 While I consider my intro to Python to be 'And Now for Something Completely Different', technically speaking, it was the first sketch from this film; 'The Crimson Permanent Assurance'. It was basically a bunch of old man pirates who cause a mutiny of their office building. Yeah, it's really out there. But at the time, it was something fun our parents were showing the kids.
Of course, being kids, our parents were pretty reluctant to allow us to watch the rest of the film. Admittedly, having seen it many times since my childhood, I can say this is easily their raunchiest film and that it's no wonder we weren't allowed to watch it. This one takes a step away from the narrative style that 'Holy Grail' and 'Life of Brian' carried with them, going back to a sort of anthology of new sketches having to do with the various stages of life. In a very weird way, it ends up being a dark comedy, but a feel-good film all at once. I feel this is largely due to it covering a lot of the more suggestive aspects of life, like sexual education, or even coming face to face with death himself. There's also just really physically gross stuff going on here, like an obese man who doesn't stop throwing up, or a baby who simply falls out of its mother's womb and onto the floor. However, with all that said, there's something incredibly appealing about the raunchiness of this movie, seeing as it's so ridiculously over the top and laughable. This isn't like 'American Pie' where the raunchiness is pretty abundant, but situations that can potentially actually happen. This is completely exaggerated to the point where you can't really help but laugh. Like, when I say that guy doesn't stop throwing up, her really doesn't. The only thing that's ever come close to matching it is the throw-up scene in 'Team America'. But for my money, this is also the title with the best soundtrack. While 'Life of Brian' has a couple of good songs to it, this has tunes about sperm being sacred, how vast the galaxy is, Christmas in Heaven, someone randomly singing about how nice it is to have a penis, and of course, the Meaning of Life theme itself. Indeed, this title was a pretty solid way for Python to close their act. They didn't do much at all after this as a team, and it's more likely that general audiences are mostly familiar with the likes of John Cleese and Eric Idle, who went on to probably become the most mainstream of the group. Terry Gilliam as well, but he became more of an overall filmmaker than a face on the screen. As for Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman, Graham has since passed on, and Michael and Terry just kinda faded away. They were still around, but their names were mainly still associated with Python. And so, this closes out Python Month. Hopefully a few of these suggestions have encouraged my audience to seek some of these titles out. But for as much as I'm suggesting people see them, be forewarned that these movies are of the most random British humour, and may not be for everyone. But the beautiful thing about Python is that not liking it, or not getting it, are things the whole crew expected right from the get-go. There's an audience for this stuff, and I'm a part of it, but do bear in mind that I embrace the weird and random.
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 The only other film that the Python troop ever did with a narrative, piecing together various sketches, was 'LIfe of Brian'. The interesting bit of history behind this one, is that its funding came from none other than George Harrison, simply because he wanted to see it. Without George, this film may never have existed. For some of the more religious at heart, that might sound like a good thing, but for me, this film represents everything that inspired 'South Park', and other movies and shows that have pushed the envelope, and ever-teetering on that offensive line.
This came out in 1979, so a lot of this stuff was still taboo. However, 'Life of Brian' was largely made with the idea in mind that Python wanted their audience to decide on such complex and controversial issues, such as religion, for themselves. In its own way, it's the most clever of all of Python's material. But again, the controversy behind this one was pretty huge. The story, in question, follows Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman); your average, everyday guy who is eventually mistaken for being the one true Messiah, by many, rather than Jesus Christ. So yeah, you can see where controversy might enter into it, as when you bring religion into things, it's just all out war (often for real). But with that said, far too many people have completely missed the point of the film. Again, it was made for people to think on these issues and subjects, rather than just be sheep. It furthermore largely satirizes people who follow blindly, and just how ridiculous it can all get. Now, allow me to give my own religious views really quickly. I remain an agnostic. I tend to lean towards how much science has shown me, and take it from there. But there's still the mysteries of what lies beyond our universe, as well. And what about before the Big Bang? What was going on? Agree with me or not, one must admit that there are still a lot of unanswered questions out there. So COULD there be some sort of higher power, like me with an ant in a trap? I don't really see why not. With all that said, I love that this movie came along with balls enough to say "Y'know what, we need to question this whole religion thing. We need to challenge it, and show people that other thoughts on the subject exist". Other people in the world were already doing this, but the entertainment industry was only getting darker with it, using the occult for a large chunk of horror. 'Life of Brian' is practically Monty Python's unapologetic middle finger to all that, saying "look how silly you're being", and horror actually did move from largely occult to largely slasher after that. I'm not saying this movie was the cause, but I might suggest that perhaps a nudge was made by it. 'Halloween' was the film that really launched it, made one year before this, I know. But still, it's just neat to think about the possibility that this might have helped move it along. Now, let's just bear in mind that this is all just my own theories, so if I'm way off, feel free to correct me. Anyway, moving forward, I kinda feel like this is a Python film that got swept under the rug due to its overall controversy. There are still people who hate it today for the same reasons, I'm sure. But I'd encourage people to give it a chance, because it does send the message of the potential silliness behind some of these things. People will jump to the conclusion that it's making fun of Jesus, but it's really more of a satire on his followers. It's kinda like taking 'Team America' and recognizing it as a satire on the American Government's often ignorant and destructive ways rather than just a film that makes fun of different races. In other words, there's a bigger picture to be seen. It won't be for everyone, but I'd still encourage people to try, if only to see what their own thoughts are regarding its controversy.  'And Now For Something Completely Different' ended up doing a pretty damn good job introducing America to the likes of the Python troop. But as I said before, if that wasn't your introduction to Monty Python, odds are, it was this. It has become a cult classic comedy, for many. I'd go as far as to say that if you hear anyone quote Python, the chances of the quote being from this film, among any other, is pretty damn high.
On a personal level, I consider this to be my favourite comedy of all time, and it's what I use to try to introduce people to the whackiness of Python. However, I generally mention how incredibly strange and random it is, and if you can't get through this film, then Python is just not for you. It takes throwing your brain out the window and just sitting back for the fun of it in order to enjoy it. No one making this stuff took it seriously at all, nor should any viewer. Python was simply about the laughs, and this film is LOADED with some of the best. Unlike 'Completely Different', this film actually divides the different sketches up, using a narrative. King Arthur (Graham Chapman), his trusty sidekick, Patsy (Terry Gilliam), Sir Bedevere (Terry Jones), Sir Lancelot (John Cleese), Sir Galahad (Michael Palin) and Sir Robin (Eric Idle) are one day charged from God with a sacred quest, to find the Holy Grail. They all set out on their separate ways in order to find clues that will lead them to it, but come across a handful of comical characters instead. Among the more famous, people will have probably heard of the Black Knight, the French Taunter, Tim the Enchanter, the Knights who say "Ni", and even a killer rabbit. The whole thing ends up being incredibly silly in the end, but in every good way Python does it. No word of a lie, and without spoiling much, the end of the film quite literally stops dead. For some reason, what they decide to do, works incredibly well for what this is. Again, much like most things Python, one is gonna need the right frame of mind going into this. Basically, if you want to criticize and nitpick about how stupid this is, it's absolutely futile. In the troop's own way, they want you to think it's ridiculous - in fact, the more ridiculous, the better. But if you can manage it, I'll always highly recommend this film to fans of comedy. As a matter of fact, if you love comedy and you've never seen this, then you're missing out on a whole, wonderful and random branch of classic comedy. While it may not have won much in the way of awards, is still worth viewing, especially if you like all things "silly".  This month, I'm going over the four mainstream films brought to us by British comedy troop - Monty Python (John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam).
You know how something completely random and out of the blue can be hilarious? Well, Python kinda pioneered that whole idea. Without it, Trey Parker and Matt Stone might not have even had the inspiration for 'South Park'. No really, check it out! This particular film marks their first, and represents their sort of breakthrough to America. For almost any North American fan of Python, chances are, it all started with this, or 'Holy Grail'. For me, it was this. It was on one night, and we watched it as a family, all the while laughing our asses off at how incredibly random and funny it all was. What we have here, is essentially a "best of", taking skits from the first two seasons of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' (their sketch comedy show) and somewhat improving them. Each sketch is linked together by some of Terry Gilliam's strange but funny animation, it's about an hour and a half, and there's hardly anything more to be said. The bad news is, this is a title that's seemingly pretty hard to come by. Even Netflix (Canada) has basically everything they've done except for this. The good news is that most of it can be found on YouTube in bits and pieces. I'd highly recommend looking for sketches like 'The Hungarian Phrasebook', 'Self Defense Against Fresh Fruit', 'The Dead Parrot' and 'The Upper Class Twit of the Year'. Fair warning, it's all very silly, but that's really the whole point. There's not a lot more to be said about it, but I will end this by saying that if you're absolutely unfamiliar with Python's work, this is definitely a good place to start. I do know some out there simply can't be bothered because it's just too stupid. But I'll ask you to bear in mind that these guys were well-aware that what they were doing was stupid. Somehow, it all worked out in the end though. I suppose this supplies living proof that, indeed, sometimes you just wanna sit and watch something while your brain gets tossed out the window. |
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