The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983) User Reviews

One of the high points of Monty Python

[Tom Murray · 9/10 · 11 February 2006]

The Crimson Permanent Assurance is, to me, one of the high points of Monty Python and His Flying Circus. It was created in conjunction with the film The Meaning of Life but was created by Terry Gilliam in a separate studio. He went way over budget without informing the others and when it was finished, they wondered what to do with it; it did not fit in with the rest of the movie. They decided to include it as if it were a separate short to be shown before the feature. The short was so well received at the Cannes Film Festival that The Meaning of Life was guaranteed to be a success.

The short was originally intended to be a five-minute animated short but Gilliam felt that it would be more suited to live action. It became a 30 minute film and was then edited to 16 minutes. The film is a wonderful, highly imaginative, funny, anti-capitalist fantasy, with a very nice song.

It begins by showing what appears to be a ship's sails, which turn out actually to be canvasses that are covering the face of a large old building that is being cleaned. The original impression, however, turns out to be the reality. The Crimson Permanent Assurance Company is a very British company that has been in existence for a long, long time. Its staff loyalty has left it with a geriatric staff, who have worked there all their lives. The company has been purchased by The Very Big Corporation of America, which brings in efficiency experts to rank the staff. When a staff member is fired for being slow, rebellion erupts. Evidently, this moment has been anticipated, because everybody seems to know exactly what to do: how to use office equipment as weapons, the chain of command, that the building is able to sail off on the "Wide Accountant-sea", etc. Since the charm of the movie is its element of surprise, I will say no more (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

One question remains: is The Crimson Permanent Assurance a separate short film or an integral part of the feature film The Meaning of Life? The answer is, "Yes!"

For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crimson_Permanent_Assurance

Visually great

[keuhkokala · 7/10 · 16 November 2003]

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

Strange, but good

[rbverhoef · 7/10 · 8 January 2004]

This short is from the Monty Pyhton's and that is pretty obvious. It is funny, strange, well made, interesting and very imaginative. The story has something to say and it is good satire considering the time it was made.

This short is about an uprising by the elderly workers against the corporate young men who treat them like garbage. Their building turns into some kind of pirate ship and they prepare for battle with the corporate world.

With lots of humor, a fine production design and a typical Monty Python ending this is a very good short film.

Great stuff!

[nickname1 · 10/10 · 12 August 2003]

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.

swashbuckling shreds Thatcherism

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 1 February 2016]

Terry Gilliam rips apart the yuppie culture with this short that preceded Monty Python's "Meaning of Life". Focusing on some elderly employees who rebel against their bosses and turn their office building into a pirate ship, "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" is really an indictment of how greed dominated the 1980s. Yes, this kick in the balls to Reaganomics is what cinephiles get to see before watching a poor man (Michael Palin) sing about how every sperm is sacred, watching a professor (John Cleese) demonstrate sex to his students, and watching a morbidly obese man (Terry Jones) vomit all over the place. Terry Gilliam succeeds again.

A piece of trivia is that "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" is the film debut of Matt Frewer, who played Russ Sr. in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids".

a sprawling, unnerving, and often hilarious work by the madman filmmaker of Python

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 15 August 2005]

While the feature this short is presented after in succession, Monty Python's the Meaning of Life, is a very good comedy with the scattered laughs bringing some of their best moments, in sheer audacity and daring with the film-making the prize has to go to writer/director Terry Gilliam for his 'The Crimson Permanent Assurance' (in fact it did at Cannes in 83). The key to understanding it, or at least appreciating it, is knowing that it was originally meant to be shorter, much shorter, as one of the animated segways that connect the segments in the Monty Python sketches. This idea soon expanded for Gilliam, and his 'director bug' (right before his take-off to Brazil and right after his first two solo director outings) took over into this ideally cartoonish, surrealist, and perfectly anarchic comedy of will-power.

Sum up the story quick, will do- the workers at the Crimson Permanent Assurance company are old, very old, and very tired and beat down, like the ship rowers in Ben Hur. It finally breaks for their to be a revolution against the bosses, and the old men fight back. On this simple premise, Gilliam builds and builds (with extra help from cinematographer Roger Pratt, and a couple of the other Pythons as extras) until one wonders how this can even conceivably be made as entertainment. I once remember hearing Gilliam on the commentary for Holy Grail saying (sarcastically) 'the stuff in this film is so unjustifiable, its insane', and the same can definitely be said about this short film. It's big (this took up a million of the 7 or 8 million budget of Meaning of Life), its violent, its surprising, and while it maybe lacks only the sort of focused, dry British genius that was in the other members of Python, it certainly doesn't lack the daring of pushing the envelope (in this case, the Assurance 'ship' gets pushed off the world itself). Even when I wasn't laughing hard I was struck by the style of the direction, the fun in these old-school British actors, and the swashbuckling music.

