Amazon.com
Python fans will need to clear a large space on their bookshelf or coffee table for The Pythons--a big, vital autobiography of the comedy troupe. This is an oral history by the six members (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) from birth to--in the case of Chapman--death. We get reminisces about childhood, university days, early successes, and rich details about the landmark Flying Circus TV series and subsequent films. The voices are fresh (with expectation of Michael Palin's insightful diary entries), not just complied from earlier publications. "Due to his insistence of being inconveniently dead," Chapham's voice is heard through his longtime partner David Sherlock, his brother and sister-in-law (and some archival materials). As a whole, the six impart a refreshing ability to deal honestly with the frustrations that arose over the years and it comes out in the text even when events are recalled differently. The book is not a light read (figuratively and literally), perhaps a smaller size would have been better for the amount of text; a cursory glance at the coffee table is tough. What does fill the book is an abundance of photos (over 1,000), most never published and many from the troupe's private collections. Along with concept sketches, Gilliam's drawings and doodles, and a few correspondences, this is a keepsake memento of the legendary group. --Doug Thomas
Book Description
For the first time all surviving Pythons have agreed to create the definitive, official, "completely-different-than-anything-done-before" audiobook on the Monty Python's Flying Circus and the 'genius' who created it.Over thirty years ago a group of five Englishmen and one wayward American rewrote the rules of comedy. Monty Python's Flying Circus, an unheralded half-hour of sketches, hilarities, inanities, and animations first appeared on the BBC late one night in 1969. Its impact on the world has been felt ever since. This audio edition is a complilation of unique never-before-heard interviews with the Python team conducted by Bob McCabe while he researched the Python book, plus clips from the famous Monty Python sketches, including "The Parrot Sketch", "Nudge, Nudge, Wink Wink", "Spam" and the "Ministry of Silly Walks." Narration will be by Bob McCabe with Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin, and featuring, Eric Idle, John Cleese and Terry Jones.Here is a unique glimpse at arguably the most important comic team of the modern age. Do you want Spam with that?
Customer Reviews:
The Pythons.......2007-10-03
After purchasing the complete set of DVD's and laughing so hard I was sick, I just had to find out out they did it. This book answered my question. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit long and somewhat redundant.
depressing.......2007-01-19
This is probably the most accurate history of the Monty Python television program and films.
It reveals the impressing background of the players and their problems in working together which resulted in their dispersing and ill will with each other.
Intriguing but flawed like most oral histories-for the true fan.......2006-07-08
THE PYTHONS is a must for fans of the group but for the more casual reader it probably won't serve a purpose. It is an oral history of the group with contributions by the living members and statements culled from the late Graham Chapman's auto-biography. (A very funny book, but one that needs to be taken with a 16 ton grain of salt)If you are looking for specifics of how any of this marvelous group put together their sketches, look elsewhere; this is not a breakdown of how Monty Python's Flying Circus came to be, rather it is a bunch of reminiscences of early life, working together( and who worked with whom) and some still not quite healed wounds. Chapman comes off poorly, his drinking a constantly mentioned problem, Gilliam's story is so separate from the rest that he really doesn't seem to be a member of the group until The Holy Grail, although his animations were a key to the show's success, and Cleese is often seen here as standoffish, a bit out of the mix with the others. Memories often don't jibe for each member, an example being who chose "The Liberty March" as the theme, Palin lays claim to it as does Gilliam (with Idle agreeing with Gilliam.)But it is interesting to see how the group's personalities come forward as time goes on, and it does give some insight into the creative processes behind the scenes even though it does fall short of offering the aforementioned specifics. there are a number of great stories here and well worth the time (and strength!) to read this book. I did enjoy this slightly askew look at one of comedy's most influential and funniest groups ever; I just have difficulty recommending it to anyone but the converted.
This CD audiobook has to have been an afterthought (the hardcover was great!).......2006-04-09
For 30 years or so, I've been a major Monty Python fan, and bought this CD audiobook after thoroughly enjoying the hardback. What a disappointment! If I could give it zero stars, I would - and I've never wanted to do that before in a review.
Having read the book, I knew this wasn't a performance CD - I just wanted to hear the stories from the book as told by the Pythons themselves, in their own voices. Unfortunately that was exactly the problem: As has already been pointed out by others here, the audio quality is wretched.
