Product Description

Monty Python reunites in this outrageous comedy and also features some of today's biggest comedians including Jimmy Fallon, Eddie Izzard, Dan Aykroyd, and Seth Green. The Pythons are matched against their contemporaries: rock stars, comedians, actors, politicians, Python-haters and potential axe murderers, in this never-before-seen outrageous comedy from the biggest comedy troupe of all time. Watch as Monty Python is brought to life on-screen in this six part mini-series which is airing on the IFC Chanel. The Monty Python troupe includes John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman. Almost the Truth retells the entire Python phenomenon from start to finish
Every opinion on Monty Python will be brought to life on-screen for the first time with never-before-seen material. Dozens of featured guest interviews will include Jimmy Fallon, Lorne Michaels, Hugh Hefner, Eddie Izzard, Olivia Harrison, Steven Merchant, Dan Aykroyd, Tim Roth, Seth Green, among many others.
First time the Pythons have come together since 1983. Contains all new interviews.
Features the famous Life Of Brian TV Debate from 1979

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8814 in DVD
• Brand: Uni
• Released on: 2009-10-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 360 minutes

Customer Reviews

MPFC fans will run for this LONG documentary; Casual viewers will probably get bored
Forty Years ago five "silly" (but educated - Oxford and Cambridge) British comic actors joined with one American animators to for what is collectively known as Monty Python's Flying Circus. After the BBC ran a pilot and it worked they got a contract and produced 39 half-hour-long shows. Yes, there were only 39. Of course, the team later made some feature films before disbanding.

This documentary, shown originally in October 2009 on the Independent Film Channel on cable, runs six hours! There also bonus material. This is a serious documentary on comedy. The five living members (Graham Chapman, deceased, is showing with early interview clips) each provide comments on their beginning, career as part of the team and life after Python. None of these members are interviewed together. Though they don't trash one another, you get the feeling, after a while, that they had fun when they were doing it but saw it as a job and its past history. They have gone on to other ventures. Their interviews are not funny. But there are plenty of clips from the show and the films inserted that ARE funny - often hilarious. Most of these are not shown in their entirety. That's because the director of this film wanted to spend more time interviewing current comedians, most of who the average American has not hear of. And some have real egos.

The first few episodes are devoted to the original show. Later ones are devoted to specific films ("Life of Brian", "The Holy Grail").

So, if you truly love the Pythons, and have about eight hours to spend time with them as they tell you about their lives, this is a set you will want. If you are looking for laughs of the continuous type you might be better off revisiting one of the classic films or getting the DVD sets of full episodes. Its great that someone took the time to put this together - and that the 5 living members cooperated - but the enjoyment will come from whether you can recite the "Dead Parrot" routine by heart, and whether you really want to know the story of how it was created.

By the way, I noted two previous reviews that gave the DVD five stars when neither person has seen the film, and one of those was only asking a question. Take that into consideration when evaluating this set.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

For the Faithful, the Obsessed and our last best hope
Warning: The five stars hold true if and only if you annoy other people with your grasp of Python and quote at length at every opportunity. To only those of you who hold well and truly that all important moments of life has a Python quote at the ready. If you have never been told to "Shut Up", you will have only the four star edition of this review. The rest will be bored to tears.

We are at home as soon as the familiar 17" diagonal TV is exploded. An unfamiliar face fills our screen, but he is just a lawyer, hence the overflight of the Soviet TU-85 dropping a bomb with parachute. Incongruity follows reassuringly, with the atomic detonation on Bikini Atoll. This is the Lawyers' Cut and it cuts both ways. Film is cut and they take their pound of flesh. But this is old business in Python history. All will be made clear.

These short six hours are for us lifers. There is a bonus disk above what was aired, which has a starter sample of the popular skits. You can show those to other people. For us, we get the extended interviews with each of them; and you get to see how these interviews were scripted. It is instructive to see each and understand how the editing was done into the prior scenes.

You get to know that Cleese's name was originally Cheese, changed by his father. Freud would clap at and for the later skit. More importantly, we see the influence of 'The Goon Show", and "Beyond the Fringe" for all of the nascent pythons.

What struck me, at this advanced age, is their most important point for them and for the society. Python rode the crest of the wave destroying the deferential British Society. They grew up at end of empire. Their families were still hoping for some small facsimile. Python was a great part of the democratic engine that has seen the recovery and the rise of the new Britain. The dream caught fire in America shortly after.

So they progress through television, into records, and lavish time spent on their films. Who knew that Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd bankrolled their Holy Grail? And George Harrison did the same for Life of Brian. We learn how the films of Pasolini's realism and Bunuel's sur-realism affected theirs. And best of all unknown supporters, Elvis.

I am happy to say, though too short, they did it right.

Python in the Pantheon
For the first time ever the members of the comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus are able to provide serious, insightful, meaningful historical information about the formation of a modern entertainment classic. This alone is worth every moment of your attention, and every penny, since getting the members of Python to be serious about anything was a violation of one of Newton's little known laws: "No member of Monty Python, when asked a serious question, can give a serious answer." And this violation of a natural law was possible only because the makers of this documentary were wise enough to prevent any member of the Python group from being in the same room at the same time with any other member. Monty Python was more than just a comedy group inspired by the courageous and intrepid post-WWII comic geniuses like Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, who dared to make the British people laugh after their somber, dour, ordeal, and to do so with the audacity of satirizing their own culture and society. This was a tremendous cathartic transformation, and on its heels came younger wits like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Theirs was a kernel of creative and witty genius not seen since before the Victorian era, and sorely needed. The fact that this kind of humor requires an intellect to appreciate it only enhances its value. From Cook to Python, these writers were university educated, and this is abundantly clear in their work. In the entire body of their work, especially Python's, nearly every aspect of human society and culture, history and philosophy, is commented on; you can teach philosophy, history, or just about any subject, with Python skits, if you don't have to worry about that silly nonsense called offending people.
Python was brilliant, their contributions to language, comedy, and philosophy ("Always look on the bright side of life,") have been quite substantial. Kudos to the producers of this documentary, which provides an inside look at the creation of a modern comic masterpiece.