Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

This article is about the film. For other uses, see Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (disambiguation).

Monty Python's
The Meaning of Life
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTerry Jones
Written by
Produced byJohn Goldstone
Starring
  • Graham Chapman
  • John Cleese
  • Terry Gilliam
  • Eric Idle
  • Terry Jones
  • Michael Palin
CinematographyPeter Hannan
Edited byJulian Doyle
Music byJohn Du Prez
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures (through United International Pictures)
Release dates
  • 31 March 1983 (1983-03-31) (United States)
  • 23 June 1983 (1983-06-23) (United Kingdom)
Running time
90 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$9 million[3]
Box office$42.7 million

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, also known simply as The Meaning of Life, is a 1983 British musical sketch comedy film written and performed by the Monty Python troupe, directed by Terry Jones. The Meaning of Life was the last feature film to star all six Python members before the death of Graham Chapman in 1989.

Unlike Holy Grail and Life of Brian, the film's two predecessors, which each told a single, more-or-less coherent story,[3] The Meaning of Life returned to the sketch format of the troupe's original television series and their first film from twelve years earlier, And Now for Something Completely Different, loosely structured as a series of comic sketches about the various stages of life. It was accompanied by the short film The Crimson Permanent Assurance.

Released on 23 June 1983 in the United Kingdom,[4] The Meaning of Life was not as acclaimed as its predecessors, but was still well received critically and was a minor box office success; the film grossed almost $43 million against a $9 million budget. It was screened at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. The film appears in a 2010 list of the top 20 cult films published by The Boston Globe.[5]

  1. ^ "Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life (18)". United International Pictures. British Board of Film Classification. 26 April 1983. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  2. ^ "Monty Python's the Meaning of Life (1983)". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference guard2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ McCall, Douglas (12 November 2013). Monty Python: A Chronology, 1969-2012, 2d ed. p97. McFarland. ISBN 9780786478118.
  5. ^ "Top 20 cult films, according to our readers". boston.com. The Boston Globe. 27 December 2010. Retrieved 1 February 2016.