I had to listen hard in most places to be able to make out the words, and that's no way to enjoy listening to a book. I tried it with speakers and with headphones, volume up and volume down, and nothing helped.
Here's my theory: I don't believe this audiobook was initially intended to be. I think that, after the hardback was published, someone thought it might work to release the interviews that went into the making of the hardback. All well and good, except that those interviews were recorded only for content, not for audio quality, and it shows.
So I don't think anyone did a sloppy job of putting together an audiobook. Instead, I think someone tried to push a square peg of recorded interviews through the round hole of retail. Even the art on the CD box seems to be an afterthought.
Unless you're prepared to listen to two CDs of muffled, echoing, low-volume, distant monologues, don't buy the audiobook of "Pythons" - instead, indulge yourself in the hardback. Not only will you "hear" the voices of the Pythons better in your own head, but you'll also get a lot of wonderful photos.
Interesting but VERY long.......2006-01-26
It's a bad sign when a book about my favorite comedy act (apart from the three stooges) doesn't keep me coming back.
I found myself reading it is spurts and jumping around quite a bit.
What I did read was interesting but not enough to keep me going. (The story behind the topless scene in "The dull life of a city stockbroker" was particularly funny).
Of course as a Coffee table book it is awesome and full of pictures both in front of and behind the scenes.
I would have liked at least a few passages by Carol Cleveland as I've always considered her part of the group. The fact that she grew from just "a bit of totty" to somebody who played real parts is would be a good story on its own.
I think the cult status of the Pythons is a very American thing and it sometimes takes them aback. They are some of the funniest people who did some of the best comedy writing that ever lived and many modern comedians owe them a lot, however it is the fact that their humor is so educated (who else could do "the fish slapping dance and Coal miners arguing about the Treaty of Utrecht?) that raises it above.
Too bad it couldn't raise up this book higher.
Book Description
Michael Palin has kept a diary since newly married in the late 1960s, when he was beginning to make a name for himself as a TV scriptwriter (for The Two Ronnies, David Frost, etc). Monty Python was just around the corner.
This volume of his diaries reveals how Python emerged and triumphed, how he, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, the two Terrys---Jones and Gilliam---and Eric Idle came together and changed the face of British comedy. But this is but only part of Palin’s story. Here is his growing family, his home in a north London Victorian terrace, which grows as he buys the house next door and then a second at the bottom of the garden; here, too, is his solo effort---as an actor, in Three Men in a Boat, his writing endeavours (often in partnership with Terry Jones) that produces Ripping Yarns and even a pantomime.
Meanwhile Monty Python refuses to go away: the hugely successful movies that follow the TV (his account of the making of both The Holy Grail and the Life of Brian movies are page-turners), the at times extraordinary goings-on of the many powerful personalities who coalesced to form the Python team, the fight to prevent an American TV network from bleeping out the best jokes on U.S. transmission, and much more---all this makes for funny and riveting reading.
The birth and childhood of his three children, his father’s growing disability, learning to cope as a young man with celebrity, his friendship with George Harrison, and all the trials of a peripatetic life are also essential ingredients of these diaries. A perceptive and funny chronicle, the diaries are a rich portrait of a fascinating period.
“Michael Palin is not just one of Britain’s foremost comedy character actors, he also talks a lot. Yap, yap, yap he goes, all day long and through the night . . . then, some nights, when everyone else has gone to bed, he goes home and writes up a diary.”
---John Cleese
“This combination of niceness, with his natural volubility, creates Palin’s expansiveness.”
---David Baddiel, The Times
“A real delight to read.”
---Saga Magazine (UK)
“His showbiz observations are so absorbing. . . . Palin is an elegant and engaging writer.”
---William Cook, The Guardian (UK)
“A wealth of fascinating stuff about Monty Python.”
---The Independent (UK)
“Our favourite TV explorer shows us the workings of an unstoppable machine.”
---Daily Express (UK)
“A riveting commentary to a remarkably creative decade.”
