Monty Python's Flying Circus

[Quot]

This is devastating to read about. My heart goes out to Terry's family. I really hope things work for the best.

Terry J has been my close friend and workmate for over fifty years. The progress of his dementia has been painful to watch and the news announced yesterday that he has a type of aphasia which is gradually depriving him of the ability to speak is about the cruellest thing that could befall someone to whom words, ideas, arguments, jokes and stories were once the stuff of life. Not that Terry is out of circulation. He spends time with his family and only two days ago I met up with him for one of our regular meals at his local pub. Howard Johnson, an American friend of Python, was in town and took this picture. Terry doesn’t say very much but he smiles, laughs, recognises and responds, and I’m always pleased to see him. Long may that last.

[StevenJ0001]

Utterly heartbreaking.

[Randall Maysin]

I'm in tears, he's my favorite of the bunch.

[Roger Ryan]

The same day that Jones' condition was made public, it was announced that Python-associate Terence Bayler had passed away last month. He had a memorable small part in Life of Brian, but I'll always remember him as Rutles' manager "Leggy Mountbatten" in Eric Idle's All You Need Is Cash.

Jones' condition makes that final set of Python live performances in London two years ago all the more poignant.

[beamish13]

I remember reading that Jones, Palin and Gilliam all live within walking distance of each other, so at least he has a great support network to help him.

[Quot]

[domino harvey]

Revisited Monty Python's the Meaning of Life for the first time in probably 25 years at least. Even when I was going through my middle school Monty Python phase this one seemed like mostly duds, and going back to it and "getting" more of the jokes doesn't do this film any particular favors. The biggest problem here is that much of this material, far too much, isn't funny. I checked the time and it took about 45 minutes before I even laughed. This must be one of the few films I can think of where the middle is significantly better than what came before it or after it. I think the format here really hobbled the troupe because they were stuck with certain skits in the beginning and end of the film thematically and these are amongst the least funny. I also found the "outre" material quite desperate and pathetic-- the sketches that work best are those that could have appeared on their show, like the extended farewell sequence in a foxhole, or the tiger attack. It's also somewhat telling that no one remembers or talks about these sketches when discussing this film, preferring the bold but rather empty theatrics of the more flashy sequences (the vomit scene is a great example of this film's great restraint in exploring a comic idea beyond presentation of the premise and instead hammering the same nail over and over, though it at least commits to the bit by being disgusting throughout). I also question the incessant songs here, wherein the mere fact that we're hearing a song (many, many songs) in this movie is supposed to be inherently funny. I don't know bros, it's not hard to see the car had very little gas left in it by this point for the troupe...

[beamish14]

John Cleese extolling the virtues of the brave men who died trying to “keep China British” has become one of my single favorite Python moments

Visually, the whole film is amazing, and I’m always floored by the miniatures in Crimson Permanent Assurance

[Beloved Aunt]

"Every Sperm is Sacred" is at least roughly as great a Python song as "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", I'd love to live in a world where they could have both won Academy awards. I've always thought this was the weakest Python film too, but it definitely has its moments....could the excessive influence of Gilliam perhaps be a contributing factor to its weaknesses? Just a thought, I don't know a darn thing about the production. It's certainly the most/only pretentious and disjointed of the three flicks, and a fair number of the segments are total duds, especially the interminable one featuring Death.

[Beloved Aunt]

I don't even remember any of the other songs...!

[Noiretirc]

Is it weird that I think MOL is the best Python? Not everything in it works perfectly, but even LOB has a few sagging moments. I'm thrilled that they ended with a very loosely connected series of sketches. The songs are the best ever in Python. Every Sperm Is Sacred gets me teary eyed every single time I see it - through laughter and through the emotional weight of the scene. Better than Consider Yourself! The Middle Of The Movie (fishy fishy) might be one of the very greatest moments of avant gard a clue in all of cinema. Creosote can never be unseen. The Sex Lesson cannot be beaten for sheer courage and cringe. I could go on and on...but stop following me...fuck you...

I am so happy that this film exists.

[TechnicolorAcid]

I don't even remember any of the other songs...!

I really liked The Galaxy Song which I remember being strangely beautiful despite its ultimate message being how insignificant humans are in the span of the universe

[Noiretirc]

I don't even remember any of the other songs...!

I really liked The Galaxy Song which I remember being strangely beautiful despite its ultimate message being how insignificant humans are in the span of the universe

Cleese was right: Not only is it the best song in Python...it is one of The Greatest Songs Ever. Period.

[TechnicolorAcid]

I don't even remember any of the other songs...!

I really liked The Galaxy Song which I remember being strangely beautiful despite its ultimate message being how insignificant humans are in the span of the universe

Cleese was right: Not only is it the best song in Python...it is one of The Greatest Songs Ever. Period.

