Rating: 
Summary: Say no more!
Review: This is a really big book, in nearly every sense. It won't be easy to carry it to the beach, but the Python fan will definitely find enough within these hard covers to keep her entertained and informed for a good long time.The book consists almost entirely of excerpts from interviews with the Pythons. In that sense, it is indeed an autobiography. The Pythons go in depth about their pre-show lives, what it was like doing the program, and the process of making the movies, live shows, and other Pythonalia. It's not a *funny* book in the sense of being full of deliberate jokes. But they people themselves are all entertaining, and the references and many, many photos -- including personal snaps and show outtakes -- will certainly trigger countless happy memories. As I say, the interviews go very in depth about a lot of things, and so it can get just a little tedious at times, with details about movie shoots, legal arrangements, and the rest. At the same time, they don't seem to be holding anything back, and the force and nature of each man's personality really comes through. It's interesting not only to see how mix, and clash, of characters shaped the Python product, but also to see personal tensions wax and wane over the years. If there is a drawback to this book, apart from the occasional tedium and the sheer weight of the thing, it's some of the chapter headings, captions, and other material not written by the Pythons themselves. People who write about Monty Python seem afflicted by a need to try to be as funny as the Pythons themselves, and it seldom works. And so we get chapter headings like "In Which the Pythons Meet the Pythons" or "In Which We All Become Starlets" -- it just gets a little tiresome. Apart from that, though, it's hard to imagine any Python fan not coveting this book, and carefully preserving it next to his copy of "Thirty Days in the Samarkand Desert with the Duchess of Kent" by AEJ Eliott, OBE. It's definitely worth the price to purchase (and the effort to carry around), and is sure to be treasured.
Rating:
Summary: The Full Monty
Review: When my children see things like scenes from "The Meaning of Life" they act like it is boring. I remember those scenes as incredibly shocking -- I would look over my shoulder even when there was no one there -- in case I might be caught watching such stuff. Today, it seems like only people like me who enjoyed it years ago are interested in it and still enjoy it today. Now, instead of watching things that are a complete waste of time like this, people watch things that are a complete waste of time and not very funny at all. Humor is different. Well, it was different for us too. Imagine your mom and dad laughing at the Monty Python? No. They would have thought it was sick. Now we get to think what our kids laugh at is sick. This book gets to the real life drama behind the nonsense and gives clues to why this sort of thing happens. Humor really is peculiar to a mind set and our minds set in different ways. To some extent, this book could be useful in a study to see why utterances and displays would be funny to one generation and not to another. Is it because it can only be funny once? "Nee" you say? This book also shows us just how British the young boys (and girls) were. For fans of Harry Potter you might note all the class pictures that look just like Hogwarts minus the robes and owls. The pictures are worth the book. But bring some device to carry it out to the car.
Rating: 
Summary: Monty Python Fans Rejoice!
