Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)

They say analyzing comedy kills it, but in this case, it's one revelation after another. Add rare footage of their early years, some non-Python TV appearances, tense on-set footage filmed during the making of their movies, and clips of their greatest hits, and you've got Monty nirvana.

It is an excellent 40th-anniversary documentary.

Almost the Truth (The Lawyer’s Cut) is a serious history of sublime nonsense, packaged with classic Python-esque irreverence.

Frankly, six hours is a whole lot of time for any documentary, but the treasure trove of Python material ensures that Almost the Truth goes down smoothly, or at least almost so.

The documentary finally sags a bit in the final hour, albeit inevitably, as Jones and Timlett detail the making of the group’s final film, "Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life," by which point all six men were quite ready to be done with each other for a while, and then as we briefly glimpse them in their post-Python lives.

It's funnier because it includes some comic sketches, but they are truncated. Further down, whole episodes focus on the Python movies, one for The Life of Brian, one for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. You get funny excerpts, but also lots of blah-blah.

It is a treat, if not a revelation, for fans. This is very well plowed ground, after all. As for the as yet uninitiated, what they don’t find baffling they’ll likely find excessive.