Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

It took God six days to create the heavens and the earth...and Monty Python ninety minutes to screw it up.

Directed by Terry Jones

Produced by Celandine Films, The Monty Python Partnership

1983107 min7.3 / 10

A gleefully anarchic, surreal sketch comedy that uses absurdist vignettes and fourth-wall breaking to satirize life's big questions with irreverent energy and no regard for conventional narrative.

Life's questions are 'answered' in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. Then there's the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor. The world's most voracious glutton brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise.

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Questions people ask

  • Is Monty Python's The Meaning of Life one of a kind? Yes, very. More singular than 100% of films.

  • Does Monty Python's The Meaning of Life end with hope? No. Less hopeful than 91% of films.

  • Is Monty Python's The Meaning of Life sad? Barely. Less sad than 89% of films.

  • Is Monty Python's The Meaning of Life scary? Barely. Less frightening than 84% of films.

  • Is Monty Python's The Meaning of Life easy watching? Not especially. Less comforting than 61% of films.

  • Is Monty Python's The Meaning of Life violent? About average. Almost exactly mid-range.

These describe how the film comes across, measured across the whole film and compared with other well-known films. They are not a content list — nothing here was counted or checked scene by scene, so for age-suitability or specific content use a classification board or a dedicated content-warning service.

91/ 100

Cinnamon Score

How much this film gives you that nothing else will, and whether it delivers.

There is almost nothing else like this.

Rarity97

How unlike any other film this one feels

Surprise96

How much more it delivers than it promises

Love80

How much audiences actually like it

The highest scores in the catalogue →

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Same territory, far fewer people have seen it.

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