Monty Python and the Holy Grail 4K UHD Review

It doesn’t take time for Monty Python and the Holy Grail to finds its laughs. The opening credits handle that. Then come the coconuts. Then the swallows, the black knight, the (not) dead, the shrubberies… Every gag, every situation, damn near every line of Holy Grail is comic masterwork.

Our story is that of brave yet impossibly incompetent men on a mission from God for the title grail. It makes leaders appear ineffectual, the impoverished (sometimes) intellectuals, and lampoons the human attempts to create a civilization. Much as Holy Grail satirizes the nonsense behind witch burnings, when seen though the eyes of Python’s, it’s a wonder how we lasted long enough to be here today. The same goes for every ounce of fantasy and political reality in this movie.

It’s not that Holy Grail has everything – from wizards to killer rabbits – but that everything it does works

It’s not that Holy Grail has everything – from wizards to killer rabbits – but that everything it does works. There isn’t a slip-up in the script, it’s edited precisely to its core, and the cheapness of the whole thing brings a timeless charm. It’s also rare that a comedy is so openly flagrant toward its own logic, King Arthur (Graham Chapman) presenting as a self-obsessed but poised intellectual in one scene, and in another unable to remember simple numbers.

Holy Grail ends in the modern day, as a few thousand years of civilized society taught us to thrive, generally by ejecting the idiots throughout history. It’s the most British of gags: mock the men who lived in the 900s for believing their religious conquest was righteous, that witches exist, that they weigh the same as a duck, then the entire crew it taken into police custody.

That keeps Holy Grail from being masterful yet hollow comedy. Men believing their quest packed with murder and assaults would lead them to salvation pokes at something the Pythons would see to completion in Life of Brian – that religion and society can co-exist, at least until someone gets hurt. Or something like that. After all, there’s a voracious man-eating rabbit in this movie killed by a holy hand grenade, so maybe it’s all just stupid. But probably not.

A rugged source certainly doesn’t make handling the material easy. Grain is heavy and compressed… decently. Holy Grail has the slightest touch of sharpness, sapping some benefit from the resolution. Close-ups show the most improvement from the previous discs, while the wide shots lack the same firmness and sharpness. Detail in the costumes, from the metal on the crowns and chainmail, looks phenomenal.

Holy Grail has the benefit of a fine Dolby Vision pass. Sunlight glistens off metal with noticeable intensity. When God appears, he does so with a vivid yellow push. Overall contrast improves against black levels that frequently crush, source limitation.

Also splendid is the color, with some brilliant greenery lining the forest. Costumes come alive with enhanced hues, with spot-on flesh tones. This movie glows in places, and whatever other misgivings there are with this transfer, Holy Grail makes up for them in every other way.

Pick between Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD 5.1; the difference between them is fairly minor. Jumping between the two, the Atmos sounds cleaner in terms of dialog, but it’s a nominal change. The score sounds full and wide on both. Either way, the mix is front-loaded, which is no surprise. Other than the music, noticeable channel separation is rare, but the audio does have moments like the Trojan rabbit construction, clanging and pounding in the stereos.

On the UHD, Sony includes a new 15-minute retrospective celebrating the 50th anniversary of the film and the “near theatrical version” that runs a minute shorter, likely the VHS cut. The included Blu-ray then carries over the legacy features. This includes two commentaries, a 2015 Q&A, deleted scenes, location tour, a Lego Holy Grail version, a Japanese version, sing-alongs, BBC coverage, and the hilarious Henry IV Pt. 1 subtitles (for people who don’t like the film).

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 38 full resolution uncompressed 4K screen shots grabbed directly from the UHD: