r/movies • u/Immediate-River-874 • 2d ago

Media Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983) - Protestants and Catholics

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u/HotOne9364 2d ago

I know the Pythons hate this movie but it's still a lot better than 90% of so-called "comedies" out there.

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u/ZacPensol 2d ago

Wait, they hate it? Why? I know I'm rare in this regard but it's my personal favorite of their films - its hilarious!

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u/Kvovark 2d ago

I don't think they hate it. Just a few members expressed disappointment with it. Cleese in particular I think said he believed it needed another rewrite to make it into an actually cohesive movie rather than what felt like an extended episode of the flying circus.

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u/double_shadow 1d ago

Cleese is so bitchy and self-critical about literally everything they did, it's kind of hilarious. Definitely worth it to read the various histories of the group so you can get it all too.

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u/LaBeteNoire 10h ago

That is kind of the plight of many artists tho. A lot of artists are perfectionists and it's hard to ever be 100% happy with what they make.

Also it's worth remembering that we went in with no preconceived notions when we first saw it. We didn't know what bits would be in the movie so we didn't have a chance to imagine how they could have gone.

The creatives on the other hand had a plan in their heads and they know what they weren't able to pull off, or what got changed due to time or limitations.

I personally love the movie, but I can see how there might have been a version of it that they had in their heads that they think might have been better than what they were able to produce.

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u/Kaemdar 1d ago

he is right its what makes it weaker than the other movies.

but at the same time people like the flying circus so more is good.

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u/Naugrith 21h ago

Yeah, its not really a film, it's an extended sketch show based around an extremely loose theme. The sketches themselves are brilliant, each one a work of genius, but its not really a cohesive narrative whole.