On Friday, June 15th, 2001, I had the pleasure of attending the New York premiere of Monty Python & the Holy Grail in all its re-released glory. It was quite exciting, as I had never seen it on the big screen before (having been born almost 3 years after its initial release in 1975). The re-released version was running for one week only at Cinema Village, between 5th Avenue and University Place in NY City. I was pretty worried that I wasn't going to make the premiere because I had to work that day, many miles east of the City. I was also told that someone - supposedly important - was going to be at the premiere...someone referred to as "co-executive producer Ralph the Wonder Llama." Whether it was pure naivete or pure stupidity, I took this to mean that one of the people involved in the movie (perhaps one of the Pythons - hey, Eric and John were at the L.A. premiere, so why not?) was going to be there. I just had to make one of the showings that day. Luckily I was able to get off work at 4 PM, a friend and I took the train into the City, and were able to make the 7:50 PM showing.
To make a long story short, I enjoyed the re-release, my friend who had not been exposed to anything Python before now had enjoyed it, and - er - there was no one famous there. No one at all. As disappointed as I was, the free 15-card booster pack of "Monty Python & The Holy Grail Collectible Card Game" just about made up for it. Here is my review in its entirety. I've skipped all those necessary elements, such as plotline and character sketches because - let's be frank - we all know what this movie is about. Instead, I've concentrated on all the juicy aspects of the re-release, and how it's different from the print which exists on most video releases and the old DVD. Those of you who haven't seen the re-release yet, do not despair! If it's not coming to your neck of the woods in the near future, it will appear on the new "special edition" DVD which is to be released on October 23rd (and is already available for pre-order on Amazon.com and DVDPlanet). Okay, well I see a rowdy band of warriors in medieval garb approaching, seemingly shouting "get on with it", so without further ado, here we go:
The print was much clearer and sharper than any which I've seen before, including those on all the videos, laserdiscs, and the one on the old DVD release. It's definitely a digital anamorphic transfer, and has been cleaned up quite a bit. Even the crane shots of the knights below the ramparts at the Castle of Guy De Loimbard is very sharp. The infamous "missing 24 seconds" from the Tale of Sir Galahad, which were included on the Criterion laserdisc version and the 21st Anniversary UK video release, are also included here. While this missing scene appears to be down a bit in grade from the rest of the film (this is very noticeable on the laserdisc and UK video), it is still very clear. This animorphic transfer is the one which is promised on the forthcoming DVD, so this is really something to look forward to.
The adverts for the re-release promised a new stereo soundtrack, and that's just what we got. While it was great to finally hear King Arthur and Dennis argue in stereo, there were a few elements of the new soundtrack which unnerved me. Number one, Michael Palin had re-recorded all his voiceovers in scenes such as "The Book of the Film", the intro to "Scene 24", and the cartoon montage of the knights reuniting before meeting Tim the Enchanter. Now I'm not saying that this is a really bad thing, but to purists like myself the difference from the original voiceover is quite noticeable. This was apparently done because parts of the original (mono) soundtrack were supposedly "dirty" (dirty? Why, I didn't find the voiceovers dirty at all! Unless you consider uttering "almost certain temptation" dirty...). Number two, a bit of a thumping backbeat can be heard during the "Knights of the Round Table" song. I'm assuming this was added to spice up the number a bit, but it's not too annoying so I'll be quiet about that now. Number five -er, three, some odd background music was added to parts of the whole "Tale of Sir Galahad" scene; most notably, in three areas: the very beginning where Galahad is climbing up the hill in front of Anthrax when he sees a vision of the Grail (almost some kind of Indiana-Jones-inspired suspenseful music), the part where he is greeted by Zoot and the other girls, and finally, when he enters the "bath area" after escaping Drs. Winston and Piglet and just before meeting Dingo (both these last two parts feature the sound of a choir of girls gleefully shrieking like children of the damned - okay maybe not that bad, but they still sounded as if they were shrieking, and it was fairly loud). Number four, during the cartoon chase scene with the knights and the Black Beast of Arrrrrrggghh, we have some wacky incidental music in the background (think Inspector Gadget. If you've never seen that cartoon show, well...take my word for it, it was pretty wacky-sounding). Maybe I'm being a bit harsh here. Maybe the new soundtrack elements are an improvement.....no, maybe not. Whatever the case, the new DVD will include both the new stereo soundtrack, and the original mono soundtrack, so everyone makes out good. Technology is a wonderful thing. :)
Finally, I was a bit surprised (as were many other people in the audience, apparent from the muffled giggles and utterances of surprise) when the movie abruptly ended after the policeman put his hand over the camera lens, the cameraman shouted "Christ!" and the film reel came to a stop. Now I don't know how the movie originally ended, as I said before I was born almost 3 years after its first run. However, on all the video and laserdisc releases I've seen (as well as the old DVD), the film reel stopping was followed by a black screen and the slushy organ music from the Intermission playing for about 5 - 7 minutes. Perhaps there is someone reading this right now who had seen the movie for the first time in 1975 and can set us straight. In the meantime, I guess it is not fair to make a call on this until we know for sure.
Thus ends my review. To sum up: print great, soundtrack a bit unnerving, DVD will fix that. If you have any questions or comments, please email me.
Email: geode78 at optonline dot net
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