the meaning of life movie review

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Halfway through "Monty Python's Meaning of Life," the thought struck me that One-Upmanship was a British discovery. You remember, of course, the book and movie ("School for Scoundrels") inspired by Stephen Potter's theory of One-Upmanship, in which the goal of the practitioner was to One-Up his daily associates and, if possible, the world. A modern example:

Victim: "I've just been reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold,' in Vanity Fair magazine."

One-Upman: "Really? I'm afraid I missed it."

Victim: "But Garcia Marquez is brilliant."

One-Upman: "No doubt, dear fellow, but my subscription ran out in 1939."

I use this illustration as an approach to "Monty Python's Meaning of Life," which is a movie that seems consumed with a desire to push us too far. This movie is so far beyond good taste, and so cheerfully beyond, that we almost feel we're being One-Upped if we allow ourselves to be offended. Take, for example, the scene featuring projectile vomiting. We don't get just a little vomit in the scene, like we saw in " The Exorcist ." No, sir, we get gallons of vomit, streams of it, all a vile yellow color, sprayed all over everybody and everything in a formal dining room.

The first reaction of the non-Upman is "Yech!" But I think the Python gang is working at another level. And, given the weakness of movie critics for discussing what "level" a movie "works" on, I find myself almost compelled to ask myself, "At what 'level' does the projectile vomiting 'work'?" And I think the Python One-Up reply would be, dear fellow, that it rises above vulgarity and stakes out territory in the surrealistic. Anyone who takes the vomiting literally has missed the joke; the scene isn't about vomiting, but about the lengths to which Python will go for a laugh.

There are other scenes in equally poor taste in this movie, which has a little something to offend everybody. And I mean really offend them: This isn't a Mel Brooks movie, with friendly little ethnic in-jokes. It's a barbed, uncompromising attack on generally observed community standards.

Does the attack work? Only occasionally. The opening sequence of the film is one of its best, showing the overworked old clerks in an insurance company staging a mutiny. After they've gained control of their shabby old stone building, the movie does a brilliant turn into surrealism, the building becomes a ship, and the clerks weigh anchor and set sail against the fleets of modern high-rises, firing their filing cabinets like cannons. It's a wonderful sequence.

I also liked a scene set on a military parade ground, and a joke involving a tank full of fish, and a cheerfully unfair rugby match between two teams, one made up of 12 small schoolboys, the other with 18 schoolmasters, all huge. Balanced against these bright moments is the goriest scene in Python history, showing a liver being removed from a transplant "volunteer" by brute force. There are also a lot of religious jokes, some straightforward sexism and the above mentioned vomiting sequence.

By admitting to being offended by some of the stuff in this movie, I've been One-Upped. By liking the funny stuff, I've been One-Upped again. ("But you liked the jokes that were in good taste? Jolly good!") But I'm a good loser, and I don't mind being One-Upped. In fact, let's say this is a tennis match, and the Pythons are the winners. Here, I'll hold down the net while they jump over to shake hands with me. Whoops!

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Monty Python's Meaning of Life (1983)

107 minutes

Directed by

• Terry Jones

Produced by

• John Goldstone

Photographed by

• Peter Hannan

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The Meaning of Life

Where to Watch

John Cleese (Fish #2) Terry Gilliam (Window Washer) Eric Idle (Gunther) Terry Jones (Bert) Graham Chapman (Chairman) Michael Palin (Window Washer) Carol Cleveland (Beefeater Waitress) Simon Jones (Chadwick) Patricia Quinn (Mrs. Williams) Judy Loe (Nurse #1)

Terry Jones

The comedy team takes a look at life in all of its stages in their own uniquely silly way.

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Monty python's the meaning of life (special edition dvd).

Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life hit theaters in 1983, when the troupe was falling apart and both the surrealist …

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Watch 'Monty Python's The Meaning of Life' Online

Looking to feast your eyes on ' Monty Python's The Meaning of Life ' on your TV or mobile device at home? Searching for a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or view the Terry Jones-directed movie via subscription can be difficult, so we here at Moviefone want to do the heavy lifting. We've listed a number of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription alternatives - along with the availability of 'Monty Python's The Meaning of Life' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into the nitty-gritty of how you can watch 'Monty Python's The Meaning of Life' right now, here are some finer points about the Celandine Films, The Monty Python Partnership, Universal Pictures comedy flick. Released March 31st, 1983, 'Monty Python's The Meaning of Life' stars Terry Gilliam , Graham Chapman , John Cleese , Eric Idle The R movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 47 min, and received a user score of 73 (out of 100) on TMDb, which assembled reviews from 1,768 well-known users. You probably already know what the movie's about, but just in case... Here's the plot: "Life's questions are 'answered' in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. Then there's the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor. The world's most voracious glutton brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise." 'Monty Python's The Meaning of Life' is currently available to rent, purchase, or stream via subscription on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, and AMC on Demand .

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Jeremy fink and the meaning of life, common sense media reviewers.

Sweet tween film packs big meaning into cliched package.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Jeremy learns that life is all about choices. In s

Jeremy gains insight over the course of the story.

Tweens bicker. The main character's father died be

A boy's best friend is a girl, though he denies th

Some derogatory speech between tweens, including "

Parents need to know that Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life is a lighthearted film for young people about a 12-year-old who's looking for answers to some pretty big questions. There are some references to the tragic death of the main character's father (which happened before the movie starts). But overall…

Positive Messages

Jeremy learns that life is all about choices. In some cases, the right decision is obvious, and in others, it's not at all clear. Since some aspects of life are random and can't be controlled, he realizes that it's important to "eat dessert first" while still thinking carefully about the impact of the things that are in your control. Other life lessons include: Live in the moment, money can't buy happiness, and believe in yourself.

Positive Role Models

Jeremy gains insight over the course of the story. The mysterious Mr. Oswald's motives aren't clear, but he seems to be striving to right old wrongs. His methods are baffling, but he does demonstrate that people should think carefully about the choices they make. One character has a penchant for shoplifting.

Violence & Scariness

Tweens bicker. The main character's father died before the story starts.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A boy's best friend is a girl, though he denies that there's any kind of attraction between them.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Some derogatory speech between tweens, including "shut up," "jerk," and "dork."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life is a lighthearted film for young people about a 12-year-old who's looking for answers to some pretty big questions. There are some references to the tragic death of the main character's father (which happened before the movie starts). But overall the story is uplifting and simple, great for kids and tweens, and has only mild language and a little bickering. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (2)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Dangerous themes

A disappointment, what's the story.

Two weeks before his 13th birthday, Jeremy Fink (Maxwell Beer) gets a mysterious package: a wooden box created years earlier by his dad -- before his sudden death in a car accident. According to what's carved into the lid, the box contains The Meaning of Life. Too bad it's locked and the keys are lost. Jeremy and his best friend, Lizzie (Ryan Simpkins), take it as a challenge, searching high and low for the keys with the assistance of mysterious Mr. Oswald ( Joe Pantoliano ). And in the process they discover much more. Mira Sorvino co-stars as Jeremy's supportive mom.

Is It Any Good?

JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE is charming but predictable. As Jeremy and Lizzie scour New York for the missing keys, they meet a bevy of kooky characters who impart a series of Important Life Lessons. Live in the moment. Money can't buy happiness. Believe in yourself. These are valuable tips for younger viewers, but they aren't especially new. Much of the plot seems like it could have worked well in many other coming-of-age tales.

The film is based on a popular young adult novel of the same name by Wendy Mass, and that's exactly how it feels. It's simple enough entertainment for older kids and tweens, but the story probably works better in print than on the screen.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Jeremy Fink 's messages. What is the meaning of life, according to what Jeremy learns? What do you think it is? How can you make the most of the life you have?

What do you think about the relationship between Jeremy and Lizzie? Does it feel realistic?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : March 6, 2012
• Cast : Joe Pantoliano , Maxwell Beer , Mira Sorvino
• Director : Tamar Halpern
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Phase 4 Films
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Friendship , Great Boy Role Models , Great Girl Role Models
• Run time : 88 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : mild thematic elements
• Last updated : February 11, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

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Rotten Tomatoes® Score

...probably best enjoyed as separate clips on YouTube, or with liberal use of the fast-forward button...

The Meaning of Life is one of the Monty Python's better films. But its innocence remains intact. [Full Review in Spanish]

Some of the sketches are inspired... Some of the sketches are merely loud and boring the Pythons are at their unfunniest in drag. Even devout Pythonians might question some of the items.

Does the attack work? Only occasionally.

If The Meaning of Life is undeniably tasteless, it is also imaginative and played with a soft edge that never reads as bitter, only mischievous.

As youthful and contemporary as ever.

Despite its obvious shortcomings, The Meaning of Life also happens to be devastatingly funny at times, hitting a few beats of silliness with traditional Python precision.

The skits range from hilarious to humdrum.

