Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life

There seems to be little difference between the picture quality of the DVD release and my old VHS tape. If any improvements have been made to the picture, I couldn't notice them. Despite a few scratches on the source material, everything is perfectly clear and there are no flaws as a result of the transfer. Subtitling is not only available on the main feature, but on the extras too.

Everything else about this Special edition of The Meaning Of Life is either a delight, or a disappointment.

The first evidence of the remastered 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack is a clumsily tacked-on sound effect of bursting through hospital doors that blasts through the rear speakers and stands out a mile. A couple of seconds later some more hospital doors are burst through in exactly the same manner, but no such effect occurs. Why do one badly and then do nothing about the second?

An equally clumsy sound effect occurs when a blackboard eraser is thrown across the room. Very disappointing. Things pick up during the First World War scene, where the explosions boom around you, without being distracting, and allowing focus to remain firmly on the comedy. From here on in, the use of surround sound is much better.

The worst crime of the soundtrack is that half a word fades out heavily during an early scene. "The administrator is here doctor" becomes "The administrator is here doc...". How it should sound can be heard during a lull in the commentary. If people can't be trusted to remaster the sound properly, then at least they should include the original soundtrack. (I can't comment on how the DTS version sounds, as my setup can't play DTS tracks).

Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam's commentary, rightly made into one by splicing together parts of two separate commentaries, contains plenty to interest listeners. It never quite makes the leap to being entertaining, though. It's worth a single listen, but I'd be surprised if anyone will put it on more than once.

The final audio track is a soundtrack for the lonely. This consists of someone saying "Oh I like this bit", "How was your day?", making phone calls, and so on. It's a fun little extra, but it's never going to maintain someone's attention throughout. If the DVD allowed people to switch audio tracks with their remote control, as most do, rather than having to stop the film, go to the menu, switch audio tracks, then go back to the film, it would be something that people could enjoy dipping in and out of.

Like the commentary, the documentary is interesting without ever stepping up to being entertaining. These are the Monty Python boys; that's not too much to expect, is it? Worth a watch though. The featurette about the music and dancing is much the same. 'Remastering A Masterpiece' initially suggests it will be along the same lines, but soon descends to being just one joke poorly executed.

I hate to be the one to break the news, but the Pythons aren't funny any more. All the new comedy material provided especially for the DVD is, without exception, painful to watch. Not one smile passed my lips, let alone a laugh. There's rather a lot of it to sit through. The Meaning Of Life has some of the funniest things you'll ever see; The Meaning Of Life DVD has some of the unfunniest things you'll ever see. Where did it all go wrong?

Let's focus on the good. The deleted scenes are hilarious, in particular the extended version of the scene with the middle-aged couple. I don't quite understand the raison d'etre of the director's cut though: it's the film with three of the deleted scenes put in it. Two of these scenes the director himself has said were better off out of the film for pacing reasons, and he's probably right, although they are very funny. If the director doesn't want them in, then how is it a director's cut?

The DVD-ROM extras are also a real treat, providing you do without installing the pointless software and run the files using your computer's defaults. With the whole screenplay, including the screenplay of a couple of unfilmed scenes, the sheet music for all the songs, and Mr. Creosote's recipes, how can you go wrong? Join me in a singalong of The Penis Song!

Overall The Meaning Of Life Special Edition is a pretty shoddy DVD release. The soundtrack problems are unforgivable; I hope something is done about it rather than allow this to become the definitive version.

Some of the extras are great, but the vast majority are appalling. Compare this DVD to The Holy Grail DVD, and you'll see that The Holy Grail had a far better ratio of hits to misses with the extras. They've done better in the past. There's no excuse. The film is hilarious though, which, I suppose, is what matters most.