Monty Python and the Holy Grail 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		5.0

Monty Python and the Holy Grail 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

"None shall pass..."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown August 19, 2025

Undisputed comedy troupe classic 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' returns home via a new, highly anticipated and wholly successful 4K UltraHD Blu-ray release. The film not only looks better than it ever has (and likely ever will), thanks to a respectful and meticulously comprehensive remaster, it boasts a Dolby Atmos audio track, a newly produced extra, most of the film's previously released special features, and SteelBook packaging. Quite simply, it's a must-own release.

The place is England. The year is 932 A.D. It is a time of darkness and death, of hopelessness and plague. The legendary King Arthur (Graham Chapman) is adventuring across the countryside on his pretend horse with a single lackey, Patsy (Terry Gilliam), in tow. His mission is to recruit several more knights with whom to round out his round table and restore England to glory. His journey is not in vain. He recruits the wise Sir Bedevere (Terry Jones), the brave Sir Lancelot (John Cleese), the chaste Sir Galahad (Michael Palin), the cowardly Sir Robin (Eric Idle), and Sir Not Appearing in the Film, the youngest, bravest, wisest, and most chaste of them all, but alas, he's been left on the cutting room floor. With the team assembled, Lancelot and company embark on a journey to, well, they really have nowhere to go and nothing to do when they decide that Camelot's too "silly" for their liking. Everything changes when God (voiced by Graham Chapman) tasks them with discovering the whereabouts of the one and only Holy Grail. Even if they don't quite know how to spell "Jehovah" in the original Latin (though they and the peasantry seem to know pretty much everything else), they embark at first collectively, and then individually, in search of the Grail, encountering everything from a three-headed giant to a locked-away young lad who wishes to be whisked away from his captivity from the castle tower, from a bunch of locked-away teenage girls with a fetish for knights to knights who says "ni" and demand a shrubbery for passage beyond their land.

Click here to read the rest of Martin Liebman's review of the still-hilarious 1975 classic, which he calls "one of the all-time greats." Adding, "even when the movie goes off on its various tangents that have little or nothing to do with the overreaching plot at hand, it all fits together, not just because it all shares the same look, generally, but because the characters, dialogue, and situations have been carefully assembled to produce just the right amount of comedy that's both head-scratching and gut-busting at the same time, the movie playing with an inspired rhythm and the perfect sense of purposelessness through which the nonsensical elements are allowed to shine."

Monty Python and the Holy Grail 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 4K UltraHD release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail looks so good, so perfect, that it makes the chances of squeezing any more quality out of the original negative a hair's breadth from zero. Simply put, I can't conceive of a transfer for the film faring any better than this striking, still grainy little letter of love to the Python fandom. Colors aren't artificially boosted but rather bolstered by the Dolby Vision palette and contrast leveling, which preserves the mud-n-blood earthtones of the cinematography with faithfulness and boldness. Reds are deliriously strong, amping up the sudden violence and its hilarity when it erupts from a delimbed foe or unfortunate wedding party; animation sequences blaze beautifully as God and his heavenly cohorts peer down into the muck of Arthur's world; black levels are deep and inky, revealing as much or as little as the original photography allows (don't breathe the word "crush"... those are properly ominous shadows in the nightmarishly dark forests beyond Camelot). Detail is excellent and exacting as well. While edge definition isn't always as razor sharp as a 21st century stunner, they remain crisp and cleanly resolved, with the sort of fine texturing that is as generous as it gets. (Take the image above. Nothing special? Tut tut, dear reader. Enlarge it and look more closely.) Grain is beautifully resolved and more pleasing than ever before, with none of the anomalies you might be worried you'll find. Yes, some scenes are grainier -- even messier -- than others. But this is Monty Python and the Holy Grail dammit, and each scene has been lifted straight out of a 1975 movie projector and placed here for your enjoyment. I also didn't catch sight of any compression issues, macroblocking, banding or any other nuisance of the HD world. I already said it but this is as perfect as it gets; the veritable holy grail of Holy Grail presentations.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Only slightly less impressive (but nevertheless a blessing to the film) is Sony's Dolby Atmos audio track, the be-all, end-all of utterly faithful Monty Python and the Holy Grail lossless tracks ever to announce its presence by a stirring brass declaration of purpose. Naturally, the film only sounds as good as its source allows, meaning there are moments of thinness, tininess and other shortcomings that the unpleasable amongst you could point to and grumble. But this is Holy Grail as its meant to sound, with its scrappy, low-budget, can-do attitude and its impossible-not-to-hum melodies and score. Dialogue is clean, always intelligible and surprisingly well-grounded for a now fifty-year old film. Directionality and channel pans are also smooth, subtle and sometimes wickedly fun (as in the gloriously gory scene with the rabbit). Yes, it all requires modern tinkering that the purist of purists might shake their heads at, but it's all done with such grace and respect for the original sound design that it hardly matters. LFE output is a blast, from catapulting trojan bunnies to flinging farm animals to the lower bass of the main theme, and surround activity only makes the villages, castles and crowds sound that much more expansive and convincing. Did Holy Grail need an Atmos track. Probably not. But then again, why not give one of the best comedies of all time the best of the best in available audio treatments? For those who prefer it, a perfectly suitable DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is also available. Oh, what a time to be alive.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Click here to view a detailed photo of Monty Python and the Holy Grail's new SteelBook packaging. Extras include:

• NEW - Near Theatrical Version of the Film (HD, 91 minutes) - A "near theatrical" cut of the film is included on the 4K disc that runs a minute shorter, though which of the many, many slightly different cuts of the film this actually is I've yet to confirm.

• NEW - Tis but a Tribute: 50 Years of the Holy Grail (HD, 16 minutes) - A nicely produced retrospective, albeit one I wish were much longer and included far more interview segments with the surviving cast members. Ah well. The rest of the supplemental package is more than sufficient.

• Audio Commentaries - Two excellent previously released commentaries are available: the first with Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, the second with John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin. The only downside is that the tracks can only be found on the accompanying Blu-ray disc. I understand and appreciate relegating the video extras to the BD -- the more space for the 4K presentation, the better -- but adding the commentaries to the 4K disc would require virtually zero sacrifice and allow fans to listen to the tracks alongside the film's new transfer. Shame.

• 2015 Tribeca Film Festival Q&A (HD, 30 minutes) - with Gilliam, Jones, Cleese, Idle and Palin.

• Outtakes & Extended Scenes (HD, 19 minutes) - A Jones intro, six scenes, plus "Lots of Very Silly Bits."

• Lost Animations (HD, 13 minutes) - Gilliam offers a look at lost animated scenes.

• Quest for the Holy Grail Locations (SD, 47 minutes) - Palin and Jones lead a locations tour.

• Lego Knights (SD, 2 minutes)

• Japanese Version (SD, 9 minutes)

• Coconuts (SD, 3 minutes)

• BBC Film Nights (SD, 17 minutes)

• Sing Alongs (SD, 5 minutes)

• Subtitles for People Who Do Not Like the Film

• Cast Directory Photo Gallery (HD)

• Original Theatrical Trailer (HD, 3 minutes)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

What's not to love? Shush! Rhetorical question. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is comedy gold and I defy anyone to say otherwise. Sony's newest release couldn't fathomably be surpassed, other than perhaps with a bevy of new extras. You get a masterfully remastered 4K video presentation (that looks as good as the film ever conceivably could), a Dolby Atmos audio track, a fresh 50-year retrospective featurette, and most of the previously released supplemental content from past BDs. And now for something completely different...