The Crimson Permanent Assurance

Terry Gilliam rips apart the yuppie culture with this short that preceded Monty Python's "Meaning of Life". Focusing on some elderly employees who rebel against their bosses and turn their office building into a pirate ship, "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" is really an indictment of how greed dominated the 1980s. Yes, this kick in the balls to Reaganomics is what cinephiles get to see before watching a poor man (Michael Palin) sing about how every sperm is sacred, watching a professor (John Cleese) demonstrate sex to his students, and watching a morbidly obese man (Terry Jones) vomit all over the place. Terry Gilliam succeeds again.

A piece of trivia is that "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" is the film debut of Matt Frewer, who played Russ Sr. in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids".

When the elderly workers raised against their bosses, I (as a millennial) really felt that. I absolutely adored the production design, the combination of office supplies and pirates' stuff was sublime and something I didn't know I needed. If "The Meaning of Life" would've been like this short, I probably would've liked it more. It probably runs a little long but I will enjoy whenever people decide to fight against their oppressors

The Crimson Permanent Assurance is, to me, one of the high points of Monty Python and His Flying Circus. It was created in conjunction with the film The Meaning of Life but was created by Terry Gilliam in a separate studio. He went way over budget without informing the others and when it was finished, they wondered what to do with it; it did not fit in with the rest of the movie. They decided to include it as if it were a separate short to be shown before the feature. The short was so well received at the Cannes Film Festival that The Meaning of Life was guaranteed to be a success.

The short was originally intended to be a five-minute animated short but Gilliam felt that it would be more suited to live action. It became a 30 minute film and was then edited to 16 minutes. The film is a wonderful, highly imaginative, funny, anti-capitalist fantasy, with a very nice song.

It begins by showing what appears to be a ship's sails, which turn out actually to be canvasses that are covering the face of a large old building that is being cleaned. The original impression, however, turns out to be the reality. The Crimson Permanent Assurance Company is a very British company that has been in existence for a long, long time. Its staff loyalty has left it with a geriatric staff, who have worked there all their lives. The company has been purchased by The Very Big Corporation of America, which brings in efficiency experts to rank the staff. When a staff member is fired for being slow, rebellion erupts. Evidently, this moment has been anticipated, because everybody seems to know exactly what to do: how to use office equipment as weapons, the chain of command, that the building is able to sail off on the "Wide Accountant-sea", etc. Since the charm of the movie is its element of surprise, I will say no more (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

One question remains: is The Crimson Permanent Assurance a separate short film or an integral part of the feature film The Meaning of Life? The answer is, "Yes!"

For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crimson_Permanent_Assurance

This short movie was originally just one sketch in Monty Python's Meaning of Life (in the Part Middle Age, I think) and was to be done by Terry Gilliam by his famous animation style. Gilliam, however had directed his first movies by then (Jabberwocky and Time Bandits) and was somewhat bored with animation. So, thankfully he got to do this one live-action with his own actors, own budget and own will. So it became the only Python budget to go over the budget and the sketch bloated from five minutes into fifteen. So, the movie didn't fit into the center of the movie, so it was made as a "starter" to the feature movie. The Pythons themselves surprisingly do not feature all in this short. Only Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam can be seen as window cleaners and Eric Idle's voice can be heard when the pirates are singing Accountancy Shanty. This is only good, because the short makes you really confused, whether you have gone to a wrong movie. The best thing about this short is that it's so visually great. Every time I see it, I'll find something new. And the connections between accountancy and piracy are hilarious. Using filing cabinets as cannons and so on are very funny inventions. Every Gilliam fan will love it, but if you hate not only Gilliam, but do not like Python either, then avoid. 8/10

I was excited to watch The Meaning Of Life. But was NOT expecting this. I think I enjoyed this short more then the movie itself!! After this movie was finished, I lost interest in TMOL very fast and changed channel after 40 minutes. This film is very entertaining. Believe me, if you decide to watch, prepare to watch a load of nutty workers on a mutiny. It makes me want to rally up my fellow workers and storm the office and take over. I'm practicing right now, "Arrr!!"

Perhaps we should have one too...

Thank you The Crimson Permanent Assurance!!! For my my life happy and finding the insane, murderous buccaneer inside me!!!