---Academy (UK)
Customer Reviews:
Excellent read.......2007-10-04
A fascinating look into an exciting period of Python history. In Palinesque style, it is very candid with a mix of subtle humour making it an excellent read. The book also documents his observations about social and economic changes happening in Britain in the period which would make this a good read even if you arent Python obsessed!
The Seventies according to Palin.......2007-09-27
What a nice man! Michael Palin's diary of Seventies Britain Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Yearsshows that you don't have to be weird or "out there" or even arrogant to create the kind of ground-breaking humor that was Monty Python's Flying Circus. They certainly needed the comic genius of John Cleese to make it come to life, but it is clear that Michael Palin and Terry Jones did much of the writing and then the general tidying up afterwards that made Python at once gloriously offensive and yet globally marketable.
Palin's honest yet self-effacing notes on his life during the 1970's include lots of interesting out-takes on Python writing and performance for Python aficionados, but his attendance to his aging parents and his thoughtful asides on a critical decade in British politics show an Everyman that contrasts wildly with the lunacy of Python. Maybe that's why Python became a global experience - because it connected us to that silly streak we all have inside but seldom allow to show, in a decade when so many accepted social mores were being overturned.
For those of us that lived through that decade (I am English and two months younger than Palin) this is an entertaining and absorbing social history which will make you think "maybe if I had just had the right friends?".
Almost perfect..........2007-09-16
This is a well-written book on the years Michael Palin spent in Monty Python. It does lack a few things: it starts in 1969 more or less with the start of his diaries and of his time in Python. It offers daily exceprts from his life from then on until 1979. This is by no means bad since it does give some interesting insights into what happened but some of the things before 1969 would have been nice in order to put things into a better perspective. It is also somewhat short at moments since it really offers daily excerpts and not a continuous stoyline. Anywayx, anyone who is a Monty Pathon fan will love the anecdotes and I still recommend this.
Palin makes you feel at home........2007-09-11
This is a great book by Michael Palin. I felt as if he was talking to me as we were taking a walk on a nice day. There's all the history here of the Monty Python's and their film's. His times with George Harrison and much more.He's a great writer as those of you know who have enjoyed all of his travel books and shows. This book takes you up to 1979 the Python years and I hope there's not a long wait for the next book.
Book Description
For the first time all surviving Pythons have agreed to create the definitive story of Monty Python's Flying Circus and the 'genius' who created it. Over thirty years ago, a group of five Englishmen - and one wayward American - rewrote the rules of comedy. Monty Python's Flying Circus, an unheralded, previously unseen half-hour show of sketches, hilarities, inanities and animations, first appeared on the BBC late one night in 1969. Its impact has been felt on the world ever since. From its humble beginnings, it blossomed into the most influential movement in modern comedy. THE PYTHONS' AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE PYTHONS is a unique look at arguably the most important comic team of the modern age, lavishly illustrated with 1000 photographs, many culled from the team's own personal collections, many more seen for the first time. This is the definitive word on all things Pythonesque.
Customer Reviews:
And now for something completely not funny, yet indispensible........2006-01-18
...but that's not a bad thing (explanation below).
I got this book for Christmas and was concerned that because of it's size I would probably end up just thumbing through and reading select parts. Not the case. I started reading it and couldn't stop.
It covers the group and individuals from their pre-Python lives through discussions of working together again after The Live at Aspen event - though I won't tell you what conclusion they came to. In between is chock full of every detail about their influences, TV show, the movies, the stage shows and more. And because each member contributes (hence...autobiography) you get a great insider's perspective on the dynamics of the group. You learn first hand who doesn't like who, what they enjoyed and how, at times, they really struggled, and a bunch more behind the scenes insights into their personalities.
I found the book to be fascinating. It is formatted such that each event is discussed by multiple members of the troop. So you get a 360 degree view of their writing sessions, their fights, their good times, their movie productions, their business and artistic relationships.
The only downside (and here is why I titled this as such) is that it was rarely funny. That is by no means a fault, but could come as a surprise (as it did me) to the reader who expects it to be silly and funny like their performances. As a result this book is probably only going to be of interest to a true Python fan. And a true Python fan will find it indispensible.
Wonderful book.......2005-12-28
The Pythons were like the British Marx Brothers, Anti-authority,
subversive, surreal, and very very funny. Particularly interesting are the Python's accounts of their childhood and pre-fame days.
