Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Blu-ray) (1975)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Main Menu Introduction Karaoke-Singalong Featurette-Quest For Holy Grail Locations Featurette-Coconuts, Lego Knights Audio Commentary-Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam Audio Commentary-John Cleese, Michael Palin and Eric Idle Active Subtitle Track-The White Rabbit Audio-Only Track-The Hard Of Hearing Featurette-Japanese Version Featurette-Behind The Scenes-BBC Film Night Gallery-Photo Gallery-Poster Trailer-4 Deleted Scenes-and Outtakes with Introduction by Terry Jones Deleted Scenes-Lost Animations with Introduction by Terry Gilliam
Rating
Year Of Production	1975
Running Time	93:00
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Terry Gilliam Terry Jones
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Graham Chapman John Cleese Eric Idle Terry Gilliam Terry Jones Michael Palin Connie Booth Carol Cleveland Neil Innes Bee Duffell
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$49.95	Music	Neil Innes

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Dutch Hindi English Audio Commentary English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary English Alternate Subtitles	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a defining comedy of our era. Or perhaps I should say of my era. Anyone born after the 70s sitting down to watch the Blu-ray of this movie may wonder what the fuss is all about. For the Python style of comedy, a mixture of university cleverness and surrealism doesn't feature much on the current comedic landscape. Whilst a few television shows such as The Mighty Boosh might tap into the surrealistic vein of Monty Python current cinema comedy is far more mainstream where the situation dictates the humour not the witticism of the script. There are exceptions. Last year’s Horrible Bosses had a script of tight wordplay combined with excellent acting.

     The era of Monty Python is over. Python aficionados will be able to remember when they first saw Holy Grail on the big screen. For me it was a few years after the initial release. On a Saturday night at a boarding school where a group of boys had gathered to see a film that only some had heard of and probably none had seen. The opening moments with the crazy credits about mooses and llamas started to generate laughs. But that moment, when King Arthur comes over the hillside to the sound of hoof beats, only for the audience to realise his loyal assistant is making the horse noises with coconut shells, drew peals of laughter that didn't stop until the last moments of the film.

     Monty Python's Flying Circus had been absent from our television screens for some years when Holy Grail appeared at the cinemas. The effect of the film and the subsequent soundtrack (which I played to death on a cassette) led to a golden era for the Monty Python troupe with Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. This was an era, difficult to comprehend now, whether people who could perform the parrot sketch were the cool guys at the party! Like I said, difficult to understand now. Holy Grail was made on a limited budget of £229,575. I know that figure because the Pythons included a statement of financial position and cost of production statement at the back of the book of the film! It has had a decent life on DVD with initial releases followed by collector’s editions. The previous reviews on this site can be found here:

• Collector's Edition
• Extraordinary Deluxe Edition

     As with the release of other catalogue titles on Blu-ray the question is whether this is an essential purchase. Of course, for true-fans there is no question. They will pre-order the film. For other, more casual fans, the question has three parts :

1. is the video transfer an improvement over the DVD;
2. is the sound transfer an improvement over the DVD;
3. are there sufficient new extras to improve the package?

     The answers to these questions see below…

Video

     Holy Grail comes to Blu-ray in the original aspect ratio 1.66:1. That is nothing new. The last release, the Extraordinary Edition, was in the correct ratio.

    Comparing the Collector’s Edition and a Blu-ray shows a massive increase in the image quality. The image is so much sharper such that the intricate details of the insignia can be seen on each of the Knights of the Round Table. The colours are so much brighter and more vivid.

     The print has clearly gone through a good clean-up as the positive and negative artefacts that were to be found on the DVD are nowhere to be seen. It looks freshly minted. The film features a good deal of smoke, the bane of DVD transfers, yet this has been rendered excellently on the Blu-ray without a hint of compression.

     It is not perfect. At the conclusion of the scene where Roger the Shrubber chastises Arthur and Sir Bedever for saving "Ni!" to an old woman there is a marked drop in image quality, which continues into the first shot of the next scene, where Arthur returns with a shrubbery for the Knights Who Say Ni. It would be interesting to learn why this segment looks worse than the rest of the film however it is not covered in either of the audio commentaries. Importantly, it is also present in the previous DVD editions suggesting that it may have been an unfixable problem, perhaps requiring interpolation of material from a video copy.

     Additionally, it must be remembered that this is a low-budget film from 1974. Even in its improved high-definition state it never achieves reference quality or anything like it. The grain that has been present in the DVD transfers is still present and the image quality is generally soft. What can be said is that those scenes which looked good in the DVD look even better on Blu-ray.

     The subtitles on offer are the same as the DVD including the subtitles taken from Shakespeare's Henry IV Part Two for those people who don't like the film!

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     As well as the previous soundtracks on the Collector’s Edition and Extraordinary Deluxe Edition DVD's this Blu-ray has as its prime soundtrack a English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 track.

     It is probably a debatable question whether this film really requires any sonic fireworks. The major improvements over the DVD, which carried a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, are the improvements in the punchiness and sound quality of the music and occasional sound effects. The dialogue is still easy to hear and understand.

     There are improvements principally in the horn sounds such as the questing theme that runs through the film.

     The fireball bursts when Tim the Enchanter lets fly gives the sub-woofer something to do. Otherwise, the new track sounds clearer and sharper to the ear and is a general improvement over the DVD.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     There are 1,000,001 extras on this Blu-ray release. However, the fact is that the extras provided were already present on the previous editions of the DVD. These are as follows :

• Singalong
• Featurette-Quest For Holy Grail Locations
• Featurette-How to Use Your Coconuts
• Lego Knights
• Japanese Version
• Audio Commentary-Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam
• Audio Commentary-John Cleese, Michael Palin and Eric Idle
• Featurette-Behind The Scenes-BBC Film Night
• Gallery-Photo

     There are only two, perhaps 2 1/2 extras available. These are:

Lost Animations

     these animations feature a commentary and introduction from Terry Gilliam. They are interesting to see as Gilliam is clearly surprised at some of the work that was shelved. Being almost 40 years on he clearly can't remember much of it but it is nevertheless worth seeing.

Outtakes and Extended Scenes

     Terry Jones provides an introduction on the outtakes and extended scenes. The outtakes generally consist of the team stuffing up their lines and John Cleese, ever the serious one, complaining about distractions. These scenes are worth a look but are not essential.

The Holy Book of Days

     I said two and a half extras. The half extra is an iPad application The Holy Book of Days which links to the movie and allows you to experience additional material. However, it is not really an extra as it needs to be purchased albeit at a fairly low cost. In comparing this Blu-ray with the overseas release I noted a reference to a cashback offer for purchases of the Blu-ray. At this stage we have been supplied with a test disc only and it is not clear whether the app purchase will be the subject of a rebate for local purchases. We will update this site when that information becomes available.

  This release appears to be the same as the other Region releases.

     It is difficult to believe that Monty Python and the Holy Grail is now almost 40 years old. Much of the humour is still as fresh and inventive now as it was in its day. This Blu-ray release is an essential purchase for those who love their Monty Python and the picture and sound quality won't disappoint. As far as extras go these are a little limited but, to be fair, there is probably little much more that can be said about the film particularly from the participants.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall