I think that creative tensions within the group by this point may have bled into the subject matter, and the sense that the Pythons were coming to an end perhaps added a nihilistic vibe.
There's a savagery to the satire, some stomach churning gore and violence, and some really cold cruelty at points - 'Your mother died this morning' to a small child, beating up children on the rugby pitch, leading young boys and girls off for scientific experimentation, waving babies around, ripping a man's organs out with pipe cutters as he screams and screams (while flirting with his wife) etc. In the other Python films the victims of violence seem to be indifferent to, or even enjoy, the brutality enacted on them (like crucifixion or dismemberment) - here there is real suffering.
Meaning Of Life doesn't so much poke fun at religion etc as stab it in the back and mercilessly twist the knife. I enjoy the film but the comedy is overwhelmed by the horribly sinister universe in which it takes place.
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gollumsmeagolrocks
8 years ago
I did notice the tone felt extremely askew compared to other Python films. Don't mean to say the film is a load of rubbish, but when you think about what made the films work it really comes down to a simple formula...
The TV-Show was a smaller, shorter format. They could have completely unrelated skits that begin and end at the beginning and ending of a skit. But they learned rather quickly from "And Now For Something Completely Different" that they can't have unrelated skits on screen for an hour and a half.
That's why that film failed where "Monty Python And The Holy Grail" and "Life Of Brian" succeeded. To create and entire movie required some sort of connective tissue. Each skit in both of these two films was a scene, just one point in a story which was used to connect it all. Thus, it was using the fullest variety of humor available from one subject.
The problem with "The Meaning Of Life" is not only that the tone of humor is completely different (no pun intended) from the rest of Monty Python's material, but the skits aren't really that connected at all. They go back to what didn't work for a feature length Monty Python movie in "And Now For Something Completely Different" (these completelys are driving me completely insane!) in the sense that the skits were all just random skits thrown onto the screen, not strung together in any way. It would work if it wasn't implied that the film was supposed to be in some way connected. But that's the problem! The title pretty much says the skits will all in some way relate back to the meaning of life where it seems the movie is more like a summary of life. There's so much more Monty Python could have done with just the subject of the discovery of the meaning of life than with random skits that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter of the film.
~NW~
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Drooch (5333)
2 years ago
Maybe they knew they were coming to an end and just grabbed every unfinished sketch idea and ones that were previously abandoned for being too nasty/dark/grotesque/disgusting and just rolled it all together under the absurdly broad ‘Meaning Of Life’ banner.
The result is truly bizarre - a surreal nightmare with sorta funny bits.
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