childbirth in “Every Sperm Is Sacred” is shown to be a part of England’s 1980s debate “about skyrocketing health care costs and the seeming inability to control its spending or quality of care.” And the film’s final sketch, a parody of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, hammers on upper-middle-class Thatcherites diminishing the specter of Death by trying to treat him “as an adorable local.” Hard-core Monty Python fans will be thoroughly delighted, but those with a more casual interest would do fine sticking with the film. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

07/24/2020

In 1983, British comedy troupe Monty Python released their third and final theatrical release, Monty Python's the Meaning of Life, a series of sketches tracing life from birth to death and beyond. Their humor was satirical and surreal, laced with cultural and historical references and clearly written by smart people who enjoyed being very silly. Larsen (A Book About the Film Monty Python's Life of Brian) meticulously dissects the film scene by scene (and often line by line), delving into what topics, including boarding schools or tinned salmon, would have meant to the Pythons and also how they would have been received by 1980s film audiences. A sketch on the Zulu War, for example, would have called to mind the twilight of the British Empire, the previous year's Falklands War, and recent earnest films about the war. Larsen isn't seeking to amplify the film's humor; instead he's edifying the reader. Beyond capturing the zeitgeist through the use of contemporary references, he uses scenes from the film as entry points to limn British history. He admits the Pythons may not have always intended allegory, but Larsen can use their material to discuss the austerity of postwar Britain, the rise of Margaret Thatcher, or the coal mining industry. VERDICT Larsen teeters between exhaustive and exhausting in this comprehensive approach to drawing meaning from The Meaning of Life. For die-hard Monty Python fans.—Terry Bosky, Madison, WI

Library Journal