View source for Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days"

{{Short description|Monty Python sketch}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
"'''Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days{{'}}'''" is a [[Sketch comedy|sketch]] from the 7th episode of the [[List of Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes#Series 3|third series]] of the British television programme ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''.

==Plot==
The sketch begins with a preamble by [[Eric Idle]] (impersonating the British film critic [[Philip Jenkinson]]), who praises American film director [[Sam Peckinpah|Sam Peckinpah's]] predilection for the "utterly truthful and very [[Sexual arousal|sexually arousing]] portrayal of violence ''[sniff]'' in its starkest form" in ''[[Major Dundee]]'' (1965), ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'' (1969) and ''[[Straw Dogs (1971 film)|Straw Dogs]]'' (1971). Throughout this speech, he constantly sniffs, despite onscreen captions telling him to stop. He then segues to a clip from Peckinpah's latest project, which is an adaptation of the musical ''[[Salad Days (musical)|Salad Days]]''.

Well-dressed, well-spoken, [[upper-class]] youngsters frolic in an idyllic garden around an [[upright piano]], responding enthusiastically to [[Michael Palin]]'s suggestion of a game of [[tennis]]. Things go awry when Palin is struck in the face by the [[Tennis ball|ball]], causing blood to seep through his fingers. He reflexively flings his [[Racket (sports equipment)|racquet]] out of shot; we then see that it has become embedded in the stomach of a pretty girl (Nicki Howorth), who faints, tearing off Idle's arm in the process. Idle staggers across to the piano and slams down the lid, severing both hands of the pianist ([[John Cleese]]). The piano then collapses in slow motion, intercut with shots of screaming women, who are crushed to death. Somehow, [[Graham Chapman]] gets impaled by the piano keyboard, which slices off a woman's head when he turns around.

The sketch then cuts back to the studio, prompting Idle to smugly remark "Pretty strong meat there from ''[sniff]'' Sam Peckinpah!" before he is gunned down in [[slow motion]], with [[Blood squirt|much spurting blood]] (and the caption "Tee Hee").

The end credits roll over his dying agonies, before a serious-sounding Cleese reads an apology to everyone in the entire world (which states that "they didn't mean it"), and that while they all came from [[single parent|broken homes]] and have very unhappy personal lives (especially Eric), they are actually nice, warm people underneath and urging the viewers not to write or phone complaints about the sketch since the [[BBC]] is going through an unhappy phase due to its father dying ([[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|Lord Reith]] had indeed died the previous year) "and [[BBC 2]] going out with men". A second voiceover by Idle disputes the first voiceover and mentions that the BBC is "very happy at home" and that the "BBC 2 is bound to go through this phase".

This is followed by [[Richard Baker (broadcaster)|Richard Baker]] in a news desk reporting the news (which is filled with [[Running gag|running jokes]] from the preceding sketches, such as the phrase ''Lemon Curry''), then by a deliberately tranquil final scene of waves crashing against a shore. Cleese briefly walks into shot in a [[Conquistador]] costume, explaining that the beach scene was added to fill in time and apologising for the lack of any more jokes.

==Background==
The sketch is an example of the [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|Python team]]'s fondness of the 'double spoof', and a forerunner of the [[Mashup (video)|mashup]] genre.<ref name=everything>{{cite book|title=Everything I Ever Needed to Know About _____* I Learned from Monty Python|first1=Brian|last1=Cogan|first2=Jeff|last2=Massey |year=2014 |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|page=275|isbn=978-1-466-84216-8}}</ref> It targets both the genteel stage musical and the work of the controversial director Peckinpah and his exaggeration of extreme bloodshed and violence in his films.<ref name=cooper>{{cite book|title=Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia|first=Ian|last=Cooper|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=8|year=2013|isbn=978-0-231-50207-8}}</ref>  By the time the sketch was shown in 1972, Peckinpah had achieved notoriety for the level of violence in his films, particularly ''[[Straw Dogs (1971 film)|Straw Dogs]]'' which received an [[X rating]] by the [[British Board of Film Classification|BBFC]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Fifty Hollywood Directors|publisher=Routledge|page=356|year=2014|isbn=978-1-317-59394-2}}</ref> The sketch also mentions contemporary director [[Ken Russell]].{{sfn|Larsen|2008|p=400}}

Director [[Ian MacNaughton]] insisted on deliberately using an excessive level of blood, telling the production team that it "cannot be overdone".{{sfn|Larsen|2008|p=424}} The slow-motion technique of the shooting Idle's character parodies [[Franco Arcalli]]'s editing of [[Michelangelo Antonioni]]'s film ''[[Zabriskie Point (film)|Zabriskie Point]]''.{{sfn|Larsen|2008|p=431}}

This sketch follows the famous [[Cheese Shop sketch]] in the television episode.<ref name=everything/>

==Reaction==
Peckinpah reportedly loved this sketch and enjoyed showing it to friends and family. Peckinpah later became a friend and drinking companion of Graham Chapman when Chapman moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s. [[Peter Cook]] recalled a drinking session with Chapman, Peckinpah, and [[Keith Moon]], brainstorming ideas for the movie ''[[Yellowbeard]]''.<ref>Peter Cook, speaking about 'Yellowbeard', The Film Yearbook, 1984, p. 135</ref>

[[Robert Hewison]]'s book ''Monty Python: The Case Against'' contains extracts from a BBC viewers panel's response to the show, and there were complaints that this particular sketch was "over the top", "horrific", and "sick".{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

==See also==
*[[Auteur theory]]
*[[New Hollywood]]
*''[[Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown]]''

==References==
'''Citations'''
{{reflist}}
'''Sources'''
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|title=Monty Python's Flying Circus: An Utterly Complete, Thoroughly Unillustrated, Absolutely Unauthorized Guide to Possibly All the References : from Arthur "Two-Sheds" Jackson to Zambesi|first=Darl|last=Larsen|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2008|isbn=978-0-810-86131-2}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
*[http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/saladays.htm Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days" script]

{{Monty Python}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days}}
[[Category:Monty Python sketches]]
[[Category:Television controversies in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Parodies of films]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of film directors]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of American men]]