Review: You know you've made your mark when: a) your name becomes part of the lexicon; and b) they start publishing huge coffee-table tomes about your lives and work. "Pythonesque," according to the ninth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, is defined as "after the style of, or resembling the humour of, Monty Python's Flying Circus, a popular British television comedy series of the 1970s noted esp. for its absurdist or surrealist humour." [sic] THE PYTHONS: An Authobiography is full of the loony business that made them global favorites. The comedy troupe --- consisting of John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Michael Palin --- was its own "British invasion" in the late 1960s-early 1970s. Like the Beatles, they are still popular years after their break-up and, also like the Fab Four, the members of the "sweet six" have done well on their own. Cleese, for example, has appeared in countless TV programs both here and in Great Britain, and is enlarging his fan base thanks to his role as "Nearly-Headless Nick" in the Harry Potter films. Idle has not been, keeping his face in the spotlight with TV shots and concerts. Palin and Jones collaborated on the BBC series Ripping Yarns (Jones is also the author of the just-published historical murder mystery WHO MURDERED CHAUCER). Gilliam, the token American (born in Minnesota), has turned his talents to directing usually strange films, including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998); Twelve Monkeys (1995); The Fisher King (1991); Brazil (1985); and Time Bandits (1981), among others. Sadly, Chapman, who earned a degree as a medical doctor, passed away in 1989, a victim of cancer. THE PYTHONS follows its autobiographical style with each of the lads offering his personal warped spin on his background, how the group came to be. how it attained success and battled the powers that were (i.e., network heads and censors) over creative and philosophical differences, and all the ups and down concurrent with fame. Their television program ran from 1969-74 and gave fans such universally shared memories as "The Parrot Sketch," "The Spanish Inquisition," "Spam," "The Ministry of Silly Walks," "Twit of the Year," "Crunchy Frog" and, of course, "The Lumberjack Song" --- images that still make them chuckle after thirty years. Each Python contributed a unique presence, making him perfectly suited for his frenetic roles. Besides the small screen, but especially after the show's demise, the Pythons turned out several feature films including The Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which --- according to Python's website (www.dailyllama.com) --- is to be resurrected as "Spamelot," a Broadway musical, in 2005 (although anything coming from that source should probably be taken with an extremely large grain of salt.) Supplemented with photos and Gilliam's bizarre cartoons (his animations for the show were no doubt the product of substance-induced nightmares) THE PYTHONS runs somewhat contrary to their tag line: "And now for something completely different" --- THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY used the same format. But that's fine. It's just what their devoted fans will enjoy: the same old silly stuff. --- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
Rating:
Summary: Monty Python Fans Rejoice!
Review: You know you've made your mark when: a) your name becomes part of the lexicon; and b) they start publishing huge coffee-table tomes about your lives and work. "Pythonesque," according to the ninth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, is defined as "after the style of, or resembling the humour of, Monty Python's Flying Circus, a popular British television comedy series of the 1970s noted esp. for its absurdist or surrealist humour." [sic] THE PYTHONS: An Authobiography is full of the loony business that made them global favorites. The comedy troupe --- consisting of John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Michael Palin --- was its own "British invasion" in the late 1960s-early 1970s. Like the Beatles, they are still popular years after their break-up and, also like the Fab Four, the members of the "sweet six" have done well on their own. Cleese, for example, has appeared in countless TV programs both here and in Great Britain, and is enlarging his fan base thanks to his role as "Nearly-Headless Nick" in the Harry Potter films. Idle has not been, keeping his face in the spotlight with TV shots and concerts. Palin and Jones collaborated on the BBC series Ripping Yarns (Jones is also the author of the just-published historical murder mystery WHO MURDERED CHAUCER). Gilliam, the token American (born in Minnesota), has turned his talents to directing usually strange films, including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998); Twelve Monkeys (1995); The Fisher King (1991); Brazil (1985); and Time Bandits (1981), among others. Sadly, Chapman, who earned a degree as a medical doctor, passed away in 1989, a victim of cancer. THE PYTHONS follows its autobiographical style with each of the lads offering his personal warped spin on his background, how the group came to be. how it attained success and battled the powers that were (i.e., network heads and censors) over creative and philosophical differences, and all the ups and down concurrent with fame. Their television program ran from 1969-74 and gave fans such universally shared memories as "The Parrot Sketch," "The Spanish Inquisition," "Spam," "The Ministry of Silly Walks," "Twit of the Year," "Crunchy Frog" and, of course, "The Lumberjack Song" --- images that still make them chuckle after thirty years. Each Python contributed a unique presence, making him perfectly suited for his frenetic roles. Besides the small screen, but especially after the show's demise, the Pythons turned out several feature films including The Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which --- according to Python's website (www.dailyllama.com) --- is to be resurrected as "Spamelot," a Broadway musical, in 2005 (although anything coming from that source should probably be taken with an extremely large grain of salt.) Supplemented with photos and Gilliam's bizarre cartoons (his animations for the show were no doubt the product of substance-induced nightmares) THE PYTHONS runs somewhat contrary to their tag line: "And now for something completely different" --- THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY used the same format. But that's fine. It's just what their devoted fans will enjoy: the same old silly stuff. --- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
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