Okay, this is what I was waiting for. The original DVD release of Holy Grail was, to put it mildly, a disappointment. All it contained was the film, Spanish and French subtitles, and trailers for a couple of other Terry Gilliam movies. Special Edition chucks that one into the Comfy Chair with enough extras to choke a Killer Rabbit.
It's a two disk set, loaded for bear. From the start, with the Gilliam-styled animation on the menus, you know they took their time putting this together. Disk One contains the film (natch), with two separate commentary tracks, the first with directors Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, and the second with Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Michael Palin. Of the commentaries, I'd say the first is more focused, with some neat stuff about the technical side of the film. The second is more just a bunch of guys noodling on about the film, with long quiet stretches where they don't say much. In addition to the usual French and Spanish subtitles, you also get the option of seeing the script as the film plays. Or if that doesn't strike your fancy, you can use subtitles from Shakespeare's Henry the IV, Part II, which on occasion weirdly fit with what's being said on the screen.
Other bits on the first disk include "Follow the Killer Rabbit" where you can stop the movie at point to compare Terry Gilliam's storyboards to the finished product, or just studio accounting notes. There's also a pointless little bit (but isn't everything Pythonian supposed to be pointless?) that consists of a series of home movies of exotic locations, while Terry & Terry explain how they blew the budget scouting locales for the film.
Disk Two is where we get the real goodies. By far the best stuff are, first, a clip from BBC Film Night doing the typical "Sneak Peek Behind the Scenes" interviews. Only it's Python so you know they turn the interviewers on their heads. The second is "The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations", where we follow Terry Gilliam & Michael Palin on a nostalgic trip back to all of the original shooting locations in Scotland. The most fascinating factoid here is that the Scottish National Trust pulled permission to film at several historic castles a week before filming commenced. In a panic, they did manage to gain permission to film at a couple of privately owned castles, one small one that served as Castle Arrrrrr, and the second which did quadruple duty as the Castle With the Two Soldiers Very Keen on Birds, the French Castle, Castle Anthrax, and Swamp Castle. The most fascinating thing about it is the way Terry & Palin show how most of the scenes in Castle Anthrax and Swamp Castle were just filmed in two rooms, but with clever editing and use of false fronts to make everything look much, much bigger and elaborate.
Aside from that, we get a new short government information film demonstrating the proper creation and use of coconuts to simulate hoof beats, which frankly falls as flat as a final season Flying Circus sketch. There's also a very bizarre bit where we see the African/European swallow argument and the Knights of Ni sequence dubbed into Japanese and subtitled (badly) back into English. We also get to see the usual production photos, cast list (including pics of every character the Pythons play throughout the film), and an extremely amusing bit where the Camelot musical sequence is animated using Legos.
Highly recommended.
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