Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Difference between revisions

The film was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1976, but lost to A Boy and His Dog.

Plot

Monty Python and the Holy Grail loosely follows the legend of King Arthur. Arthur (Graham Chapman) along with his squire, Patsy (Terry Gilliam), recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise (Terry Jones), Sir Lancelot the Brave (John Cleese), Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot (Eric Idle) and Sir Galahad the Pure (Michael Palin), and the aptly named, Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film. The group is instructed by God (represented by an animated photograph of legendary cricket figure W. G. Grace^[1]) to seek out the Holy Grail. They are led to a castle controlled by the French where they believe the Grail is being held. After being insulted in mangled Franglais and failing to invade the castle in a Trojan Rabbit, Arthur decides that they must go their separate ways to seek out the Grail.

Concurrent to these events, in a manner of breaking the fourth wall, a modern-day historian, while describing the Arthurian legend as for a television program, is killed by a knight on horseback, triggering a police investigation.

Each of the Knights encounter various perils on their quest. Arthur and Bedevere attempt to satisfy the strange requests of the dreaded

With their final destination known, the group travels to its last peril, the Bridge of Death, where each Knight is forced to answer three questions by the bridge-keeper before they can cross; Sirs Robin and Galahad fail and are thrown into the chasm below the bridge, before Arthur tricks the bridge-keeper. Lancelot becomes separated from Arthur and Bedevere, later shown arrested by modern-day police for the murder of the historian. Arthur and Bedevere travel to the Grail's castle, which they find is already occupied by the French who send them away with their insults. They amass a large army to prepare to storm the castle, but just as they are ready to start the charge, the police arrive and stop it, arresting Arthur and Bedevere, and putting an end to the filming.

Production

The film was mostly shot on location in Scotland, particularly around Doune Castle, Glen Coe, and the privately owned Castle Stalker. The many castles seen throughout the film were either Doune Castle shot from different angles or cardboard models held up against the horizon. There are several exceptions to this: the very first exterior shot of a castle at the beginning of the film is Kidwelly Castle in South Wales and the single exterior shot of the Swamp King castle during "Tale of Sir Lancelot" is Bodiam Castle in East Sussex — all subsequent shots of the exterior and interior of those scenes were filmed at Doune Castle. King Arthur was the only character whose chain mail armour was authentic. The "armour" worn by his various knights was silver-painted wool, which absorbed moisture in the cold and wet conditions.

The film was co-directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, the first major project for both and the first project where any members of the Pythons were behind the camera. This proved to be troublesome on the set as Jones and Gilliam had different directing styles and it often was not clear who was in charge. The other Pythons evidently preferred Jones, who as an acting member of the group was focused more on performance, as opposed to Gilliam, whose visual sense they admired but whom they sometimes thought too fussy: on the DVD audio commentary, Cleese expresses irritation at a scene set in Castle Anthrax, where he says the focus was on technical aspects rather than comedy. The two later Python feature films, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life, both have Jones as the sole director.

Originally the knight characters were going to ride real horses, but after it became clear that the film's minuscule budget precluded real horses the Pythons decided that their characters would mime horse-riding while their porters trotted behind them banging coconut shells together. The joke was derived from the old-fashioned sound effect used by radio shows to convey the sound of hooves clattering. This was later referred to in the German release of the film, which translated the title as "Die Ritter der Kokosnuss"^[2] ("The Knights of the Coconut").

As an extension of the group's penchant for never abiding to a generic formula, the 2001 DVD release of the film commences with the British Board of Film Censors' certification for Dentist on the Job, a film "Passed as more suitable for Exhibition to Adult Audiences", followed by its grainy black-and-white opening titles and nearly two minutes of the film itself. During the opening scene of Dentist on the Job, the projectionist (played by Terry Jones) realises it is the wrong film and puts the correct one on. (Dentist on the Job was a 1961 comedy starring Bob Monkhouse. Its alternate title is Get On With It, a phrase spoken multiple times throughout Holy Grail.)

Cast

Soundtrack

The dramatic music played during Sir Lancelot's misguided storming of Swamp Castle is The Flying Messenger by Oliver Armstrong, from the DeWolfe library.^[3]

The organ music heard during the film's brief intermission and at the film's end is the Alligator Crawl by Fats Waller.

Television broadcast

The film had its television premiere 25 February 1977 on the

Influence

This article may contain irrelevant references to popular culture. Please remove the content or add citations to reliable and independent sources. (October 2010)

A number of works, such as video games, novels, and newspapers pay homage to this movie.

• The 2007 DreamWorks Animation film Shrek the Third includes a scene in which a character is banging coconuts together to simulate the sound of horses' hooves. Although both John Cleese and Eric Idle appeared in the film, Idle stated that he did not know and did not approve of the use of the gag in the film. He claims to be considering suing the producers for the unauthorised use of the gag, while the producers claim they were honouring Idle and Cleese by its use.^[7]
• The beer Monty Python's Holy Ale comes complete with Python-style cartoons, including the trademark foot of Cupid. The label states it is "Tempered over burning witches."^[8]
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Doomsday World, co-written by Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, and Robert Greenberger, Geordi La Forge is sitting in a bar, the proprietor of which is described as knowing "everything about anything." Geordi asks the bartender some obscure questions about the dimensions and climate about the planet they are on, which the bartender answers, immediately and correctly. Geordi then asks, "What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" to which the bartender replies, "African or European?" "Damn, he's good." Geordi is forced to concede.^[9]
• In 2009,
  Kerri Walsh, and Alicia Sacramone as the knights; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the Tim the Enchanter role, and Michael Jordan as the voice of the Grail.^[10]

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Wikinews has related news:

• Monty Python's "Holy Hand Grenade" sparks bomb scare

• Monty Python and the Holy Grail at
  IMDb
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail at AllMovie
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail at Rotten Tomatoes
• Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow