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Wikipedia
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 British comedy film written and performed by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin), and directed by Gilliam and Jones. It was conceived during a gap between the third and fourth seasons of their popular BBC television series Monty Python's Flying Circus.
In contrast to the group's first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, a compilation of sketches from the television series, Holy Grail was composed of original material, therefore considered the first "proper" film according to the group and mainstream audiences. It generally spoofs the legends of King Arthur's quest to find the Holy Grail. The film was a success on its initial run and remains popular to this day. Idle used the film as the inspiration for the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot.
The film was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1976, but lost toA 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. Their first stop is their new home, Camelot, but after three minutes of song and dance, they change their mind and continue. Next, they arrive at a castle controlled by the French where they assume the Grail is being held. After being insulted in mangled Franglaisand failing to invade the castle in a Trojan Rabbit, Arthur decides that they split up to seek out the Grail on their own.
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 Knights who say Ni. Sir Robin comes across a Three-Headed Giant, and quickly turns back. Sir Lancelot accidentally assaults a wedding party at Swamp Castle believing them to be holding a lady against her will (who is, in fact, an effeminate prince). Galahad is led by a Grail-shaped beacon to Castle Anthrax, populated only by comely women who wish to perform sexual favours for him, but is "rescued" by Lancelot. The Knights regroup (with much rejoicing) and travel to see Tim the Enchanter, who points them to caves where the location of the Grail is written on the walls. To enter the caves, the group is forced to defeat the Rabbit of Caerbannog using the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
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 from Scene 24 before they can cross; Sir Lancelot goes first and passes the test, but is arrested by Modern-day cops on the other side. Sirs Robin and Galahad fail and are thrown into the chasm below the bridge. Arthur tricks the bridge-keeper, leaving them able to cross. After a short intermission, Arthur and Bedevere finally made it to the Grail's castle, but find out that the French made it there first. 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.
[edit]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 grainyblack-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.)
[edit]Cast
| Actor | Main Role | Other roles |
|---|---|---|
| Graham Chapman | King Arthur | Voice of God, Hiccoughing Guard, Middle Head of Three-Headed Knight |
| John Cleese | SirLancelot | Second soldier in opening scene, Man in plague scene with body, Black Knight, Third Villager, French Taunter, Tim the Enchanter |
| Terry Gilliam | Patsy | Old Man (Soothsayer) in Scene 24/Bridgekeeper, Green Knight, Sir Bors (First to be killed by rabbit), Weak-hearted animator (Himself), Gorilla Hand |
| Eric Idle | Sir Robin | The Dead Collector, First Villager, Confused Guard at Swamp Castle, Concorde (squire of Sir Lancelot), Roger the Shrubber, Brother Maynard |
| Terry Jones | Sir Bedevere | Dennis's Mother, Left Head of Three-Headed Knight, Prince Herbert, Voice of the Cartoon Scribe, French Knight |
| Michael Palin | SirGalahad | First soldier in opening scene, Dennis, Second Villager, Right Head of Three-Headed Knight, King of Swamp Castle, Monk (Maynard's assistant), Main Knight who says "Ni", Narrator, French Knight, Guest at Swamp Castle, Mud-Eater |
| Neil Innes | Sir Robin's Minstrel | Head of chanting monks, Page crushed by wooden rabbit, Fourth Villager |
| Connie Booth | The Witch | |
| Carol Cleveland | Zoot | Dingo (Zoot's twin) |
| Bee Duffell | Old crone | |
| John Young | Historian | Dead body (who claims to be not dead) |
| Rita Davies | Historian's Wife | |
| Sally Kinghorn | Winston | |
| Avril Stewart | Piglet |
[edit]Soundtrack
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(December 2010) |
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.
The main adventurous theme played throughout the movie is Homeward Bound by Jack Trombey, also from the DeWolfe library.
[edit]Television broadcast
The film had its television premiere 25 February 1977 on the CBS Late Movie. Reportedly the Pythons were displeased to discover a number of edits were done by the network to reduce use of profanity and the showing of blood. The troupe pulled back the rights and thereafter had it broadcast in the United States only on PBS and later other channels such as IFC, where it runs uncut.[4]
[edit]Home video editions
The first DVD was released in 1999 and had only a non-anamorphic print, about two pages of production notes, and trailers for other Sony Pictures releases. On 23 October 2001, the Special Edition DVD was released. It includes two commentary tracks, documentaries related to the "brickfilm", the "Camelot Song" as sung by Lego minifigures,[5] and "Subtitles For People Who Don't Like the Film", consisting of lines taken from William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2. There are also two scenes dubbed in Japanese, where the knights search for a "holysake cup" and where the Knights Who Say Ni request a bonsai. It also includes a small featurette, presented by Michael Palin, about the proper use of a coconut. It also contains a feature for the Hard of Hearing, where the menu is said in a very loud voice.
[edit]Reaction and legacy
This film is #40 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Monty Python and the Holy Grail the 5th greatest comedy film of all time. The next Monty Python film, Monty Python's Life of Brian, was ranked #1. A similar poll of Channel 4 viewers in 2005 placed Holy Grail in 6th (with Life of Brian again topping the list). A 2004 poll by the UK arm of Amazon and the Internet Movie Database named Monty Python and the Holy Grail as the best British picture of all time.[6]
[edit]Influence
 | This "In popular culture" section may contain minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivial references. (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, Gatorade released an online campaign entitled "Mission G" and 10-minute commercial entitled "The Quest for G" that parodies many elements of the film. The commercial starred Kevin Garnett in the King Arthur role; Derek Jeter, Jimmie Johnson, Usain Bolt, Misty May, 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]
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