Cheap Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Collector's Edition Boxed Set) (DVD) (Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin) (Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones) Price

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Customer Reviews of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Collector's Edition Boxed Set)

The late Graham Chapman plays Arthur, and is perfect in the role. He is always dignified and noble, even while taking insults from ludicrously-accented Frenchmen. All the other Pythons have multiple speaking parts - a special highlight for me is Terry Jones as the whining prince. The Pythons are at their pseudo-intellectual best in this, their first feature film. My favourite part is Arthur's argument with the peasants making up the anarcho-syndicalist commune ("You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!"), followed closely by the opening scene of the film, where it's revealed that Arthur is not riding a horse but has a servant following him making horse-noises with a coconut ("Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?").

The DVD is packed with nifty extras. There are two making-of features, one made while the film was in production (by the BBC) the other made just recently. The latter features Terry Jones and Michael Palin travelling through the country reminiscing and visiting the old locations (don't worry - it's better than it sounds!). Most importantly, the DVD looks fantastic, and the sound is good as well, and if you're still trying to figure out what the characters are saying, you have several subtitle-caption options. There are numerous other extras, including a version of the song "Knights of the Round Table" with animated Lego figures - hilarious!

For Monty Python fans, this DVD is an absolute must, and I recommend it most highly to everyone else!

"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"
From the moment you see King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his trusty aide Patsy (Terry Gilliam) ride out of the fog at the beginning of Holy Grail (I won't spoil the joke, it's one of the best), you know it's going to be on of those films. By "those", of course, i mean films that are consistently funny throughout. And Grail is one of the most startingly original comedies of all time. It's hard to imagine that it was produced by a comedy group that merely a year before had put together a woefully unfunny final series of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
What makes Holy Grail so deliriously funny is the absolute anarchy of it all, the wide range of jokes, running and self contained. It has off the wall moments of nonsense that surely must have been dreamt up by the clinically insane. The Knights who say "Ni", the killer rabbit, the bridge of death, none have lost their power to split the sides of the viewer. Best are John Cleese's Black Knight and Michael Palin's repressed peasant: "Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"
Yes, it's extremely silly. But what makes Grail, and the later Monty Python's Life of Brian, stand the test of time more so than the TV series and the film Monty Python's Meaning of Life is that the jokes are so accessible. They are not obscure or pretentious, they are just plain funny.
What stops this from being a master piece is an all over the place narrative and a very, very disappointing ending, but these are small quibbles. The storyline may be flimsy, but the jokes that are hung on it are of a high calibre. The closest you can come to pure, unadulterated comedy.

What are you going to do, bleed on me?
excellent. Possibly the funniest movie ever made. Who could forget such a line as "I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of eldeberries." This is a great movie and a great dvd edition that gives it justice. This is completely worth the money. A comedy Classic.