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More Special Features Than A Swallow Can Carry Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the classic send up of King Arthur and his knights of the round table is finally on DVD, in this collectors edition. The-Knights-Who-Say-Ni, the insulting Frenchmen, the three headed giant, the black knight who never says die, the killer bunny, that multieyed monster of Aggh, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Neil Innes, they're all here. The great thing about DVD is that you can put subtitles, so you can quote along with your favorite lines now! There's even a sing-a-long option somewhere, and a "spot the killer rabbit". Silly options for a very silly film. Oh my... I must say, there are more special features than a swallow can carry here. My favorite is probably the re-enactment of the Holy Grail in Lego men. The Gilliam-esque menus are great too. So much stuff though, a genuine "collectors edition", I say. There's a couple of scenes dubbed in japanese (with the script altered for the Japanese sense of humour, the Holy Grail becomes the Sake Cup). There's lots of photo galleries. There's a couple of documentaries, one is on location during the 1970s, with interviews with the Pythons (Graham Chapman is particularly funny). Another, filmed in 2001, features Michael Palin and Terry Jones wandering about the locations. The castle has changed a lot, it's all fenced in, with a carpark, and warning signs for falling masonry ("we wouldn't have filmed here if we'd known that"). It was funny seeing them shocked to find a gift shop in the castle, and funnier seeing Palin complain that there wasn't enough Monty Python merchandise in it! They also go to the cave (where they find grafitti, but nothing in Aramaic), the mountain gorge, and to the island castle of Aggh, where they chat away to the locals. I do love the locations in this film. The green, rocky Scottish highlands really was a great choice, it goes really well with the slightly grainy film, interdispersed with Terry Gilliam's medieval flavored animation. Anything different and it wouldn't be as special, I don't think. I know it's not serious, but the locations help give the feel that these knights are really in a faraway place, a mythical England. Considering their budget, and considering it was Terry Gilliam and Jones' first directing experience, they did a brilliant job with it. The comedy is great too, of course. The original trailers are here too, which are just as much as a send up as the film (they turn into a commercial for a Chinese restaurant by the end, if that's saying anything). Even the DVD is something of a spoof. I selected english subtitles (so I could read everything that was being said), and they came out in Dutch, before the DVD stopped with an apology before resuming. Just like the TV series, you never know what to expect with this DVD. Fans shouldn't hesitate to pick this up. It's more than worth it. It's not my favorite of the Python's work, but it does stand up to MANY a repeated viewing. Newcomers to Monty Python might want to rent a copy first, though. It's delightfully silly, but the humour isn't everyone's cup of tea.