Overview

This reference identifies and explains the cultural, historical, and topical allusions in the film Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, the Pythons’ third and final original feature as a complete group. In this resource, virtually every allusion and reference that appears in the film is identified and explained —from Britain’s waning Empire through the Winter of Discontent to Margaret Thatcher’s second-term mandate, from playing fields to battle fields, and from accountant pirates to sacred sperm. Organized chronologically by scene, the entries cover literary and metaphoric allusions, symbolisms, names, peoples, and places; as well as the many social, cultural, and historical elements that populate this film, and the Pythons’ work in general.

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9781538115961

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Hard-core Monty Python fans will be thoroughly delighted....--Publishers Weekly

"[Larsen] meticulously dissects the film scene by scene (and often line by line), delving into what topics, including boarding schools or tinned salmon, would have meant to the Pythons and also how they would have been received by 1980s film audiences. A sketch on the Zulu War, for example, would have called to mind the twilight of the British Empire, the previous year's Falklands War, and recent earnest films about the war. Larsen isn't seeking to amplify the film's humor; instead he's edifying the reader. Beyond capturing the zeitgeist through the use of contemporary references, he uses scenes from the film as entry points to limn British history. He admits the Pythons may not have always intended allegory, but Larsen can use their material to discuss the austerity of postwar Britain, the rise of Margaret Thatcher, or the coal mining industry. -- ""Library Journal"" Hard-core Monty Python fans will be thoroughly delighted.... -- ""Publishers Weekly"" [Larsen] meticulously dissects the film scene by scene (and often line by line), delving into what topics, including boarding schools or tinned salmon, would have meant to the Pythons and also how they would have been received by 1980s film audiences. A sketch on the Zulu War, for example, would have called to mind the twilight of the British Empire, the previous year's Falklands War, and recent earnest films about the war. Larsen isn't seeking to amplify the film's humor; instead he's edifying the reader. Beyond capturing the zeitgeist through the use of contemporary references, he uses scenes from the film as entry points to limn British history. He admits the Pythons may not have always intended allegory, but Larsen can use their material to discuss the austerity of postwar Britain, the rise of Margaret Thatcher, or the coal mining industry. Hard-core Monty Python fans will be thoroughly delighted...."

Author Information

Darl Larsen is professor in the Media Arts department and the Center for Animation at Brigham Young University, where he teaches film and animation studies and screenwriting. He is the author of Monty Python, Shakespeare, and English Renaissance Drama (2003), Monty Python’s Flying Circus: An Utterly Complete, Thoroughly Unillustrated, Absolutely Unauthorized Guide to Possibly All the References (2013), A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (2015), and A Book about the Film Monty Python’s Life of Brian (2018).

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