Director: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle
Have I Seen it Before: Oh, sure.
Did I Like It: There’s a certain kind of person who insists that Monty Python could do no wrong. To them, this is probably a perfect film. These people don’t want to hear from me, or really anybody that isn’t prepared to talk exclusively in Monty Python quotes.
Anybody want to leave after that?
Okay, now that it’s just us. I like Monty Python, I do. There are moments where, even though I’ve seen the film, I was laughing louder than anybody else in the theater*.
At times, maybe not so much. Maybe it’s an American vs. English cultural thing, maybe it’s a the fundamental reality that—this being their second film over all and first attempt at a single narrative—that things aren’t quite as cohesive as they might otherwise be. Maybe, and I’m betting this is the more like explanation, Monty Python is imperfect. In their admirable efforts to throw everything—and I do mean every single thing—at the screen, some things hit and still others probably can’t be the least accounted for after fifty year, even if we had the Pythons here to answer for it**.
Told you that if the tonnage of topics you’re able to discuss were unladen swallows and the exclaimation “Ni!” you might not have been on board with this review. You can’t say you weren’t warned.
*Yes, I did get to see it on the big screen. Let’s just say that if I were prone to epileptic symptoms, the switch in the opening credits over to llamas, I might have been in real trouble.
**If we had Cleese, he’d probably write the whole endeavor off either way. It’d be difficult to be more measured in praise for the group’s work than him.