In the course of life, humans are forced to ponder their existence and try to answer those deep philosophical questions, such as "why were we placed on this earth?" "What is the meaning of it all?"
Finally, there comes a film that gives answers more explicitly stated than Jack Palance's quizzical "one thing" in "City Slickers."
Monty Python address the puzzling topic of "The Meaning of Life," directed by Terry Gilliam, and breaks it down into its bare essentials.
In doing so, Monty Python returns to its original BBC television style. Each main feature of "The Meaning of Life" is its own, semi-independent and entirely random skit.
Thus "The Meaning of Life" is broken down into such chapters as "Live Organ Transplants" and other such integral components of life.
Preceding what appears to be the actual film and working its way into the latter half of the film is a short skit directed by Gilliam titled "Crimson Assurance."
In this skit, the old men of the Crimson Assurance firm rebel against their capitalist leaders. They begin a violent revolution armed with makeshift weapons, and set sail for what might be equated with Wall Street.
Directing the rest of the film is Jones, managing an experienced comic cast. "The Meaning of Life" is immediately recognizable as a Monty Python film as it contains cross-dressing men in the roles of large women with cockney accents who sing nonsensical songs.
The film will explain such mysteries as how babies are made (really made ...), what differentiates Roman Catholicism from other religions, and just how much one man can eat without exploding ... as well as what happens if he eats just a little more than that.
