Holy Flying Circus - DVD

Content: When the members of the cult British troupe Monty Python completed their 1979 film The Life of Brian after quite a few financing difficulties and internal squabbles, John Cleese (Darren Boyd), Michael Palin (Charles Edwards), Eric Idle (Steve Punt), Terry Jones (Rufus Jones), Graham Chapman (Tom Fisher) and Terry Gilliam (Phil Nichol) thought they were over the worst of it and could now relax in anticipation of the premiere. But it was not to come to that. Because before even one minute of the film was shown anywhere, especially religious associations ran up a storm against the comedy. Moral guardians and moralizers of all kinds crawled out of their holes, united in the will to prevent the release of the work. And so the Pythons have no choice but to face the public debate. In a BBC interview, Cleese and Palin plan to talk to the Bishop of Southwark about the controversy and defend their position. It's an appearance that will make TV history...

Holy Flying Circus takes a big gamble: not only does the film deal with one of the most exciting chapters in the Monty Pythons' career, but it also aims to reveal the tensions within the comedy troupe. Director Owen Harris simultaneously attempts to pay tribute to the Pythons' unique style. He wants to achieve this by not staging his film as a typical biopic, but by presenting it as a comedy in the quirky Python style. There are sometimes completely surreal animations and the actors of the Pythons also appear in some other roles. Charles Edwards, for example, appears not only as Michael Palin, but also as his mother, Terry Jones actor Rufus Jones also plays Palin's wife and Steve Punt not only plays a convincing Eric Idle, but also a bishop, a demonstrator or a rabbi.

Harris doesn't quite reach the level of Monty Python, their style is just too special for that. But he manages very well to capture the spirit of the Pythons and let his film become a really successful tribute to the brilliant cult troupe. The very good choice of the main actors is also responsible for this. To reveal how well they meet their idols, you should definitely watch this film in the original English. Especially Darren Boyd gives not only outwardly, but also vocally and mimically an almost perfect John Cleese. Simply great! But also Charles Edwards and Steve Punt meet their prominent role models on the spot, whereby Edwards especially in the reenacted version of the legendary TV discussion perfectly succeeds in capturing Palin's friendly, shrewd and at the same time very determined manner.

There are now and then some gags that don't really work. For instance, the character of Alan Dick seems overdone and some of the more whimsical moments seem a bit forced. But all in all Holy Flying Circus is a very entertaining and dramaturgically interesting comedy about the controversy surrounding the cult film The Life of Brian. For all Python fans absolutely worth seeing - especially in the English language version!

Picture + Sound: The clean image of the DVD pleases with a coherent color scheme, a decent image sharpness and well-adjusted contrasts. Especially in the brighter scenes, no obvious weaknesses can be made out. In darker moments, on the other hand, slight picture noise can be detected here and there. The sound is present in a rather restrained Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, but it more than satisfactorily fulfills its main task of powerfully rendering the dialogue. Good!

Extras: Bonus features include just under 30 minutes of cut scenes and outtakes, with some genuinely amusing moments to be discovered here! Worth seeing!

Conclusion:Holy Flying Circus is an entertaining look at one of the most exciting chapters from Monty Python's career. However, in dramatizing the controversy surrounding The Life of Brian, the film's creators were not only concerned with getting as close as possible to the real-life models in their portrayal of the characters involved, first and foremost, of course, the Pythons themselves. The production was also intended to pay tribute to the comedy troupe's unique comedic style. And even if that doesn't always work out one hundred percent, Holy Flying Circus is overall an absolutely worthy, wonderfully whimsical homage to Monty Python that fans shouldn't miss. Absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp