Monty Python's Flying Circus

The movie starts out with Arthur, King of the Britons, looking for knights to sit with him at Camelot. He finds many knights including Sir Galahad the pure, Sir Lancelot the brave, the quiet Sir Bedevere, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Lancelot. They do not travel on horses, but pretend they do and have their servants bang coconuts to make the sound of horse's hooves. Through satire of certain events in history (witch trials, the black plague) they find Camelot, but after literally a quick song and dance they decide that they do not want to go there. While walking away, God (who seems to be grumpy) come to them from a cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail. They agree and begin their search. While they search for the Grail, scenes of the knight's tales appear and why they have the name they have. Throughout their search they meet interesting people and knights along the way. Most of the characters die; some through a killer rabbit (which they defeat with the holy hand grenade), others from not answering a question right from the bridge of Death, or die some other ridiculous way. In the end, King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are left and find the Castle Arrrghhh where the Holy Grail is. They are met by some French soldiers who taunted them earlier in the film, so they were not able to get into the castle « read less

Brian is born in a stable on Christmas, right next to You Know Who. The wise men appear and begin to distribute gifts. The star moves further, so they take it all back and move on. This is how Brian's life goes. The Jews are looking for a release from the Romans, Spiritual and political decay, keep looking for signs and a group decides Brian is the Messiah. He cannot convince them he is not. He joins the Peoples' Front of Judea, one of several dozen separatist groups who actually do nothing, but really hate the Romans. While not about Jesus, it is about those who hadn't time, or interest to listen to his message. Many Political and Social comments. Written by John Vogel {jlvogel@comcast.net} The Monty Pyton team tells the life, death and resurrection (?) of Brian from Nazareth, an unwilling prophet who wants to free his land from the oppression of Rome. When Brian covers a huge wall with the writing "ROMANI ITE DOMUM" (Romans go home), a local revolutionary group begins to take him seriously... « read less

The comedy groups last full length movie returns to the feel of the hugely popular BBC TV show. It features small comedy sketches dealing with all of the stages and trials of life. Expect the un-expected. Plenty of religious, vulgar, and sexual humor may offend some groups. There are even musical numbers, but with that same unmistakable brand of Python humor. The Monty Python group examines the meaning and purpose of life in a series of sketches from conception to death and beyond. In typical Monty Python fashion they satirizes and humourizes almost everyone « read less

The Pythons had planned to rearrange sketches from the two German specials into a sketch film had Life of Brian not been filmed. With Brian completed, these German shows were not introduced in America in their entirety until the Python retrospective 17 and 24 February 1989. The Museum of Television and Radio in New York introduced these unseen hours in part to celebrate the Pythons' 20th anniversary and, hopefully, to release the specials to a TV network or to video. The second special for WDR was the Pythons' rebuttal of a BBC proposal to send a compilation show to Germany. This program was filmed with one less burden: the cast could speak in English. Connie Booth had begun writing with John Cleese by this time, and the two turned out the "Fairy Tale" sketch, later reprinted in The Brand New Monty Python Bok. Other sketches are summarized in Kim "Howard" Johnson's book The First 280 Years of Monty Python, published by St. Martin's Press. « read less

"Live at Aspen" reunites the five remaining Pythons (the sixth one, Graham Chapman, also "appears" in the form of his ashes - a gimmick that is both macabre and moving) on stage for the first time in about 16 years. But although it's included in the same DVD ("Monty Python Live!") with "Live at the Hollywood Bowl", it's not really a live show. It's more of a documentary / tribute. « read less

To commemorate the 'Ruby Jubilee' of Monty Python, this film takes us on a journey telling the story of the Pythons from start to finish. Starting with the very humble beginnings of how the legendary British comedy troupe emerged, we learn how the cast met, their early influences and how they went on to create ground-breaking television, and their transition into movies that would change the face of comedy forever. Featuring brand new interviews with John Cleese, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, and Eric Idle as well as archive interviews from Graham Chapman, this film explores the highs and the lows, and examines how Monty Python became a British institution. This is the first time the Pythons have come together for a film project since 1983's Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. « read less

In 1979, Monty Python made Life of Brian and the debate about what is an acceptable subject for comedy was blown wide open. This is a fantastical re-imagining of the build-up to the release of the film and the controversy it caused. « read less