It seems "A Careful Reader" wasn't so careful after all. The picture of Dudley Moore (and it is most assuredly him) is on page 68 NOT 88. Here's a clue for ACR...he's about 30 years younger than he was when he appeared in the movie "10." Thank you and good night!
A few points about this Monty Python book.......2005-01-05
On page 88 it says that one of the four men in the photo is Dudley Moore. The fellow in the picture doesn't look at all like Dudley Moore. Furthermore, it says, on another page, that Ian MacNaughton is beseeching Terry Jones. But the man MacNaughton is begging seems to actually be Michael Palin. On a different note, in his autobiography part of the book Eric Idle seems too proud of his anti-authority stances. The 60's are very long gone now. Idle should grow up and not be so flaunting of his anti-societial ways. Being part of society is back in fashion.
Average customer rating:
- Not a lot of pictures
- Utterly Useless To Real Pythophiles!
- How did this get such good reviews?
- Not quite what it professes to be
- A very Good book for a Monty Python Fan
|
Monty Python Encyclopedia
Robert Ross
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Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think! (Popular Culture and Philosophy)
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The Pythons: Autobiography
ASIN: 1575000369 |
Customer Reviews:
Not a lot of pictures.......2003-01-23
This encyclopedia is filled with information not just on Monty Python, but on the individual members as well. What I mean is, not only do we read about things like "Life of Brian" and "The Meaning of Life," but we also hear about "Silverado" and "Splitting Heirs."
The book provides a chronology starting with John Cleese's birthday in 1939 to 1997. There is also a list of videos and books as well as addresses for the British and American fan clubs.
The focus for the entries is on the Monty Python cast. For instance, not a lot of information is given on the movie "Silverado," but there is quite a bit of information about John Cleese's role in the movie.
Unfortunately, there are not a lot of pictures in the book. Personally, I think that would be a grand addition to this work.
I would recommend this for diehard fans of Monty Python.
Utterly Useless To Real Pythophiles!.......2002-02-09
The back cover alone,should be the biggest tip off,to this gigantic rip-off! Mr.Ross is payed to write books about British television shows. Besides Python,he has written books on The Avengers,and The Saint. ( Heaven help their fans as well! ).He doesn't have to be a fan of the show,just a flunky who collects information. It's easy enough to get a Python endorsement as well,since a book about them,obviously generates intrest in their own projects.
One thing I wonder about is this: why do the authors of books about funny people,naturally assume they themselves are the comic event of the decade? ( Please,leave the comedy to the professionals.). Mr.Ross is no more a comedian,than Geoffrey Guiliano is a musician. Mr.Ross's overly long decriptions of every Python episode,are like being trapped in a pub with a drunken neo-Python fan,intent on retelling every joke to you until you laugh at it.
Frankly,if you wanted a run down of cast and crew for any Python film,you could run it down on the Internet Movie Data Base.( And more than likely see the information spelled correctly as well.).Obviously all Mr.Ross had to do,was pay someone to surf for the information,and copy it down for his book.
This book would benefit from being,simply,the facts. Most "encylopedias" tend to state facts,rather than personal opinions. As a Python fan,I frankly don't care if Mr.Ross laughs at the same jokes I do,or "gets" the social ramifications of certain subjects.We all laugh differently,and Python offers much to laugh about.
Instead of having every film,ruined by a full out synopsis that kills every joke,why not give just a general overview? Instead of merely listing the albums,why not list the variants? ( And yes,original Python vinyl came with extras!). Instead of going over every episode with a fine tooth comb,why not give just a season intro?
Mr.Ross wants too hard to be Kim Johnson,and fails.
How did this get such good reviews?.......2001-10-28
I found this book somewhat informative as far is just raw data is concerned but poorly written. The author seems more intent at getting his opinions across than providing information. Specifically I refer to his occasional remarks about how British comedy is far superior to anything that the United States could produce (I was actually waiting for him to refer to the States as "the colonies").
LUCKILY I received this book free for purchasing the complete set of Python videos. Had I paid money for it I would have been very disappointed.
The ONLY reason I gave this two stars instead of one is because it does have good information. However reading through the author's comments are just too frustrating. At some point in the future it will provide me with kindling for a nice warm fire. I haven't touched it since my first and only reading.
