Monty Python Live!

Monty Python Live!
by Terry Hughes, Ian MacNaughton

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DVD Reviews of Monty Python Live!

DVD Review: ok.... DISAPPOINTED!
Summary: 2 Stars

These DVD's leave you with a feeling that A&E just didn't bother putting too much effort into them.
First off, neither one of the two DVDs has subtitles. And with the quality of acoustics of this Live at Hollywood Bowl recording, believe me, you will feel the need for them at times. The first simply doesn't have them, while though the second DVD allows you to set English subtitles, they appear to be either 100% transparent, or 0% opaque.
The choice of material is also quite questionable. While it's great to finally have Live at Hollywood Bowl, it's obvious that it's suffered a letterbox conversion - the "built-in" subtitles (prerecorded ones) are chopped off at the sides, during the Bruces' Beer song. The recording looks like it was directly taken off of a VHS tape.
The Aspen interview is a great piece to have, and has very presentable quality - probably the only recording without flaws (except for lack of subtitles).
Parrot Sketch Not Included is a rather daft "Greatest Hits" bit, basically a continuous bunch of snippets from Flying Circus, and features a very bland and distasteful intro by Steve Martin. Even if one ignores its obvious misplacement (it's not live, and features a 5-second shot [literally] of the Pythons, including Graham Chapman's last appearance), this is nothing the average Python fan hasn't seen, and is nothing but filler.
The German Episode.... Much has been said about A&E's mishandling of these episodes... Not enough, in my opinion. First the obvious - episode 1 does not belong on a Live DVD - for one thing it's not live. Second - it would have been much better to subtitle them properly ("hidden" DVD subtitle format, and NOT permanently altered video). Both episodes (the other one is part of A&E's documentary, and is not on this DVD) would have been much more appropriate as part of the Flying Circus collection.
Back to my original point - these DVDs look like a bad prototype. At least I hope that's what I got (hardly). The extras are hardly useful at all (they're just snippets of FC and usual FC collection biographies). The DVD introduction animation is straight off of the Flying Circus collection, yet another indication of how much effort A&E has spent on this item. The DVD is a significant disappointment, and the only reason I'm giving it two stars is because Live at the Hollywood Bowl finally made it onto a DVD. Also, the Aspen interview presents some interesting insights (as well as a little Python humor on the side). PSNI is practically useless, and the German episode.... well... it's good to have, but it just doesn't belong here.

Description of Monty Python Live!