The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Originally conceptualized as a short animated sketch which would be used late in the third Monty Python film, Terry Gilliam's "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" eventually grew into a 16 minute live action short.It was then tagged onto the introduction of "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" with a note explaining that it is a "short-feature presentation." After this note fades, the short then begins in earnest, a narrator explaining that due to its dire financial situation, the Permanent Assurance Company has been taken over by the Very Big Corporation of America.What follows is a wonderfully imaginative riff on Burt Lancaster's "The Crimson Pirate", the subjugated and downtrodden workers of the Permanent Assurance Company, who slavishly row oars to the drums of their corporate masters, staging a revolt and forcing their bosses off the edges of planks (which stretch out from their office building windows). The employees then convert their office building into a pirate ship and head West, attacking the corporate headquarters of the Very Big Corporation of America.Once the employees defeat their tyrannical and unethical employers, the once timid and pale office staff turn into a gang of seasoned pirates, using staplers and stationary as weapons, filing cabinets as cannons and various other office supplies as tools of nautical mayhem. Pretty soon our heroes are riding their building – yes their building literally is a pirate ship – all across the planet, wreaking havoc on various other mega-corporations before suddenly falling off the edge of the world.The narrator then says that our heroes died because they were sailing based on "the wrong theory of the shape of the world". Whether this is a simple joke or yet more satire - the antiquated theories and rebellions of the political left proved useless in the modern era – is left up to the audience. Either way, the resistance falls off the edge of the planet and the world of "Brazil" follows immediately after.10/10 – Where else have you seen a 19th century office building turn into a giant pirate ship and attack the gleaming glass towers of modern capital? Funny, fast, spectacular and wonderfully imaginative, this short is as good as Gilliam's best work and condenses a number of the themes which he'd revisit in "Brazil".Worth multiple viewings.

The short film that directly precedes The Meaning of Life by Monty Python(meaning, it runs directly before the rest of the film starts), this was put together by Terry Gilliam, the masterful director among the team, and the man behind both Twelve Monkeys and the animations that the team include in the Flying Circus television series. I have to admit that this is my least favorite of all of the full production, but it can't be claimed that this is not well-done. Direction is top-notch, and the whole thing runs very smoothly. Acting fits well. Production values are all of very high quality. The music and score is great, and this even gets a Monty Python song, and a good one at that. Cinematography and editing(save for just a few obvious cuts for effects) are rather good. This hardly features the Monty Python people(on-screen) at all, save for a few cameos. It's got a run-time of 16 minutes or so, if you count the credits. The pacing is marvelous. It doesn't overstay its welcome, nor does it end before it should. It has the utter madness and bizarre humor that most things Python do, coupled with that of Gilliam himself. The ending itself is typically Monty Python, and a fitting end. I recommend this to any fan of Gilliam and Monty Python, but do give the rest of The Meaning of Life your time and attention, too... I personally think it's worth it. 7/10

This short movie was originally just one sketch in Monty Python's Meaning of Life (in the Part Middle Age, I think) and was to be done by Terry Gilliam by his famous animation style. Gilliam, however had directed his first movies by then (Jabberwocky and Time Bandits) and was somewhat bored with animation. So, thankfully he got to do this one live-action with his own actors, own budget and own will. So it became the only Python budget to go over the budget and the sketch bloated from five minutes into fifteen. So, the movie didn't fit into the center of the movie, so it was made as a "starter" to the feature movie. The Pythons themselves surprisingly do not feature all in this short. Only Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam can be seen as window cleaners and Eric Idle's voice can be heard when the pirates are singing Accountancy Shanty. This is only good, because the short makes you really confused, whether you have gone to a wrong movie. The best thing about this short is that it's so visually great. Every time I see it, I'll find something new. And the connections between accountancy and piracy are hilarious. Using filing cabinets as cannons and so on are very funny inventions. Every Gilliam fan will love it, but if you hate not only Gilliam, but do not like Python either, then avoid. 8/10

It's funny & imaginative, as everyone else has mentioned. However almost no-one else has mentioned that the film was intensely satirical when it came out - practically everything in it captured the zeitgeist in London at the start of the 80s, from the flapping sacking around office buildings being refurbished to the wholesale layoffs/business closures. Maybe irrelevant to the casual viewer but IMO it's the most political Gilliam film that I've seen. Incidentally I believe that the building used in the exterior shots is Loundes House - still standing just north of Finsbury Square in the City of London.