Not quite what it professes to be.......1999-09-22
I find this flawed effort nevertheless very enjoyable; but I am of two minds about its not quite beign what it professes to be. An encyclopedia should (as Sgt. Friday used to insist) just give the facts. Almost every sentence here is concerned with Mr. Ross's personal opinion about the facts--opinion, by the way, stated as fact. When he says, for example, that episode 7 of the lst series of MP's Flying Circus is "one of the most unfunny," this can scarcely be accepted as fact (it is the one about the transformation into Scotsmen). The format is also inconsistent. A complete treatment of an Avengers episode is offered because John Cleese makes a brief appearance but another episode in which Carol Cleveland plays a major role is not featured and barely mentioned in her own write up. Also--and this is a Good Thing--Ross includes any film or tv show in which even a single Pythonite has had a hand. So with an eye open for typos and occasional inaccuracies, I will continue to peruse this book but always careful to separate fact from opinion. And all the more so now that the MPFC tapes and DVDs are being made available by A&E!
A very Good book for a Monty Python Fan.......1999-09-01
I bought this book the same day I bought Monty Python Speaks. This book is good to let you know what movis and tv shows each python member is in. It is a very good book for a Monty Python fan.
Average customer rating:
- A travel book without direction
- Snakes and more snakes
- Big Ego: The Hunt for the World's Longest Whine
- Big snake? NOT !!!! Try Big Bogus Bomb.
- The Best of the Best
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Big Snake: The Hunt for the World's Longest Python
Robert Twigger
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The Extinction Club
ASIN: 0688175384
Release Date: 2000-06-20 |
Book Description
"Discovery Channel junkie" meets "weekend warrior" in this true story of a terrified desk dweller who sets out to capture the world's longest snake. Out of funding, acclaimed poet Robert Twigger was surfing the Internet for poetry prizes when he came upon a cash reward being offered for the capture of a live snake in excess of thirty feet. Established in 1912 by President Roosevelt following the capture of a twenty-eight-foot reticulated python, the reward had gone unclaimed for eighty-six years, boosting the $1,000 prize to $50,000. About to be married but craving one last adventure, the scrawny Oxford poet sets off for the Far East without either hesitation or serious strategy. No matter that his closest encounter with a live snake was at the reptile house at the Howlett Zoo or that he suffers from ophicliophobia, a fear nearly universal among humans. Twigger is determined to win the moneyand to guarantee that his last escapade as a bachelor will be an unforgettable one.
Part travelogue, part classic adventure, Big Snake grapples with the mythic and symbolic status of one of the world's most fascinating yet dreaded creatures, which are generally the victims of bad press. Trekking through South-East Asia with a band of headhunters, Twigger stalks pythons in the sewers of Kuala Lumpur, is forced to survive on greasy civet cat (a relative of the skunk) deep in the jungle, attempts to date the most beautiful woman in the world, encounters the cobweb hunters of Buru, and evaluates the legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace ("the true discoverer of evolution"). Ultimately, after close encounters with snakes both petite though venomous and harmless yet gargantuan, Twigger eventually comes face-to-face with the big one-but the final capture is not quite what he had in mind.
Customer Reviews:
A travel book without direction .......2006-01-19
Twigger is a great writer at publishing adventure novels in which he starts the quest but never seems to complete it. His books are about growing up and finding himself, but he rarely finds his subject (BIG SNAKE). A self-help book for the over educated who are looking at making their mark by desperately trying to find their niche in life ie: being a writer.
Snakes and more snakes.......2001-08-23
I liked this book - more of a travelogue than a snake book, but entertaining and inspiring. Went and saw some reticulated pythons afterwards, and thought about the world's longest snake... If you liked this book, try the Snakebite Survivor's Club also - hilarious and scary.
Big Ego: The Hunt for the World's Longest Whine.......2001-03-17
Well, as treatises on growing into manhood go, it's about average. What gets me is the title: why call it a hunt for a python? All the author hunted was other people to find a snake, and his own elusive maturity. I also cannot imagine going into such an endeavour so unprepared. It would have been more interesting, at least from a herp point of view, if a reticulated python hunted Twigger.