An important step in Gilliam's career

[ametaphysicalshark · 11 January 2008]

The best thing about "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" is without a doubt the short film that opens it. Directed by Terry Gilliam and originally conceived as an animated sequence, "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" is a crucial step in Gilliam's career as a director. His previous two solo efforts as director, the inconsequential "Jabberwocky" and the brilliant-in-its-own-way "Time Bandits" saw him developing his visual style much further than he did for his scenes for "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", with "Time Bandits" arguably being the first 'Gilliam-esque' film he made. Still, "Time Bandits" didn't see his style fully developed, and "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" is an even more bizarre film, but with a far more confident and clear-cut visual style. Simply put: Gilliam was ready for "Brazil". This segment is the best in the film from a cinematic viewpoint, without a doubt, and even gives some of the other segments a run for their money in terms of the quality of the comedy, which involves office clerks who become pirates. Yes, it is quite strange.

A Taste of a Surrealist Master

[Brad_Dharma · 9/10 · 16 March 2001]

Terry Gilliam has proven himself as an incredible director of dream imagery. the context of his films exist in an unreality complete with sarcasm and satire. Crimson is the perfect example of Gilliam's attitude towards the structure of big business (Brazil also exists on this level). It mixes comedic violence and well-crafted sets to create a intro for The Meaning of Life. Look for Matt Frewer in the meeting room and Michael Palin outside the window.

Entering the high seas of international finance

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 27 September 2013]

Almost ten years before "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", Terry Gilliam began his career directing another short film named "Miracle of Flight". Here he returns to the genre, though no animation, but live action instead. This effort managed a BAFTA-nomination for Best Short film, but came up short against a film named "Goodie-Two-Shoes", which has pretty much vanished into oblivion by now.

But not so The Crimson Permanent Assurance. It deals with an office full of elderly workers. Everybody seems to be working as fast as they can without enjoying it, almost like galley slaves. When one of the bunch is fired by the foreman, the situation escalates. His colleagues rise to the occasion and take over. As they turn the building into a pirate-ship they start sailing the seas and we get to accompany them on their journey which includes among other things, entering and taking over an enemy company. It's a good film that profits a lot from a truly smart idea and the good execution of it. It's certainly one of Gilliam's best works and a must-see for every Monty Python enthusiast. I wouldn't say it's 17 minutes that flew by second to none, but all in all it's still a recommendable final result.

The changing world of business, gentility vs rapaciousness

[rmike · 10/10 · 9 August 2002]

A satrical look at the way the business environment was changing after downsizing became the latest American import into the U.K. The central theme of men pushed beyond their limits is explored in an extremely entertaining, surrealistic, typically Gilliam fashion. The use of totally inapt equipment, filing cabinets as ship's cannon, is somewhat reminiscent of the use of musical instruments in the Square World episode which won the Golden Rose of Montreux. All in all a sidesplitter!

Surreal

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 7/10 · 16 October 2007]

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

Funny opening to "Monty Python's Meaning of Life"

[leftistcritic · 10/10 · 28 January 2019]

This short film is an interesting opening to the Meaning of Life. It is critical of corporate power ("Very Big Corporation of America"), evident horrid workplace with the old workers fighting against the "suits" (corporate men), and asset stripping (what the old men do to companies in the world of high finance). But this ends quickly as being not "realistic" with the old men falling off the cliff in their building/ship. Later this comes up the Meaning of Life with the boat squashed as a distraction, saying that they need to end the "unwarranted attack by the supporting feature."

There is more to say about this short film. It was Terry Gilliam's fourth work he directed, after Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), which he co-directed with Terry Jones, Jaberwocky (1977), and Time Bandits (1981). Additionally, while this film included few of the original Monty Python crew, it still has a lasting impact. Like other Gilliam works, this was absurdist and silly, but it connected to common themes in other movies, like the characters bursting into song or a concept that seems laughable on its face. This film was also unique in that most of the cast were comprised of older individuals, which is usually not the case for most movies, which primarily comprise of those whom are younger, even if they are focused on the life of some older people.