Well I wouldn’t go that far

[Beloved Aunt]

Chapman, Idle and Gilliam are the members of the troupe for whom I have any criticism at all. This is just my layman's perspective, although I have followed all their careers relatively closely and own some Python books and stuff, I can't really remember a damn thing about who contributed what to the series or the films. Let's face it, with all due respect, Idle can be a bit of a sell-out, pounding that Spamalot stuff pretty hard (is Spamalot any good though?) I love almost all of what I've seen of Terry G.'s solo filmmaking career, but I don't really perceive much of a positive contribution to the series. I like some of his animation, Crimson Permanent Assurance yada yada, but Domino is right that the high-concept, overly-art-directed stuff has a significantly higher rate of failure, and I tend to associate that with Gilliam, rightly or wrongly.

[Noiretirc]

I really liked The Galaxy Song which I remember being strangely beautiful despite its ultimate message being how insignificant humans are in the span of the universe

Cleese was right: Not only is it the best song in Python...it is one of The Greatest Songs Ever. Period.

Well I wouldn’t go that far

I would!

Macca would be blushing if he heard this. It is right up there with songs on Revolver.

[beamish14]

Is it weird that I think MOL is the best Python? Not everything in it works perfectly, but even LOB has a few sagging moments. I'm thrilled that they ended with a very loosely connected series of sketches. The songs are the best ever in Python. Every Sperm Is Sacred gets me teary eyed every single time I see it - through laughter and through the emotional weight of the scene. Better than Consider Yourself! The Middle Of The Movie (fishy fishy) might be one of the very greatest moments of avant gard a clue in all of cinema. Creosote can never be unseen. The Sex Lesson cannot be beaten for sheer courage and cringe. I could go on and on...but stop following me...fuck you...

I am so happy that this film exists.

I 100% agree that it is their best feature. Every segment just clicks for me. So much incredible dialogue (Graham Chapman’s “I think it’s too early to be assigning gender roles, DON’T YOU?” is just amazing).

I love the French waiter walking to his childhood home. What a great payoff.

[Beloved Aunt]

i guess it's something that while I like Gilliam's films they're rarely actually films that make me laugh (The FIsher King is the funniest, and he didn't write that). Its prolly a good thing that he split off, cuz from where I'm sitting his contribution to the series seems mostly like halfhearted stabs at the kind of filmmaking he did better on his own, that doesn't really mesh with the series that well, more often than not.

[colinr0380]

I still remember my mind being boggled at finding out that all of the musical numbers of The Meaning of Life were choreographed by Arlene Phillips just after she choreographed John Huston's version of Annie, and decades before she became a well known face herself as one of the initial group of judges on the BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing" light entertainment show!

And also that apparently Jane Leeves, long before she became better known for playing Daphne in Frasier, is amongst the troupe of dancers in the film too! (That's almost as mind melting as noticing that Celia Imrie turns up momentarily for one single line in the space battle climax of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace!)

I 100% agree that it is their best feature. Every segment just clicks for me. So much incredible dialogue (Graham Chapman’s “I think it’s too early to be assigning gender roles, DON’T YOU?” is just amazing).

I will always fondly remember my dad cackling with laughter at the shift from that 'modern, techno-hospital' version of birth to the narrator intoning ominously about showing "Birth in The Third World", which turns out to be a grim Northern England row of bleak houses!

I don't even remember any of the other songs...!

I really liked The Galaxy Song which I remember being strangely beautiful despite its ultimate message being how insignificant humans are in the span of the universe

Cleese was right: Not only is it the best song in Python...it is one of The Greatest Songs Ever. Period.

That feels a lot like Idle doing a song in the same vein as "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life". We all know its all terrible, but cheer up a bit for God's sake! (Plus I often wonder if the wireframe 'entering the birth canal' moment in the song, along with the Mr Creosote sketch, had any influence on the Wachowskis in that moment in The Matrix Reloaded of the delicious taste of a piece of cake causing a female restaurant patron to have a rather strong reaction!)

[colinr0380]

Also if you guys want more recent things in the vein of Terry Gilliam's animations, I would recommend Joe Richardson's video game trilogy of Four Last Things, The Procession to Calvary and Death of the Reprobate.

[knives]

i guess it's something that while I like Gilliam's films they're rarely actually films that make me laugh (The FIsher King is the funniest, and he didn't write that). Its prolly a good thing that he split off, cuz from where I'm sitting his contribution to the series seems mostly like halfhearted stabs at the kind of filmmaking he did better on his own, that doesn't really mesh with the series that well, more often than not.

Gilliam actually had a significantly reduced role here only directing the prologue for example. This is the most Terry Jones of the three films.

[The Curious Sofa]

i guess it's something that while I like Gilliam's films they're rarely actually films that make me laugh (The FIsher King is the funniest, and he didn't write that). Its prolly a good thing that he split off, cuz from where I'm sitting his contribution to the series seems mostly like halfhearted stabs at the kind of filmmaking he did better on his own, that doesn't really mesh with the series that well, more often than not.

There isn't really much to laugh about in Gilliam's movies. While they may have satirical and comedic elements, after his first two post-Monty Python films (and even they are quite dark), I don't consider any of Gilliam's movies to be comedies. He ended up specialising in fantasy, science fiction, and magical realist dramas. Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Tideland are particularly bleak and The Fisher King is among Robin William's more serious roles, with his character suffering a severe form of PTSD.

[Stefan Andersson]

Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus announced for bluray:
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=38341

US release: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=401854

UK release: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=401831