Buy this book only if you have a man in your family that refuses to grow up, and you want to show him into what he could deteriorate.
Big snake? NOT !!!! Try Big Bogus Bomb........2000-10-06
This Is not a story about the hunt for the longest python but the hunt for someone else to find the longest python. The Author spends very little time looking for the snake . When one is found at the end of the book he is off getting married. It never even tells us if some zoo bought the big snake the other guys found. I wanted to hear about catching the snake NOT about a rave on the roof of a bank. if you want to read it wait for the paperback or for the library copy. As a highschool Biology teacher who loves to go herping this was a total bust for me. feel free to e-mail me if you have Questions. Sheldon
reptiles4us@earthlink.net
The Best of the Best.......2000-08-27
Travel books just don't get any better than this. I've bought it for all my friends!
Robert
Amazon.com
With Dark Knights and Holy Fools, film writer Bob McCabe has done a masterful job of depicting the evolution of a filmmaker and his vision. Terry Gilliam, of course, is the mind behind the bizarre and hilarious animations for Monty Python's Flying Circus, as well as the films Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Fisher King, among others. Using interviews with Gilliam and a few of his collaborators, McCabe takes readers on a chronological journey through the Python alum's work, going back as far as cartoons from his high school and college days. The book is gloriously stuffed with Gilliam's playfully wicked and distinctly rounded drawings--everything from political posters to stills from Python clips to pencilled storyboards for his films. The storyboards in particular are fascinating because they give insight into how Gilliam's mind works as he maps out his movies.
Dark Knights and Holy Fools also offers interesting glimpses at the inner workings of the film industry. McCabe chronicles Gilliam's well-publicized battles with studios over budgets, running lengths, and less-than-sunny endings, illustrating the frustrations of trying to push art through a bureaucracy (and, to a lesser extent, the frustrations of trying to reason with a visionary). Just as engrossing are the accounts of how ideas that don't quite fit into one film can materialize in another, and the amount of pure serendipity that went into some of the indelible images Gilliam has created. This is a lavish and thoughtful treatment of one of our most unpredictable modern directors. --Ali Davis
Book Description
"Dark Knights & Holy Fools" is the first and only authorized, comprehensive study of the work of Terry Gilliam, one of today's most innovative and influential filmmakers. Since 1969, when Gilliam became the only American among the otherwise all-British Monty Python team, his work has won awards and acclaim for its originality and imagination. This volume traces thirty years of work and art of Terry Gilliam, from his pre-Python days, through the astounding adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, released in 1998.
Each chapter deals in depth with a different production, covering the story behind the movie and its making, and including a complete critical analysis of the film as well as detailed cast and credit listings.
Using Gilliam's own drawings, storyboards, and scripts, this book builds a complete archive of the director's work detailing his renowned immense sets and labyrinth stories of man against bureaucracy (Brazil, 12 Monkeys), triumphant tales of imagination winning over mediocrity (Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King), and, of course, something completely different (Monty Python and the Holy Grail).
Additionally, each chapter features a new, previously unpublished, in-depth interview with Gilliam in which his movies are assessed as a complete body of work within the context of his life.
Customer Reviews:
Great Gilliam companion!.......2003-03-21
This is the perfect book for Terry Gilliam fans. It traces his history as an animator and director through the early years, into the Monty Python legacy and all the way to his feature films. This book is filled with color pictures from all of his projects, and even discusses some of the projects that never got off the ground. Very informative, but dated as this book came out right after the release of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'. Still, a great book if you truly enjoyed this innovative directors work!
A Fantastic, colorful showcase of the art & film of Gilliam.......2002-01-28
A fantastic art book about the work of Terry Gilliam. Some of his art has been reprinted elsewhere, but never in large format and never, in many cases, in full color. It is quite thourough, for what it is. The text and Bob McCabe's interviews give the reader the facts about what is being covered in each chapter. However, the artwork is the star of this book. If you want to know about Terry Gilliam, the artist, then this is the book for you. As Gilliam says in his intro 'you can write about them (the movies) all you want but these movies are basically there to be seen.'
