Thursday, September 13, 2007

Life of Brian - The Immaculate Edition


I think this is the final piece of news from the backlogue I've been working my way through recently. Sony Home Entertainment has announced that they are to release an "Immaculate Edition" DVD of Monty Python's Life of Brian. The following special features are listed at IGN.com
* Documentary: "The Story of Brian" - An all-new hour-long Revelation from Monty Python
* Featurette: "The Readthrough" - An original illustrated 110 minute recording by The Pythons of their early screenplay in progress
* Four illustrated vintage theatrical radio ads featuring the voices of Mrs. Cleese, Mrs. Idle, Mrs. Gilliam and Michael Palin's dentist
* Five Deleted Scenes:
* Audio Commentary with Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle & Terry Jones
* Audio Commentary with John Cleese & Michael Palin
Peter Chattaway notes that whilst there's some new material, some of it looks to have been copied over from the Criterion Collection edition. It doesn't look like it contains the "Secret Life of Brian" documentary that aired on Channel 4 last Christmas (discussion here), nor does it appear to have the one extra that everyone would really like to see - the "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" debate between Cleese, Palin, Malcolm Muggeridge and the then Bishop of Southwark. A couple of short clips, and the full parody of this debate are available on YouTube, and a detailed overview is available at Wikipedia. I would dearly like to see this in full one day, and so it seems rather strange not to include either this debate or the documentary given that the Criterion set is already pretty expansive. If you're going to try and expand that set you should really include everything you possibly can.

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