Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
Comedy • 1h 47m
Director: Terry Jones
Cast: Terry Gilliam, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Carol Cleveland, Simon Jones, Patricia Quinn, Judy Loe, Andrew Bicknell, Andrew MacLachlan, Mark Holmes, Valerie Whittington, Jennifer Franks, Imogen Bickford-Smith, Angela Mann, Sydney Arnold, Guy Bertrand, Matt Frewer, Michael Caine, Jane Leeves, Luke Baxter
Universal 4K Blu-ray
Best English-friendly release · updated 3 months ago
UHD tiers
Overview
Life's questions are 'answered' in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. Then there's the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor. The world's most voracious glutton brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise.
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: Terry Jones
Director: John Carpenter
Universal 4K Blu-ray. Maybe Turbine Blu-ray instead for better audio?
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Director: Norman Taurog
Director: Raoul Walsh
Director: Frank Tuttle
Director: James Whale
Universal Complete Legacy Collection 4K Blu-ray set on September 26 2026
?
Director: James Whale
Universal Complete Legacy Collection 4K Blu-ray set on September 26 2026
1993 CIC Video LaserDisc
Director: William A. Seiter
Director: Henry Koster
2D version: Universal 4K Blu-ray
3D version: Turbine Germany 3D Blu-ray
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More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Chris Columbus
Disney 4K Blu-ray has encoding issues with bitrates dipping into 40mbps, and Kaleidescape has better encoding than Disney see caps
Old Fox Blu-ray master is stretched and sharpened
Director: Archie Mayo
Director: Jūzō Itami
Director: Tsui Hark
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray
There is a newer 4K restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata, which should be of better scan quality. The 4K restoration used on all current 4K disc releases stems from a low-quality Cintel scanner. The newer restoration has yet to be released on home video.
Director: Peter Faiman
Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD
International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray
Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding
US Paramount 4K Blu-ray, is the International US Cut and not the Encore Cut
Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD
International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray
Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding
Australia Cut: Laserdisc
The film exists in three versions:
- the original Australian cut (~104 minutes at 24fps/~100 minutes at 25fps);
- the American/international version (~98 minutes at 24fps/~94 minutes at 25fps) trimming some exposition in the Outback first half of the film and some shorter extensions of a few seconds in the New York section, altering some of the dialogue – including censoring a "fuck" to "screw" – but featuring one additional dialogue extension not in the Australian version (a comparison of the two cuts can be found at Movie Censorship);
- the Australian Encore Cut (~95 minutes at 24fps/~91 minutes at 25fps) which uses the international version source so it already has those alterations but also removes approximately three minutes consisting of parts of two scenes featuring Mick grabbing the crotch of a cross-dressing prostitute and a later sequence when he does the same thing at a party to a woman with a deep voice (a comparison of the international version and the Encore Cut can be found at Movie Censorship).
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US, same black crush as the US disc but encoded by FiM and very good new supplements
Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray has MEL Dolby Vision
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Warner Archive Blu-ray, 4k scan
Director: George Stevens
Director: René Cardona
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