The Meaning of Monty Python

John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin are gathered around while Eric Idle is on video presumably filming from his home in the States. It's the 30th Anniversary of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) which is their last movie since Graham Chapman died in 1989. This is split into segments each with a new topic.

This is the guys shooting the breeze and remembering old times. Mostly, they are talking about modern sensitivities. Michael brings up the idea that Silly Walks would be offensive to the disabled today and they are off. I don't necessarily agree with them all the time. They do sound like old men complaining, but they have a comedic bite to their comments. They are also tackling big issues like religion. Considering the movie title, a discussion is inevitable.

On a technical level, I would like the guys to walk around and just hang out. Eric does walk around his home at the beginning. It needs a few of that to break up the static visual of sitting around a semi-circle. When Terry Jones gets up from his seat, it was totally distracting and weird and interesting. I wouldn't mind them comment on it.

A delightfully warm and joyful reunion of the Pythons, filled with laughter and fond reminiscence. The comfortable and relaxed nature of the conversation is the product of a four-decade creative collaboration, and it shows. Each member of the team brings intellect, wit, and charm, as well as their own unique perspective, and the banter flies effortlessly in all directions. It's a simple pleasure, sitting back and listening to these fascinating old codgers reminisce, and enlightening as well. I would have happily listened for twice as long. Lovely.

The surviving Pythons -- John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, and Terry Jones in London at 10:30 AM, Eric Idle in Los Angeles via television at 2:30 AM -- get together to reminisce, puzzle over what has changed in comedy, and generally shoot the breeze in the way old guys will when they haven't seen each other for a while.

Given recent dissension in the ranks, mostly about money, it's very pleasant to see them getting along, even if Cleese keeps interrupting the flow by asking serious questions. This causes the others to answer in the same manner, and it takes a while for them to start riffing over the possibility of getting a medium to channel Graham Chapman, a medium with no sense of comic timing, with the result that Chapman would never show up.

In the end, it's a lot of nothing, but there are glimmers of the comedy group that upended the 1970s.