Python, Monty

[karlhenning]

Someone kindly furnished a link to this Onion AV Club interview with Jn Cleese

Delightful!  And it made me think (perhaps entirely mistakenly, but hard cheese) that there was not yet any Monty Python thread.

I actually watched the DVD of Holy Grail recently.  So this bit resonated in particular:

And then the ending—we sort of get away with the ending, but I don't think the ending is great.

You'll think this easy, but I've always thought this, and it is so refreshing to learn that one of the Pythons themselves thinks so.

I always thought Jim Broadbent was slightly like me.

Extraordinary notion! 

[Life of Brian is] not in any way against Christ or Christ's teachings.

Perfectly true, which made all the huge stateside protests against the movie something of a cartoon illustrating the movie's point . . . .

[lukeottevanger]

Perfectly true, which made all the huge stateside protests against the movie something of a cartoon illustrating the movie's point . . . .

I've always thought that this - which was a speedy response to the infamous confrontation between Cleese/Palin and Stockwood/Muggeridge pictured below and summarised here - put the whole debate into context rather simply and neatly.

[drogulus]

I've always thought that this - which was a speedy response to the infamous confrontation between Cleese/Palin and Stockwood/Muggeridge pictured below and summarised here - put the whole debate into context rather simply and neatly.

      Wierd..... I didn't even know about this. I wouldn't want argue theology with Pythons. I seem to remember a certain amount of cringing and bowing of the "no one will be convinced" variety in regards to Brian.

http://uk.youtube.com/v/ykN-00i7VVs

          

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Despite all the hoopla, Brian was a major disappointment for me. Not even the slapstick (Bigus Dickus) gave me a grin. It seemed to me a movie trying too hard to get a laugh ("I want to have a baby").

I understand the underlying premise ("His sandal!!) but the whole thing seemed overly obvious.

And the final crucifix scene I found completely pretentious. Yeah, he ends up getting crucified which is doubly ironic but it was still too ho-hum to save anything.

Not that the Python boys were necessarily 'slipping' (they could do no wrong for me back then!) - just maybe 'detouring'.

Meaning of Life seemed to put them back on track again.


 

[Brian]

"I object to all this sex on the television. I mean, I keep falling off!"

[Ephemerid]

"Blessed are the cheesemakers?"

[Sean]

Life of Brian is one of the topmost films ever made. It's amazing humour and intelligence is exactly aligned with religious critique.

[karlhenning]

I find the variety of evaluations interesting in itself.  Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life are more nearly like the TV series, in the sense of coming across as a bunch of skits knit together;  I don't know how thick the borderline is, but I did get the impression from Brian that it is to a greater degree a central narrative to which the various skits attach.  Of them all, one likes what one likes, one has one's own signal preferences.

I'm sorry, I forgot what I was about to type.

[karlhenning]

I've always thought that this - which was a speedy response to the infamous confrontation between Cleese/Palin and Stockwood/Muggeridge pictured below and summarised here - put the whole debate into context rather simply and neatly.

Mercy, what good fun! (We can laugh about it now . . . .)

Muggeridge: I came on this programme, before seeing the film, to say that it was morally without merit and undeniably reprehensible.

Palin: Yes, you started with an open mind, I admire that.

[karlhenning]

A lot of the heat generated at the time missed the crucial fact that there are, in fact, Christians who enjoy the humor of The Life of Brian.

[Sean]

The extent to which the West has sunk in 30 years is reflected in what must be the impossibility of making anything like Brian today...

[karlhenning]

Sean, your hand-wringing is ridiculous.  It is impossible to make Brian today, because it has already been made.

What do you want, The Life of Brian, Season 12?

[karlhenning]

Perhaps this is a judicious moment to ask if anyone has seen Spamalot . . . ?

[Ephemerid]

A lot of the heat generated at the time missed the crucial fact that there are, in fact, Christians who enjoy the humor of The Life of Brian.

It was a preacher's son that introduced me to The Life of Brian.  It's my fave as well. 

I didn't know about the whole Muggeridge affair.  Disappointing because I thought he was a bit more open-minded than that.

"Wot are you going to do, put it in a box?!"

[jwinter]

As it turns out, my wife and I watched the Holy Grail last week as well.  It holds up so well to repeated viewings (hell, I could recite large parts of the script from memory in college), and if you've studied medieval history at all, it's clear that the boys know their stuff (I think at least one of them was a degreed medievalist; Chapman maybe?  I forget...) 

Funny, I've always thought The Meaning of Life to be the weakest of the movies, though I confess I haven't seen it in ages...

[karlhenning]

My clear favorite but from The Meaning of Life was from the outset Gilliam's short The Crimson Permanent Assurance.

[Brian]

Life of Brian is one of the topmost films ever made. It's amazing humour and intelligence is exactly aligned with religious critique.

It's not a critique of religion; it's a critique of the more idiotic breed of religious followers. See Michael Palin's comments about the film; he was asked if it was blasphemy and answered that no, Brian did not criticize the religious doctrines themselves so much as the absurd ways in which many people interpret and act upon them.

Incidentally, that's my favorite Python product because of the plot and the satire. Love it!    All-time #4 on my favorite movie list.

[karlhenning]

Precisely, Brian (that is called Brian).

[lukeottevanger]

I'm Brian, and so's my wife!

[MishaK]

A lot of the heat generated at the time missed the crucial fact that there are, in fact, Christians who enjoy the humor of The Life of Brian.

It would indeed be rather difficult to enjoy the movie at all without some grounding in Christian doctrine.