Blu-ray Review Monty Python and the Holy Grail Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Peter Neski]

All The Extras aren't on the Blue Ray(again!!) so don't throw out that dvd

 

[Matt Hough]

Watched this one tonight before settling in with some favorite TV programs. The movie has never looked particularly good in theaters or on home video, but this is BY FAR the most striking and the sharpest I've ever seen this movie presented.


And it still makes me laugh myself silly.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I watched this film last evening as well and was quite impressed.


This film has never looked good. It's amazing that you watch a

movie as many times as this one, know what it has looked like,

and find that you are watching something that looks vastly different.


Even the title sequence looks amazingly clean.


Not particularly happy that Sony did not port over all the special

features from previous releases and I'm not certain why that was.

Really enjoyed the revisiting of the castle location (borrowed from

"The Life of Python" TV special) and the inclusion of deleted footage

that I believe is being seen for the first time (correct me if I am wrong).


This is a real gem of the Sony library and I am surprised it took

five years for this film to be released on Blu-ray. Now that it is, I

cannot recommend it enough.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I watched this last night, too, and agree with Matt and Ron. The film looks far better than I've ever seen in previous home video releases. It will never be a reference disc, but I doubt we will ever see The Holy Grail look better. Now I'm off to face the peril.

 

[Charles Smith]

I love Python, but never got to know this film very well, and I look forward to having the BLU. In the meantime, is there one single DVD set that has all the extras not included here?

 

[Coressel]

The only extra feature I noticed that was missing was the "Follow the Rabbit" pop-up thingy during the movie (something I played with once for about a minute on the previous DVD). That feature would probably be somewhat useless in light of the new downloadable "Holy Book of Days," which I haven't had a chance to do yet.


What else is missing?


I love Gilliam's Lost Animations. Really wonderfully strange stuff. Especially the lead-ins to The Tales of Sir Robin and Sir Lancelot. Gilliam at his classic stream-of-consciousness best.

 

[dpippel]

The "Dentist" short is missing form the Blu-ray as well.

 

[Lord Dalek]

They probably ran into rights issues with Dentist on the Job (owned by Studio Canal) which explains why it isn't here.

 

[David Deeb]

I'm fine with it being left off. I didn't even remember it so I just watched this "Dentist" thing again. Honestly, I'm struggling to: a) figure out what in the world it has to do w/ the original film, or Python for that matter. b) find it funny. I'm glad it's gone.

 

[Peter Neski]

Theres a better" short" stills section ,which always seems to get cut with Blue Rays,

 

[Radioman970]

A good test is the scene where he's made to write all that stuff on the wall. Compare that to Criterion and the dif is night/day.

 

[SilverWook]

I'm fine with it being left off. I didn't even remember it so I just watched this "Dentist" thing again. Honestly, I'm struggling to: a) figure out what in the world it has to do w/ the original film, or Python for that matter. b) find it funny. I'm glad it's gone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dentist_on_the_Job Might explain the dental related humor on the series, and the source an oft repeated phrase in the film. I have to admit the first time I watched the disc, I thought there had been a horrible screw up at the disc replication plant for a few seconds there!

 

I was wondering why the aspect ratio was 1.85 for the Dentist film. Now I know.

 

[Brian Borst]

They probably ran into rights issues with Dentist on the Job (owned by Studio Canal) which explains why it isn't here.

Well, it wasn't part of the movie, originally, so I'm not bothered by it's omission at all. I did like the joke of pressing 'play' and have a completely different movie starting, though.

Yes, that line is included.

 

I went back and clocked the running time at 92 minutes. I don't have the DVD to compare it with, but did the DVD omit the nearly three minutes with a blank screen and music at the end of the film?

Those three minutes weren't part of the original movie, either, were they?

 

[SilverWook]

The three minutes have been part of every incarnation of the film I've ever seen. Although when an edited version of the film ran on A&E in the 90's, it was ruined by putting the opening credits over the music with a voice-over saying something about being "for people who like their credits at the end of the film". I never want to see that messed up version ever again. When I saw a revival screening a couple years back, the sound system inexplicably shorted out right at the point the movie goes to black. The audience began whistling/humming the music to compensate.

 

[Radioman970]

I like the version of Meaning of Life that has the announces before and after the accountant pirates opening film. It was that way on HBO when I first saw it and i liked it that way. Would love the option of seeing it that way with out having to resort to my old taped copy (which I kept for that reason).

 

[Coressel]

I remember the voice over when I saw Meaning of Life in theatres in '83, too. My understanding was that the American release had the voice over, and the UK release did not.

 

[kaseyart]

I remember the voice over when I saw Meaning of Life in theatres in '83, too. My understanding was that the American release had the voice over, and the UK release did not.

I think you are correct. I have the US version on "Meaning of Life" I'll check this evening, but I think I remember it being on there.

 

[Radioman970]

I had both R1 DVD releases (original one and the 2-DVD version) and it wasn't on either. I'd be willing to rebuy, although I'll wait on a blu ray in hopes it will have it.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I don't remember the mid-90s vhs of Meaning of Life having a voice-over announcement at the start but its been a while since I rented it.


EDIT: I think the little bit with "Dentist on the Job" was sort of the Python's way of reminding you how bad British comedy used to be before they showed up.