Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 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 .
Plot
King Arthur (Chapman), along with his faithful servant Patsy (Gilliam), is recruiting his Knights of the Round Table throughout England. He is frustrated at every turn by such obstacles as anarcho-syndicalist peasants, a Black Knight who refuses to give up in a fight despite losing both his arms and legs, and guards who are more concerned with the flight patterns of swallows than their lord and master. Finally he meets up with Sir Bedevere the Wise (Jones), Sir Lancelot the Brave (Cleese), Sir Galahad the Pure (also called "the Chaste") (Palin), Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot (Idle), "and the aptly-named Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film" (a picture of Palin's infant son, shown in a doctored photo of the child wearing adult-sized knight's armor). They declare themselves the Knights of the Round Table. When "riding" to Camelot (by strutting while their squires bang coconut halves together), they are given a quest by God (represented by an animated photograph of legendary cricket figure W. G. Grace) to find the Holy Grail.
They reach a castle and speak to a Frenchman who randomly taunts and insults them in mangled Franglais. The knights attack, then retreat under a barrage of livestock. An attempt to sneak into the castle using a crudely built giant wooden Trojan Rabbit fails, and the French catapult it back at the knights.
Arthur decides that he and his knights should search for the Grail individually. After they split up, Sir Robin travels through the dark Forest of Ewing with his favourite minstrels, and encounters a Three-Headed Giant (from which he flees), Galahad follows a Grail-shaped light to the perils of Castle Anthrax (whose comely female residents are very interested in being spanked and having oral sex with him), Sir Lancelot massacres a wedding party at Swamp Castle, and Arthur and Bedevere encounter the dreaded Knights who say Ni, who demand a shrubbery as tribute. They each overcome or avoid their individual perils in various ways, then reunite to face a bleak and terrible winter, the happenings of which are told in the form of a Gilliam animation. Next they meet a pyromaniacal enchanter named Tim, who leads them to a cave guarded by a killer rabbit. The rabbit kills off all the remaining unnamed knights before they kill it with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
The knights then face the Legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh in another animated scene, escaping this peril only when the animator suffers a fatal heart attack. Their final task is to cross the Bridge of Death, which is guarded by "the old man from scene 24." The bridge keeper asks each person three questions (the first two are invariably "What is your name?" and "What is your quest?") and, if they are unable to answer or hesitate when answering the last extremely difficult one, they are picked up by a mysterious force and thrown off the bridge. Sir Robin is killed when he is unable to answer "what is the capital of Assyria?" Sir Galahad is slain when he corrects his answer ("blue... no, yellow!") to the question "What is your favourite colour". When Arthur comes up for his turn, he turns the tables when the old man asks him, "What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" Arthur responds, "What do you mean? African or European swallow?" The old man replies "Huh? I... I don't know that" and is hurled off the bridge by his own magic. Although Lancelot also survived the confrontation (he went first), he mysteriously disappears before the others can catch up to him on the other side.
Arthur and Bedevere reach the gates of Castle Aaargh, only to find themselves facing the French taunter once more; the whole quest has in fact been a wild goose chase. As Arthur leads a great charge against the castle, a group of present-day police officers suddenly arrive on the scene, disrupting the film's climax. They have been investigating the murder of a "famous historian" by the name of "Frank", who was earlier cut down by an unidentified knight while he was presenting a television program on a topic from the film's supposed era. Lancelot has already been taken into custody, and Arthur and Bedevere are promptly arrested as well. One of the policemen covers the camera lens with his hand and the screen goes blank for several minutes, with music playing in the background, signaling the end of the film.
Breaking the fourth wall
One of the running gags in the film is the frequent breaking of the fourth wall; for example, the aforementioned "old man from scene 24" and the death of the animator. Others include:
- The mood-setting opening credits initially play out in a serious manner before they are "hijacked" three times by trouble-making crewmembers (who, along with adding faux-Norwegian subtitles, sneak in mentions of Sweden and moose, e.g. "A møøse once bit my sister" ) The text at one point claims that they have been completed at the very last minute and at great expense. The last few screens are then shown against a backdrop of garish, blinking fluorescent colors, with repeated mentions of llamas.
- Due to lack of proper budget, the production crew had to be inventive. A rather creative solution on their end was to imitate horse riding by strutting and banging two coconut halves together. This is frequently referenced in the film, and is the main theme of the first sketch (after the credits). The only place in the film where a horse appears is the scene where 'a famous historian' is attacked by an unidentified knight.
- The narrator (played by Michael Palin) is heard being killed after taking too long to introduce scene 24, although strangely he is heard later.
- "The aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film" (Michael Palin's son, William, then an infant, dressed up in chain mail attire).
- When the knights arrive at an obviously fake Camelot and chorus its name in awe, Patsy (Gilliam) is heard to remark "It's only a model" and is promptly shushed.
- In one Castle Anthrax scene, Dingo (played by Carol Cleveland, Python's main female supporting player) faces the camera and inquires about the quality of the scene to that point, asking if it should have been cut. Other characters from scenes both past and future respond and, after being drawn out, command her to "GET ON WITH IT!" (coincidentally, this moment was actually removed from the film on initial release, but was reinstated for TV broadcasts and the video release).
- Prince Herbert (Jones) repeatedly attempts to begin a musical number, but his music-hating father (Palin) demands that the music stop, even saying "You're not going into a song while I'm here!"
- When Prince Herbert is about to tell how his fall off the tall tower was broken, the crowd breaks into song, and everyone who got killed by Sir Lancelot rise from the dead, including Princess Lucky's father.
- The film ends very abruptly, with one of the police officers putting his hand over the photographic lens, the film jumping its sprockets, and the screen suddenly going black.
Background
In 1974, between production on the third and fourth TV series, the group decided that the time was then right to embark on their first "proper" feature film, containing entirely new material. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was based on Arthurian Legend and was directed by both Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam. The latter also contributed linking animations and the opening credits. Along with the rest of the Pythons, Jones and Gilliam performed several roles in the film, but it was Chapman who took the lead as King Arthur. Holy Grail was filmed on location, throughout several picturesque rural areas of Scotland, with a tiny budget of around £150,000 (approx. $350,000 in 1974); the money was raised in part with investments from rock groups, such as Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, and Led Zeppelin, and UK music industry entrepreneur Tony Stratton-Smith (founder/owner of the Charisma Records label, for which the Pythons recorded their song albums).
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 (this is referred to in Patsy's dismissive line, "It's only a model" - another example of fourth wall breakage). 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 Kent — all subsequent shots of the exterior and interior of those scenes were filmed at Do
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