If you want to know about Terry Gilliam in detail, then the book Gilliam on Gilliam, which is basically a book length interview with Gilliam, is the book for you. I think the books compliment each other nicely: 'Gilliam on Gilliam' for everything you could possibly want to know about Terry Gilliam and 'Dark Knights & Holy Fools' for Terry Gilliam's quirky, beautiful, humorous art.
The right way to look at an imaginative director.......2001-09-10
Dark Knights & Holy Fools is a portrait of director Terry Gilliam expressed through comment, interviews with the great man, and his work itself. A descriptive thread goes through each stage of his work, from before his first public beginnings as a cartoonist, to each of his films, made and unmade.
It's a biography, a reference, a wonderful collection of illustrations and photographs, and a celebration of a cinematic genius. If you enjoy Gilliam's work, I suspect this ought to be on your bookshelf.
Our most imaginative director gets comprehensive treatment.......2001-05-05
This is good. The pictures from Gilliam's archive and exclusive interviews make it special, added to McCabe's obvious enthusiasm for his subject. The book will seem inadequate once Terry makes his next film, but for now it is a good overview of an interesting career. More time could have been spent on some of the Monty Python work, and some of the pictures suffer from sloppy presentation, but that's a minor details when the book is so readable.
Strange goings on.......2000-02-26
This book does go into good detail of each of Gilliam's films, but I was left thinking that I wanted to know more on certain films. Now I want a making of book on each of his films! A bonus is the three chapters that mention the projects that he never got off the ground - as gilliam is famous for having problems with the studios. The major let down is the layout of the text. Still a good read - and a great colectable for Gilliam fans.
Average customer rating:
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El Humor de... Monty Python
Adolfo Perez
Manufacturer: Master Manakel
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 8496319458 |
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- Like a biography of a rock band
- Fascinating Biographies on the six masters of British Humor
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The Life of Python
Perry George
Manufacturer: Anova Books
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1862057621 |
Book Description
The world of Monty Python, its ear finely tuned to the absurd, was that rare beast: absolute originality. This tribute to the inspired collective genius of John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and the late Graham Chapman, is based on personal reminiscences and exclusive interviews with each of them. It recounts, with many photos and illustrations from the archives, their pre-Python lives, their meeting, its impact, and its aftermath. A faithful and entertaining chronicle of the people and events who engendered a revolution in comedy. George Perry is an author, journalist, fellow Oxbridge graduate, and expert on all matters Python.
Customer Reviews:
Like a biography of a rock band.......2003-01-26
Perry's first version of this biography of the Monty Python comedy team was published in 1983 and I read it in 1987. Some good friends who knew that I was python phanatic gave me this, not knowing of an earlier version--and how would they, because there is no indication on this book that it is a rewrite/reprint of anything. The indica page even states that this is a first edition and doesn't list the earlier book as the source of any material. Strange are the ways of publishers. The subject of Perry's writing deserves the update. The team has only grown in popularity over the intervening years and the members continue to entertain audiences with new work, from Gilliam's directing/writing career to Cleese's acting. The Life of Python reads like a biography of a rock band, which Python actually is more similar to than the traditional comedy group such as the Marx brothers. They are also, like the great rock groups of the sixties, now missing one member, making the chance of a true reformation impossible. Graham Chapman's death is not preventing Eric Idle from attempting a reunion "concert," this time to be presented in Las Vegas (the very idea of which appeals to the members' sense of humor).
The basic material of the book is to try to track each member of the group from their comedic beginnings to the formation of the troupe and then to the work following the cancellation of the TV series, all interwoven by time. Sounds like a mess, but it works. Perry interviewed all the members, sometimes more than once, and the book is liberally sprinkled with quotes. This new version has color photos as well as black and white, which fills the book (every page has a picture on it). This is probably the definitive biography of the group, although Kim "Howard" Johnson's The First 20X Years of Monty Python is a close second.
Fascinating Biographies on the six masters of British Humor.......2001-03-03
As a Monty Python follower, I love books like these. Although it's not full of hilarious lines, it does have great bios on all six members of the group. However, it starts with the pages completely out of order. This is apparently on purpose, but it doesn't help the book. I found it somehow easy to get into this book and read through the biographies. This book comes recommended, however, I always seem to get hold of such items right before they go out of stock. This one should still be out there. It's a treasure in my collection of Python books.
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