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The Executive CD Edition of the Monty Python Soundtrack

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 06/01/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There was an actual need for the "soundtrack" album to "Monty Python & The Holy Grail," which allowed us to help memorize key bits of dialogue while waiting for the movie to finally be released on DVD (which was worth the wait just to have the LEGO version of the "Camelot" song). Now, of course, this album can serve as a companion to the original Broadway cast album for "Spamalot," the current hit musical inflicted upon the masses by Eric Idle on behalf of the Pythons. To be clear, this soundtrack includes much more than what you heard in the original film. After all, this is the Executive CD Edition, a fact that you are reminded of at both the beginning and the end of each "side." Then, before the movie actually "starts" you have a tour of the classic Silbury Hill Theater and a live broadcast from the premier of the film, including a narration of the film's opening and the "You're Using Coconuts" routine. Then they finally shut up and get to the bits from the film. My favorite remains "King Arthur and the 'Old Woman': Lesson in Anarcho-Syndicated Commune," which I tried without success to work into several papers in graduate school. The episode involving "A Witch" is followed by a "Lesson in Logic," which proves, unless you are using intuition, that just because a woman weighs as much as a duck does not prove she is a witch. Not everything is here, with the encounter with the Black Knight being the most obvious omission. But you do have the songs for "Camelot" and "The Tale of Sir Robin," and the almost song from the sequence regarding Sir Lancelot at Swamp Castle. There are intrusions from the Python gang throughout the album, including a "Bomb Scare" and "A Shakespearean Critique" provoked by the appearance of Tim, the Enchanter. None of these are as good as the sarcastic French soldiers at the "Castle of Louis de Lombard," the instructions for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch from Armaments, Chapter 2, Verses 9 to 21, for dealing with "A Foul-Tempered Rabbit," and the exchange at the "Bridge of Death" that inspired the message on my brother's answering machine. Fortunately, now I have my DVD of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and can watch what I want, when I want, without resorting to this audio version. However, I must commend this album for sounding like the movie and not for sounding like a movie on a record, which is what we were saddled with in the old days."