Additionally, I'd like to add that this film, apart from giving a number of actors a platform they would have not otherwise had, is unique in that does not have the same tempo, rhythm, or length of The Meaning of Life. That makes it a curious introduction to the main film, but it also allows it to, in a sense, stand on its own, to say the least. With that, my review of this short film has come to a close.

The Crimson Permanent Assurance

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 31 March 2024]

With an opening straight out of "Ben Hur", the old codgers at the assurance company rebel when one of their number is fired. They consign their new, yuppie, management to the vault - or make them walk the plank. Then cannibalising just about everything from the ceiling fan to the coat hook detach their building from it's m foundations and set off on the voyage of a lifetime. Shiver me timbers, but they're off a-pirating in their eponymous ten-storey vessel. Determined to make waves amidst Mrs Thatcher's newly formed economic policy, they head straight for the gleaming merchant banking centre. Weapons loaded, eye-patches firmly attached (didn't see any parrots) they launch their assault. Perilous thing being a window cleaner! Who will win out? Well it's got a rousing, maritime-style score and loads of swash and buckle as the filing cabinets double for cannon and just about every bit of office furniture becomes a lethal weapon. It's quite good fun with the typical surrealism you'd expect from Gilliam and there's even a message-reinforcing ditty to ram the message home. Possibly a bit long, but enjoyable to watch - right to the end!

Utterly dreadful

[Gangsteroctopus · 1/10 · 15 January 2005]

I hadn't seen "Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life'" since it first came out, way back when I was still in high school, so it was with mildly delighted anticipation that I popped in the new Special Edition DVD into my player the other day. Boy, did I waste $15.00! I barely made it to the midway part of the feature ("Where are you, fishy?"), but I almost didn't even make it to the opening credits, thanks to this worthless trifle of an utterly insipid, humor-free ball of whimsy-snot. If one needs proof of the axiom that animators make lousy live-action film directors (Frank Tashlin, Tim Burton, Ralph Bakshi, et. al.), here is yet more. Terry Gilliam, get thee back behind an animator's desk and out from behind a camera!

Anchors aweigh

[tieman64 · 21 October 2010]

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.

Gilliam's live-action cartoon

[craigjclark · 10/10 · 9 August 2001]

Originally intended to be part of the body of "The Meaning of Life," Gilliam's loony story about pirate accountants was found to go on too long and tended to overpower the rest of the film, so it was excised and made into a separate short subject. This was probably for the best since it has a strikingly different tone from what the rest of the Pythons were doing.

Gilliam's visual sense, as always, is a marvel to watch, and his attention to detail is stunning. Watch for his cameo -- along with Michael Palin -- when the CPA attacks its first competitor. And Gilliam regular Myrtle Devenish -- who was Beryl in "Time Bandits" and Jack Lint's secretary in "Brazil" -- also puts in a welcome appearance.

"Weigh the anchor."

One little gem that still shines bright

[irogov · 10/10 · 11 January 2020]

Touch of a genius. If full length Gilliam movies suffer from "suspension of disbelief" disappearing somewhere mid-stream his usually bizarre and twisted stories, this short one is just perfect in a way it grips the imagination and never lets go. It works on so many levels - as a political satire, still very relevant, as a biting critique on a vulture capitalism, as a slapstick comedy, as a spiritually rousing and heart warming tale about elderly having an adventure of a lifetime, as a visual feast with no dreadful computer animations. The song is one of the nicest in Monty Python collection, suitable for corporate dinners and such. The interplay between the main feature and this shorty is clever indeed. The acting is spot on, with subdued and precise performance by the aged crew holding the whole piece together. Endless re-watching value.

I really felt that

[verohmarin · 8/10 · 18 March 2019]

When the elderly workers raised against their bosses, I (as a millennial) really felt that. I absolutely adored the production design, the combination of office supplies and pirates' stuff was sublime and something I didn't know I needed. If "The Meaning of Life" would've been like this short, I probably would've liked it more. It probably runs a little long but I will enjoy whenever people decide to fight against their oppressors

Possibly the best thing you'll ever see in a Python film and definitely the best thing about "The Meaning of Life"

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 19 December 2008]

Monty Python's film, "The Meaning of Life" was a major misfire for the group. While it had some very funny bits (such as the Angel of Death scene and the song "Every Sperm is Sacred"), many more parts of the film were terribly unfunny. It just showed that the team's long absence from films as a group was detrimental to their chemistry--they just couldn't capture the magic from such work as "The Holy Grail".

However, despite my major disappointment with the film, there was actually a short pre-film that was released with "The Meaning of Life"--though some friends told me that when they saw it the theater did NOT show "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" film! This is so sad because this wonderful film was by far the best aspect of "The Meaning of Life" and may just have been the best moment from any Python film--it's THAT good! The film was written and directed by Terry Gilliam and the other Pythons are not readily apparent in the film (several do appear very briefly and heavily made up). Instead, it stars a wonderful cast of elderly men--all who are working a horribly boring job. Showing the scenes of them working and comparing it to a galley ship was brilliant, but what happened next nearly had me falling on the floor laughing. I really can't say more because it would spoil the fun--let's just say that the film becomes very, very surreal...and funny.

Brilliantly written, directed and performed--this is a must-see for anyone who has a sense of humor. A wonderful little film in every possible way.

Bridge to Gilliambithia

[Polaris_DiB · 8/10 · 31 January 2010]

As the Monty Python troupe was finishing up their final movie together, it seems Terry Gilliam got his hands on some of the budget and went haywire creating his own little "supporting feature" to the show, a production that most certainly looks forward to his later work with Time Bandits and Brazil, et al, and gained him some control of the surrealist adventure escapades in Gilliam's fantasy land.

Starting out almost something of a send-up of Ben-Hur, some elderly accountants under the whips and shackles of corporate England revolt and turn their office building into a sailing pirate ship of corporate pillaging, heading to America and converting the everyday mundane office supplies of filing cabinets and coat hangers into weapons. This movie seems like a bridge between Monty Python's surrealist send-up sensibilities and Gilliam's own desire to stretch his fantasies to their limits, a mode he's followed ever since, sometimes to his own detriment (I guess he's finally getting Don Quixote together for a second try?).

Except for one interjection into the mad antics of The Meaning of Life proper, this movie really does stand alone and fills out a different role than the larger feature.

--PolarisDiB

My Second Favorite Fifteen Minute Movie

[selfparody · 8/10 · 20 March 2005]

My very favorite is a documentary I saw called THE SUNSHINE, about a flophouse in the Bowery which like require intense callousness to not get some reaction. SO, it's not really a fair fight when it comes to considering fiction.

Terry Gilliam has made a flick about old-world business versus corporate seizures that will make one who has an appreciation for physical comedy, the absurd, or business satire enjoy wasting fifteen minutes. It has the best music I have ever heard outside of Clint Mansell (PI and Requiem for a Dream.) It has some magnificent models, and a song that is so immensely witty I forgave Eric Idle for being in BURN Hollywood BURN.

Better then the movie itself!!

[Astro_Nut · 7 July 2006]

I was excited to watch The Meaning Of Life. But was NOT expecting this. I think I enjoyed this short more then the movie itself!! After this movie was finished, I lost interest in TMOL very fast and changed channel after 40 minutes. This film is very entertaining. Believe me, if you decide to watch, prepare to watch a load of nutty workers on a mutiny. It makes me want to rally up my fellow workers and storm the office and take over. I'm practicing right now, "Arrr!!"

Perhaps we should have one too...

Thank you The Crimson Permanent Assurance!!! For my my life happy and finding the insane, murderous buccaneer inside me!!!

Full speed ahead Mr. Cohen!

[Beeblebrox · 26 January 2000]

CPA(I wonder if that was intentional?)leaves one quite daffy upon the first viewing. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, It is a short film at the beginning of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Pure Gilliam. He is one of the few people who can mix satire with lunacy in such festive films. If you like it, rent some of Gilliam's other accomplishments: Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and The Fisher King.

Full speed ahead Mr. Cohen!!! (possible spoilers)

[Beeblebrox · 22 June 2000]

The Crimson Permanent Assurance is a wonderful short film that prefaces Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. The story basically involves a group of older accountants and other workers in a large unspecified financial corporation. They overthrow their oppressors and "set sail on the high seas of international commerce." Directed by Terry Gilliam, this shows some of the themes to be later developed in Brazil, mainly bureaucratic oppression, and imaginative methods of liberation. I love Gilliam's visuals...he has a knack for rendering onscreen vivid fantasies, from CPA to Brazil, even going to Time Bandits, The Fisher King, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. If you've never seen it, rent Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and give yourself double the adventure.

Fantastic

[Xploitedyouth · 22 November 2002]

I love this little short film, which precedes the film "Monty Python and the Meaning Of Life." The story about a group of long-suffering clerks working in an office building keelhauling the company and sailing the seas of commerce has more imagination in it's sixteen minutes that many other films have in 2 hours. It carries the message of youthful exuberance and creativity despite what age you are. The visuals are wonderfully silly. This is one of Gilliam's best.