Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a 1982 concert comedy film directed by Terry Hughes (with the film segments by Ian MacNaughton) and starring the Monty Python comedy troupe (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) as they perform many of their sketches at the Hollywood Bowl. The film also features Carol Cleveland in numerous supporting roles and Neil Innes performing songs. Also present for the shows and participating as an 'extra' was Python superfan Kim "Howard" Johnson.
The show also included filmed inserts which were mostly taken from two Monty Python specials, Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus, which had been broadcast on German television in 1972. The performance was recorded on videotape during the show's four-day run starting September 26, 1980 and transferred to film. In the wake of Life of Brian's worldwide success, the Pythons originally planned to release a film consisting of the two German shows redubbed and re-edited, but this proved impractical, and so Hollywood Bowl was released instead.
Although it mostly contains sketches from the television series, the scripts and performers are not identical to those seen on television. The line-up also includes some sketches that predated Monty Python's Flying Circus, including the "Four Yorkshiremen sketch", which dated from 1967's At Last the 1948 Show.
Contents
Sketches and songs
"Sit on My Face" – A ribald parody of Gracie Fields' "Sing as We Go" from Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album, performed by Cleese, Chapman, Gilliam and Jones in waiter outfits, sans trousers or underwear.
"Colin 'Bomber' Harris" – After an introduction by Palin, Chapman is his own opponent in the wrestling ring as Cleese delivers play-by-play. This is a mime piece that dates back to Chapman's college days.
"Never Be Rude to an Arab" – Jones performs an ostensible anti-racism song filled with demeaning epithets and is subsequently blown up. This sketch has two parts at different points in the show. In the first part, he's blown up and dragged offstage by Kim Johnson dressed as a large frog. In the second, he's blown up and dragged off by Johnson dressed as a Christmas tree. Also from Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album.
"The Last Supper" – Michelangelo (Idle) defends his creative first draft of The Last Supper painting against the objections of the Pope (Cleese). This sketch was originally written and performed by John Cleese for the first Amnesty benefit show A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick) in 1976, with Jonathan Lynn as Michelangelo. It is based on a historical incident involving the Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese.
"Silly Olympics" – In a filmed section, athletes compete in absurd sporting events of the "Silly Olympiad," an event traditionally held every 3.7 years. The events include
The 100m for Runners with No Sense of Direction. On the starting gun, the runners run off in every single direction.
The 1,500m for the Deaf. They don't move because they can't hear the starting gun.
The 200m Freestyle for Non-Swimmers. At the starting whistle, they all jump into the water and immediately sink without surfacing, to which the commentator remarks that they'll return to the swimming when they start "fishing the corpses out".
Technical and release history
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl was shot on videotape on 26–29 September 1980. The show was originally recorded on a specially-made analogue high-definition video system called 'Image Vision' (an early HDTV system), provided by Image Transform from Universal City, California which output a 655 line, 24fps video signal. The show was edited on videotape and a 35mm negative was produced from the tape for the striking of theatrical prints.
In Europe, a 1.85:1 widescreen version was released on DVD in 2007. In North America, the film is available only as an older lesser-quality full-frame version, as part of a two-disc set titled Monty Python Live, which includes the 1998 retrospective Monty Python Live at Aspen and the first (German) episode of Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus. The movie was also released as part of The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus 16-Ton Megaset and as part of Almost Everything Ever in One Gloriously Fabulous Ludicrously Definitive Outrageously Luxurious Monty Python Boxset.
The movie was released in the UK by Handmade Films.
Critical response
Box office
A film version of the Hollywood Bowl performances, with direction credited to Terry Hughes, was given a limited theatrical release in North America beginning on 25 June 1982. It grossed a total of US$327,958 during its theatrical run.
Reviews
Skip Sheffield of the Boca Raton News wrote, "Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is not exactly the pristine monument to the troupe's memory." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "It may be accurately described as Python lunacy of a purer grade."