Update Megaweek, Day 1: Terry Jones' Monty Python's Life of Brian

Like many of us, I've been revisiting the work of Python/ director Terry Jones since we lost him last week.  So let's do something in his memory and take a look at one of his most beloved films... one that has an interesting history on home video, but could also really use a shot in the arm in 2020: Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Update 4/22/26: Shot received!  Guys, I've been putting off the next Update Week for a while, and the backlog's only built up.  So welcome to the Update Megaweek, which is basically like any previous year's Update Week doubled.  Like always, I've got the most current UHDs and some of the oldest DVDs, from the most requested titles to discs I'm sure nobody but me will ever care about.  And to kick it off, I've got the brand new and very badly needed 4k restoration of The Life of Brian from Criterion.  And, at the same time, I've updated my page on The Dentist movies to include Trimark's original Dentist 2 DVD.

1979's Life of Brian is Monty Python's second film... or third, if you want to count And Now For Something Completely Different, but that's really just a compilation of the best skits from their series for the US market before their TV could be seen in the states.  I've read that Holy Grail is the Pythons' most popular film in America and Brian is in the UK.  For their part, the Pythons themselves seem pretty unified that this is their favorite, in large part because it's the film that has the most to say besides just being silly.

Not that it isn't silly, of course.  The premise is that, a baby was born just across from Jesus Christ, and he keeps getting mistaken for a messiah despite not being one.  The Pythons play almost all the major characters, including Graham Chapman as the titular Brian, Terry Jones as his mum, Michael Palin as Pontius Pilate, Terry Jones as Simon the naked holy man, John Cleese as Reg, leader of The Peoples' Front of Judea and Graham Chapman as Biggus Dickus.  This film has more of a cohesive narrative than the other Python films, although you might say that's immaterial so long as it's packed with great comic moments, which Brian absolutely is.  We get a few animated sequences from Terry Gilliam, though not so many as we'd seen in previous Python efforts, taking more on the role of the physical production and art design.  The locations, shot in Tunisia, where they were able to make use of the sets from 1977's Jesus Of Nazareth, are truly impressive and lend the outrageous comedy a remarkably credible backdrop.  And Eric Idle closes out the whole thing with what became his most famous and popular song, "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life."

Life of Brian debuted on DVD in 1999, with a widescreen but non-anamorphic, barebones DVD from Anchor Bay.  Very shortly afterwards, like just a few months later in 1999, Criterion reissued it as a now anamorphic special edition.  And that was the whole deal until it came time for an HD upgrade.  In 2008, Sony released their Immaculate Edition blu-ray, and that's been the sole go-to release until now, with the same edition essentially replicated in every region around the world.  But no more.  Now in 2026, Brian's back in Criterion's hands: restored in 4k and released on a proper UHD (there's also a 1080p BD option, natch) for 2026.  As they put it in their booklet, it's now presented "in all its holy glory."

1) 1999 AB DVD; 2) 1999 Criterion DVD; 3) 2008 Sony BD; 4) 2026 Criterion UHD.

So yeah, Anchor Bay's DVD is a pale, low res 1.84:1 image floating in a sea of non-anamorphic dead space.  I'm actually surprised it's not interlaced; it almost looks like it should be interlaced.  Criterion's DVD, then, is a still pretty pale, properly anamorphic 1.78:1 (despite claiming 1.85:1 on the case), with just the tiniest slivers of dead space in the overscan area.  You can see it includes more picture around all four sides, but particularly the bottom, no doubt due to its lifted 16x9 mattes.  Sony then mattes their blu back down to 1.85:1, losing a little along the sides with it.  It's also, thankfully, no longer so pale, though it looks like some of that's due to some artificial contrast boosting and a side effect of edge enhancement.  It's certainly the best of the three, but it's also clearly an old master that looks like maybe it was never even made to hold up on blu.  I mean, it's a 2008 blu, so what can you expect?  But even by those standards, it looks like detail is light and they tried to make up for that with some unfortunate tinkering.  It's not terribly terrible, I suppose... the grain is mostly, if gingerly, visible, and the haloing isn't super heavy.  But this is a film ready for a remaster if I've ever seen one.

Oh, thank goodness.  Criterion has gone back to the original 35mm camera negative (and, according to the booklet, "for some sections, a 35mm interpositive").  Grain is finally here and looking right.  And as you can see above, this film finally looks like film.  And look at that guard standing against the pillar in the second set of shots.  His skin looks weirdly splotchy on the blu, but now on the UHD, it's like his complexion cleared up.  Deeper blacks makes the contrast more appealing without actually crushing any detail in the shadows.  Highlights aren't blown out; and yes, that crappy edge enhancement haloing is gone.  Film damage has been cleaned up, too (note that dirt spot above the donkey in the sky of the first set of shots is finally gone).  In every way, this is the upgrade we've been asking for.

Audio-wise, both DVDs give us your basic mono track, with only Criterion offering optional subtitles.  Sony brings a whole bunch of language options, including French and Hungarian dubs and English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Thai (whew!) and Turkish subs.  But they've ditched the original mono track and now only give us 5.1 remixes, in both TrueHD and LPCM.

So that's another win in 2026.  We've got the original audio mix restored and in HD (DTS-HD) for the first time.  If you still want Sony's 5.1 remix, that's here, too, also in DTS-HD.  And, of course, there are optional English subtitles.

Anchor Bay just had the trailer, but Criterion packed their edition pretty nicely.   We start out with two audio commentaries, one by Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle, and the other by John Cleese and Michael Palin.  Both provide a good mix of insight and laughs.  Then there's a collection of deleted scenes, one of which solves a small mystery that's always followed the film, and all of which have optional commentary.  And there's an excellent, vintage hour-long documentary, simply called The Pythons.  It's a BBC-made feature ostensibly on the Pythons overall, but it interviews the cast while they're on the set of Brian, so the film winds up being as much about the film as the rest of their career.  They also have the trailer, four radio spots, and an insert with notes by critic George Perry.

The Pythons.

The Pythons is interlaced and pretty fuzzy, presumably just taken from broadcast, which I guess is why Sony dropped it from their Immaculate Edition.  Because they've carried over all of the other Criterion extras.  And to their credit, they've come up with some new goodies as well, the best of which is a new, hour-long retrospective, The Story of Brian.  It's also quite well made, and fairly different from The Pythons.  It's great to have the new one, but I still miss the old one (which, for one major advantage, had access to Graham Chapman).  Some of the other extras are nice to have, but not so exciting.  There's an entire script read-through by the Pythons, which sounds neat, but it's awfully long and essentially all the same material as the film.  To be quite honest, I can't say I listened to the whole thing.  Besides that, they've added a photo gallery and a couple unrelated bonus trailers.

And now, happily, Criterion has brought us the best of both worlds.  Both the previously exclusive docs, and all the previous extras, are gathered together on Criterion's new 2-disc set.  And they've even recovered something new: Michael Palin's behind-the-scenes 8mm footage.  It's just over 13 minutes and silent but narrated by Palin.  And we get a 10-page, fold-out insert with notes by Bilge Ebiri (apparently George Perry can suck it, because Criterion didn't keep his).

So this is easily, easily, the new definitive edition: a substantial upgrade with all the features united, and even something new to sweeten the deal.  In fact, I'd go further than calling it definitive and say it's the only one worth having in your collection.