It's a weird kind of fun.

Edgy Python schtick better for older viewers.

Additional Info

• Genre : Comedy
• Release Date : March 31, 1983
• Languages : English
• Captions : English
• Audio Format : 5.1

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Product Description

Those six pandemonium-mad Pythons are back with their craziest adventure ever! Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin have returned to explain The Meaning of Life. These naughty Brits offer the usual tasteful sketches involving favorite body parts and bodily functions, the wonders of war, the miracle of birth and a special preview of what's waiting for us in Heaven. You'll never look at life in quite the same way again! Hailed as "an exhilarating experience" (Time) and pronounced "the best movie from England's satirical sextet." (Newsweek)

• Includes 4K UHD, Blu-ray and a digital copy of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.)
• Features High Dynamic Range (HDR10) for Brighter, Deeper, More Lifelike Color
• The Meaning of Monty Python: 30th Anniversary Reunion
• The Snipped Bits
• The School of Life
• 2003 Prologue by Eric Idle
• Soundtrack for the Lonely
• Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam Commentary
• The Meaning of Monty Python 30th Anniversary Reunion
• Prologue with Eric Idle
• The Meaning of Making The Meaning of Life
• Educational Tips
• Un Film de John Cleese
• Remastering a Masterpiece
• Song and Dance
• Songs Unsung
• Selling The Meaning of Life
• Virtual Reunion
• What Fish Think
• Feature Commentary with Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam
• Sing-Along Version of the Film

Product details

• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.93 x 5.51 x 0.51 inches; 0.02 ounces
• Director ‏ : ‎ Terry Jones
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ 4K
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 47 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ September 13, 2022
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
• Producers ‏ : ‎ John Goldstone
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B72J1RZ6
• Writers ‏ : ‎ Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2
• #161 in Comedy (Movies & TV)
• #343 in Action & Adventure Blu-ray Discs

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Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

2011, Kids & family/Adventure, 1h 31m

Where to watch Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

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Jeremy fink and the meaning of life   photos.

Jeremy (Maxwell Beer) and his friend Lizzy (Ryan Simpkins) search all over Manhattan for the keys to a mysterious box he received.

Rating: PG (Mild Thematic Elements)

Genre: Kids & family, Adventure

Original Language: English

Director: Tamar Halpern

Writer: Tamar Halpern

Release Date (Streaming): Oct 1, 2016

Runtime: 1h 31m

Production Co: Fink Films, Kidzhouse Entertainment

Cast & Crew

Maxwell Beer

Jeremy Fink

Ryan Simpkins

Lizzy Muldoun

Joe Pantoliano

Mira Sorvino

Betsy Brandt

Madame Zaleski

Officer Polansky

Michael Urie

David Thornton

Simon Rudolph

Daniel Cosgrove

Marian Seldes

Mabel Billingsly

Roscoe Orman

Heather Braverman

Markley Rizzi

Tamar Halpern

Screenwriter

Steven C. Beer

Executive Producer

Edythe Michel

Jack Dalgleish

Jenny Federman

Terry Schnuck

Ken H. Keller

Cinematographer

Maria Cataldo

Film Editing

Adrienne Stern

Courtenay W. Irving

Art Director

Set Decoration

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The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman review – what’s it worth?

A riveting examination of the value we place on human life – from healthcare to hitmen

A t the start of May 2020, the New York governor Andrew Cuomo was under pressure to relax Covid restrictions. “The faster we reopen, the lower the economic cost, but the higher the human cost because the more lives lost,” he said in a televised address. “The question comes back to how much is a human life worth. That’s the real discussion that no one is admitting openly or freely, but we should.”

That taboo question is at the centre of this riveting book. We may recoil from discussing it, but behind closed doors the price of a human life is being calculated all the time. So who is making these decisions, to what purpose, and according to which criteria? And what do the figures reveal about who – or what – we value?

For her first book, Sex Robots & Vegan Meat , the journalist and broadcaster Jenny Kleeman met the scientists and entrepreneurs working at the frontier of technological innovation. Here, again, she seeks out human stories that make the impersonal intelligible, interviewing those who hold the algorithmic scales, and those whose lives are in the balance.

We begin with the price on someone’s head. Kleeman has dinner with a former hitman. He is reluctant to talk numbers, but she discovers that the average bounty in the UK is about £15,000. She hears the harrowing accounts of Vietnamese women trafficked to Britain as domestic slaves. She visits relatives of Rachel and Paul Chandler, a retired couple from Tunbridge Wells who were kidnapped by Somali pirates on a sailing trip in 2009. The British government won’t pay ransoms, so the couple’s family had to negotiate it themselves. The average global demand in 2021 was $368,901.

The director of a US company that sells donated bodies (for about $5,000, excluding shipping) insists that his cadavers are used only for medical research; others may end up as crash-test dummies or nose-job guinea pigs. Some are bought (via an intermediary) by British universities requiring scarce body parts for anatomy courses: a head may fetch about $600.

Kleeman tours the Lockheed Martin factory in Fort Worth, Texas, which makes the F-35 fighter jet, the most expensive weapons system in the world. To work out the price of the lives it takes, Kleeman divides the cost of a jet – around $110m – by the approximate number of people it has killed. The answer is, she admits, inexact to say the least, but it raises the question of why such an exorbitant killing machine exists.

You might expect life insurance to provide a better measure, but payouts just depend on the premiums contributed. Actuaries assess your likely lifespan, not how much you’re worth. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority will pay the families of murder victims £11,000. More is paid for a serious injury that entails lifelong care.

After the 2017 London Bridge terrorist attack, the families of those who were stabbed to death were entitled to statutory compensation, but those struck by the van the attackers were driving received millions from rental company Hertz. Commercial insurance payouts themselves vary wildly: they are compensating not for a life lost, but for the cost – practical and emotional – to those left behind.

Kleeman shows how prices are contingent on social status, where you live, market conditions and pure chance. While some of the variations reveal injustice, others are less meaningful and harder to compare. As Kleeman acknowledges, £200 to hire a killer or the $500 paid for a child bride in Afghanistan are really measures of desperation. It is when we get to the more abstract top-down allocation of resources, the necessary weighing of one life against another, that this book provides the most satisfying answers to the philosophical questions posed with such thoughtful clarity at the start.

Followers of the philanthropic movement known as effective altruism believe charitable donations should be determined by cool-headed quantification of the benefits, rather than a leaflet through the letterbox with a picture of an injured puppy. Effective altruists will prioritise helping a stranger on the other side of the world over a homeless person on your street if it represents more bang for your buck. They will tell you how to save a life for just $4,500 – as long as it’s a life in Africa, because those are deemed the least expensive. One advocate ruminates on the optimum age to save a person’s life. “I think my peak value is the death of an eight-year-old,” he says.

England and Wales’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) must also be dispassionate, but in the service of a cash-strapped NHS rather than billionaires’ consciences. Its deliberations are fascinating, and take place largely out of public view. Nice uses a measure called a Qaly: a quality-adjusted life year. One Qaly means one year in good health, and is worth £20,000-30,000. If a drug costs that much or less for each additional year of good health it provides for a patient, then Nice will approve it.

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Kleeman meets the mother of a child with a rare genetic disease who was just over the age limit for access to the world’s most expensive medicine. She appealed to Nice through the media and it relented, showing its human face. The organisation has to reconcile the competing interests of the individual and the collective – as the mother put it, “I appreciate that there isn’t a never-ending supply of money, but when it’s your child … ” This tension is vastly exacerbated by market capitalism. “As long as pharmaceutical companies are run for profit,” Kleeman notes, “there will be a price on life.”

Her book is a mind-bending exploration of intrinsic and fungible value, recalling Shylock’s pound of flesh and his muddling of ducats and daughters. First you deplore the imposition of rigid metrics on tender human beings, then you remember that monetary worth is itself elastic. Kleeman has picked an illuminating lens through which to explore the quantification of everything in a data-driven society, and the pros and cons of cost-benefit analysis. Surprisingly, Nice’s Qaly figure was pretty much plucked from the air: it’s a relative measure, an arbitrary tool for comparison. “The danger comes,” Kleeman observes, “when people treat tokens as if they truly represent the real price of a human life.”

Having mooted a cost-benefit analysis for lockdowns, Cuomo bottled it. “To me, I say, the cost of  a human life … is priceless, period,” he declared. The then chancellor Rishi Sunak promised, likewise, to “do whatever it takes”. But “whatever it takes” has a price tag. Divide the cost of lockdown by the number of life years it saved, and you get £300,000: 10 times the Qaly threshold. If you piously dismiss these sums as cold calculation, Kleeman points out, more people might die, now or in the future. Putting a price on life can amount to exploitation, but sometimes it’s a way of being fair.

The Price of Life: In Search of What We’re Worth and Who Decides by Jenny Kleeman is published by Picador (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

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