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Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 British comedy film based on the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) and directed by Gilliam and Jones in their feature directorial debuts. It was conceived during the hiatus between the third and fourth series of their BBC Television series Monty Python's Flying Circus.
While the group's first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, was a compilation of sketches from the first two television series, Holy Grail is an original story that parodies the legend of King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail. Thirty years later, Idle used the film as the basis for the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail grossed more than any other British film screened in the US in 1975, and has since been considered one of the greatest comedy films of all time. In the US, it was selected in 2011 as the second-best comedy of all time in the ABC special Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time behind Airplane!. In the UK, readers of Total Film magazine in 2000 ranked it the fifth-greatest comedy film of all time; a similar poll of Channel 4 viewers in 2006 placed it sixth.
The opening credits of the film feature pseudo-Swedish subtitles, which soon turn into an appeal to visit Sweden and see the country's moose. The subtitles are soon stopped and claim that the people responsible have been sacked, but moose references continue throughout the actual credits. The subtitles were written by Michael Palin as a way to "entertain the 'captive' audience" at the beginning of the film.
In AD 932, King Arthur and his squire Patsy, who claps coconut shells as Arthur mimes riding a horse, travel Britain searching for men to join the Knights of the Round Table. Along the way, Arthur debates whether swallows could carry coconuts, passes through a town infected with a plague, recounts receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake to two anarcho-syndicalist peasants, and defeats the Black Knight. At an impromptu witch trial, he recruits Sir Bedevere the Wise, later joined by Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot, and the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film, along with their squires and Robin's minstrels. Arthur leads the knights to Camelot, but changes his mind after the knights in the castle perform a musical number, deeming it "a silly place". God then appears and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail.
Arthur and his knights arrive at a castle occupied by French soldiers, who claim to have the Grail and taunt the Britons, driving them back with a barrage of barnyard animals. Bedevere concocts a plan to sneak in using a Trojan Rabbit, but forgets to tell the others to hide inside it; the Knights are forced to flee when it is flung back at them. Arthur decides the knights should go their separate ways to search for the Grail. Meanwhile, a modern-day historian filming a documentary on the Arthurian legends is killed by an unknown knight on horseback, triggering a police investigation.
Arthur and Bedevere are given directions by an old man and attempt to satisfy the strange requests of the dreaded Knights Who Say "Ni!". Sir Robin avoids a fight with a Three-Headed Knight by running away while the heads are arguing amongst themselves. Sir Galahad is led by a grail-shaped beacon to Castle Anthrax, which is occupied exclusively by nubile young women, who wish to be punished for misleading him, but is "rescued" against his will by Lancelot. Lancelot receives an arrow-shot note from Swamp Castle. Believing the author is a lady being forced to marry against her will, he storms the castle and slaughters several wedding party members, only to discover the author is an effeminate prince.
Arthur and his knights regroup and are joined by Brother Maynard, his monk brethren, and three new knights: Bors, Gawain and Ector. They meet Tim the Enchanter, a pyromancer who directs them to a cave where the location of the Grail is said to be written. The entrance to the cave is guarded by the Rabbit of Caerbannog. Underestimating it, the knights attack, but the Rabbit easily kills Bors, Gawain and Ector. Arthur uses the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch", provided by Brother Maynard, to destroy the creature. Inside the cave, they find an inscription from Joseph of Arimathea, directing them to "the Castle of Aarrgh". They are interrupted by an attack from the animated "Legendary Black Beast" that lives in the cave, which devours Brother Maynard and pursues the others. Arthur and the knights escape after the film's animator unexpectedly suffers a fatal heart attack, erasing the Black Beast.
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 British comedy film based on the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) and directed by Gilliam and Jones in their feature directorial debuts. It was conceived during the hiatus between the third and fourth series of their BBC Television series Monty Python's Flying Circus.
While the group's first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, was a compilation of sketches from the first two television series, Holy Grail is an original story that parodies the legend of King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail. Thirty years later, Idle used the film as the basis for the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail grossed more than any other British film screened in the US in 1975, and has since been considered one of the greatest comedy films of all time. In the US, it was selected in 2011 as the second-best comedy of all time in the ABC special Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time behind Airplane!. In the UK, readers of Total Film magazine in 2000 ranked it the fifth-greatest comedy film of all time; a similar poll of Channel 4 viewers in 2006 placed it sixth.
The opening credits of the film feature pseudo-Swedish subtitles, which soon turn into an appeal to visit Sweden and see the country's moose. The subtitles are soon stopped and claim that the people responsible have been sacked, but moose references continue throughout the actual credits. The subtitles were written by Michael Palin as a way to "entertain the 'captive' audience" at the beginning of the film.
In AD 932, King Arthur and his squire Patsy, who claps coconut shells as Arthur mimes riding a horse, travel Britain searching for men to join the Knights of the Round Table. Along the way, Arthur debates whether swallows could carry coconuts, passes through a town infected with a plague, recounts receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake to two anarcho-syndicalist peasants, and defeats the Black Knight. At an impromptu witch trial, he recruits Sir Bedevere the Wise, later joined by Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot, and the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film, along with their squires and Robin's minstrels. Arthur leads the knights to Camelot, but changes his mind after the knights in the castle perform a musical number, deeming it "a silly place". God then appears and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail.
Arthur and his knights arrive at a castle occupied by French soldiers, who claim to have the Grail and taunt the Britons, driving them back with a barrage of barnyard animals. Bedevere concocts a plan to sneak in using a Trojan Rabbit, but forgets to tell the others to hide inside it; the Knights are forced to flee when it is flung back at them. Arthur decides the knights should go their separate ways to search for the Grail. Meanwhile, a modern-day historian filming a documentary on the Arthurian legends is killed by an unknown knight on horseback, triggering a police investigation.
Arthur and Bedevere are given directions by an old man and attempt to satisfy the strange requests of the dreaded Knights Who Say "Ni!". Sir Robin avoids a fight with a Three-Headed Knight by running away while the heads are arguing amongst themselves. Sir Galahad is led by a grail-shaped beacon to Castle Anthrax, which is occupied exclusively by nubile young women, who wish to be punished for misleading him, but is "rescued" against his will by Lancelot. Lancelot receives an arrow-shot note from Swamp Castle. Believing the author is a lady being forced to marry against her will, he storms the castle and slaughters several wedding party members, only to discover the author is an effeminate prince.
Arthur and his knights regroup and are joined by Brother Maynard, his monk brethren, and three new knights: Bors, Gawain and Ector. They meet Tim the Enchanter, a pyromancer who directs them to a cave where the location of the Grail is said to be written. The entrance to the cave is guarded by the Rabbit of Caerbannog. Underestimating it, the knights attack, but the Rabbit easily kills Bors, Gawain and Ector. Arthur uses the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch", provided by Brother Maynard, to destroy the creature. Inside the cave, they find an inscription from Joseph of Arimathea, directing them to "the Castle of Aarrgh". They are interrupted by an attack from the animated "Legendary Black Beast" that lives in the cave, which devours Brother Maynard and pursues the others. Arthur and the knights escape after the film's animator unexpectedly suffers a fatal heart attack, erasing the Black Beast.