Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition)
by Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
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Actor: Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry JonesDirector: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Brand: CHAPMAN/CLEESE/IDLE/GILLIAM/JO
Writer: Graham Chapman
Writer: John Cleese
Writer: Eric Idle
Writer: Terry Gilliam
Writer: Terry Jones
Writer: Michael Palin
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-10-23
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Product features:
- TESTED
DVD Reviews of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition)
DVD Review: An enormous, mindless, sickening waste of time
Summary: 5 Stars
Beloved among geeks, revered by their putrid faithful, the Pythons' parody of Arthurian legend has been afforded nearly as much praise and idolatry as other venerable institutions of virginity, such as "Doctor Who" and "Star Trek." Indeed, this bloated, ponderous, nauseating two-disc set couldn't possibly have been produced in its present form without the rock-solid, decades-old attention that Monty Python and their fans have lavished upon it, like some twisted infant deformity that's been coddled to a state of ever-needing, ever-shrieking and all-consuming, an obese and slovenly cripple that cares only to ingest more of what's fed it, either until it's shipped off to an institution to care for it into old age or some kind soul decides to attend to nature's mistake by messily dispatching it and putting it out of everyone else's misery.
Anyhow, it'll be no surprise to Python fans that the menus of both discs are presented via Terry Gilliam's inane and very colorful animations. Quite a lot of time, cash and energy was squandered on the development of this package; the only consolation of this fact is that these resources weren't diverted to build more nuclear warheads.
DISC 1
If you must watch this dreck, you'll be pleased to know that the audiovisual quality is quite a step up from that of the nigh-unwatchable VHS editions. The picture is as clean as it could be, and the restoration of the 1.66:1 aspect ratio now prevents the titles of many goofy, ornate Gilliam animations from being truncated; whether this makes these titles more or less comprehensible is anyone's guess. Though the original mono soundtrack still ably recreates the effect of having mud jammed into your ears, it's far more audible than it was on VHS, and by contrast, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is perfectly lucid and brilliant - it's too bad that all this fine technology is being used to polish what amounts to aural feces.
For whatever reason, much of Neil Innes' incidental music was removed from the soundtrack of the U.S. VHS edition. Enthusiasts of good music will surely moan in fits of agony and despair to find that this music has been restored. Another restored element is comprised of twenty-four tedious seconds of footage that were rightly left on the editing room floor and have been scooped up like so much pet droppings and returned to their rightful place. If you paid just for this lost footage, you deserve to be ripped off.
The scene selection menus are video thumbnails within airborne animated scrolls, the audio of which are played in sequential rotation. Oh, what a waste of time.
For whatever inexplicable reason, Monty Python have established a rabid fan following throughout the Anglosphere and in parts beyond, which is the excuse used to justify adequate English, French and Spanish subtitles for all of the film's moronic dialogue. Those with a hint of refined taste won't find themselves watching this, but if they're ever captured and tortured by being forced to view this horrid disc, they might be able to better comprehend the movie's absurd proceedings if the subtitles for those who don't like the film are enabled, which provide text from Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Part II that's roughly analogous to what's spoken onscreen, or not. The final textual insult is an option which displays the overlaid entirety of the screenplay in portions that mirror the onscreen activity. This is merely evidence that the troupe were succumbing to mental illness well before the film's production ever started shooting.
The dubbed French dialogue track is either more hammy or obnoxious; it's difficult to determine which. Python have already mangled the English language enough. Do they really need to drag an uncivilized tongue that sounds like oral diarrhea into this mess?
Oh god, and then there's the commentary tracks, which are surely enough to inspire a suicide or two. In the first of these, Terries Gilliam and Jones wax poetic about their monumental cinematic failure with trite anecdotes. In the second, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and a rather grumpy John Cleese wax poetic about their monumental cinematic failure with trite anecdotes. Fans might find these commentaries informative and amusing. Those of us with triple-digit IQs can't help but notice that the film's idiocy is more lively than that of the commentaries, which is all that kept me from eating a bullet.
The Hard of Hearing option induces your TV to scream out the main menu options for those too old to know what a DVD player is, much less how to use one.
Apparently, the Killer Rabbit Game presents the icon of the murderous bunny during the course of the movie; pressing the Enter button on your DVD remote when it's displayed is supposed to exhibit the inner workings of either Terry Gilliam's diseased mind or those of the film's accountants. I've watched the film on this DVD thrice, and have suffered enough brain damage by doing so, so I'll leave this option for some dullard who's willing to sit through it.
DISC 2
It's even worse than you could have expected: three musical videos culled from some especially vapid scenes - The Knights of the Round Table, The Tale of Sir Robin and the Chanting Monks - featuring sing-along subtitles so that you can make a complete fool of yourself in front of your friends and loved ones, or so that the lot of you can drag down your local property values. This is hardly necessary considering that it can be achieved with the English subtitles of the first disc, and the fact that if you're the sort of devoted dork who's watched this as many times as I have, you know all the lyrics by heart, anyway. You've wasted your life.
It wouldn't be a two-disc special edition without a featurette, and "The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations" finds Terry Jones and Michael Palin doing what so many other criminals have - returning to the scene of one of their most egregious crimes...specifically, the locations in Scotland where "Holy Grail" was shot. It's heartbreaking to watch these two sprightly geezers harass the kindly local Scots who tolerated their presence a quarter-century before and are forced to do so again. It's a wonder that these two buffoons weren't arrested, and a marvel that Eric Idle didn't tag along; I can only assume that there was no extra cash to be had in it for the little sellout.
A mock PSA starring Palin on the widely-recognized alternate use of the coconut shell is provided. That's just what we need: more half-wit fans pretending to ride horsey to the noise of banging coconuts.
A pair of English-subtitled scenes from the Japanese-language version of the film are also supplied, in which the Holy Grail is referred to as a "Holy sake cup" and the shrubbery so coveted by the Knights of Ni as bonsai. To have lost the war, been subjected to American savagery via nuclear warfare and an oppressive occupation, and then forced to endure the ravings of these British lunatics...I pity the Japanese as I could no others.
To add insult to injury, check out the BBC Film Night documentary episode, in which a bunch of mindless journalists aggravate the Pythons while they're filming pivotal scenes. Graham Chapman clearly enjoys being interviewed slightly less than having dead sheep dumped and offal drained upon him. The most ghastly scenes to be seen here are interviews with a young, gnomish, clearly demented Terry Gilliam, who's a sight for blind eyes. Chickens are wrangled, animal corpses heaved, the French language further mangled. It's all a testament to man's inhumanity to man.
The Old Rubbish is just that: completely worthless promotional materials and both scanned images and an aural reading of a negative review of "Holy Grail." One might think that I'd find comfort in this last. Hardly! The review is a fatuous bit of pompous crap that totally misses the mark in assuming that "Holy Grail" is a comedy. Without doubt, that writer died alone, in misery.
Meanwhile, the "Artifacts" are merely a variety of film posters to suggest what an international embarrassment this movie was.
Ah, the obligatory photo gallery...there's another exhibition of on-set horror, which only emphasizes how many gory, outrageous and thoroughly tasteless scenes were shot before this putrid disaster was halted by financial exhaustion.
The U.K. trailer is a good example of what happens when these things are produced by giggling, infantile man-children. Suffice to say, it's an abomination. The 2001 U.S. re-release trailer is more of the same, proving that yanks are only lazier and more derivative than Brits.
Pictures of the entire cast in all their many roles are presented for those who want to debate who did more to ruin the picture by overacting. Most would surely suggest that Michael Palin - in his seven hundred thousand roles - is the most egregious culprit, but my vote goes for the elderly, poorly-named John Young. The old ham.
The Unshot Footage is atrocious. A CGI Lego version of the Knights of the Round Table song was produced to help you finally pull the trigger. "Location Recce" is a travelogue of sorts, narrated by the Terries, which exhibits their many travels in the early seventies. It's plain to see that they carelessly wasted most of the film's budget on bawdy and lavish comforts while "location scouting" well before the movie was shot. Finally, the "Unused Ideas" are a collection of incomprehensible, totally psychotic sketches and scribblings by Gilliam that, thankfully, were never animated. Why the public tolerates Gilliam is beyond me: he's already slandered the righteous Hunter S. Thompson by portraying him as some sort of drug-crazed madman and "12 Monkeys" was clearly inspired by a viewing of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," never mind that he completely ripped off "Vertigo" in that one, out of the blue. Also, "The Fisher King" was merely a 12-step therapy movie filmed for consumption by Stern, Imus, Hughes and Cumia, Mancow and the Greaseman after they've all been fired. What an intolerable hack!
In summary: it's an appalling disaster, one of the most awful, insidious things that I've ever been subjected to. It really is something that would have enjoyed massive mainstream success in any sick, depraved society, which is why it's so popular today. Now go out, buy one, and don't even think to contact me with any message that includes the word "ni." There are some things that even I can't tolerate.
Description of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition)
The Monty Python team are at it again in their second movie. This time we follow King Arthur and his knights in their search for the Holy Grail. This isn't your average medieval knights and horses story - for a start, due to a shortage in the kingdom, all the horses have been replaced by servants clopping coconuts together!Could this be the funniest movie ever made? By any rational measure of comedy, this medieval romp from the Monty Python troupe certainly belongs on the short list of candidates. According to Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide, it's "recommended for fans only," but we say hogwash to that--you could be a complete newcomer to the Python phenomenon and still find this send-up of the Arthurian legend to be wet-your-pants hilarious. It's basically a series of sketches woven together as King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail, with Graham Chapman as the King, Terry Gilliam as his simpleton sidekick Patsy, and the rest of the Python gang filling out a variety of outrageous roles. The comedy highlights are too numerous to mention, but once you've seen Arthur's outrageously bloody encounter with the ominous Black Knight (John Cleese), you'll know that nothing's sacred in the Python school of comedy. From holy hand grenades to killer bunnies to the absurdity of the three-headed knights who say "Ni--!," this is the kind of movie that will strike you as fantastically funny or just plain silly, but why stop there? It's all over the map, and the pace lags a bit here and there, but for every throwaway gag the Pythons have invented, there's a bit of subtle business or grand-scale insanity that's utterly inspired. The sum of this madness is a movie that's beloved by anyone with a pulse and an irreverent sense of humor. If this movie doesn't make you laugh, you're almost certainly dead. --Jeff Shannon
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