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Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing 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.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

  • Graham Chapman
  • John Cleese
  • Terry Gilliam
  • Eric Idle
  • Terry Jones
  • Michael Palin

Michael Palin

Terry Bedford

John Hackney

  • 3 April 1975 (1975-04-03)

92 minutes[1]

United Kingdom

English

£282,035[2]

£2,358,229 (1975 run)[2]
$5,507,090 (rereleases)[3]

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. 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;[4] a similar poll of Channel 4 viewers in 2006 placed it sixth.[5]

Plot[edit]

In AD 932, King Arthur and his squire, Patsy, 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 the plague, recounts receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake to two anarcho-syndicalist peasants, defeats the Black Knight, and observes an impromptu witch trial. He recruits Sir Bedevere the Wise, 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, after a musical number, changes his mind, deeming it "a silly place". As they turn away, God 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 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 note is from a lady being forced to marry against her will, he storms the castle and slaughters several members of the wedding party, only to discover the note is from 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, 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 Castle Aarrgh and warning them of the "Legendary Black Beast", a cave monster whose location of origin is obscured by a screaming sound. In an animated sequence, the Black Beast devours Brother Maynard, but Arthur and the knights escape after the animator unexpectedly suffers a fatal heart attack.


The knights approach the Bridge of Death, where the bridge-keeper demands they answer three questions in order to pass or else be cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. Lancelot easily answers simple questions and crosses. An overly cocky Robin is defeated by an unexpectedly difficult question, and an indecisive Galahad fails an easy one; both are magically flung into the gorge. When Arthur asks for clarification on a question regarding the airspeed of an unladen swallow, the bridge-keeper cannot answer and is himself thrown into the gorge.


Arthur and Bedevere cannot find Lancelot, unaware that he has been arrested by police investigating the historian's death. The pair reach Castle Aarrgh, but find it occupied by the French soldiers from earlier in the film. After being repelled by showers of manure, they summon an army of knights and prepare to assault the castle. As the army charges, the police arrive, arrest Arthur and Bedevere for the murder of the historian and break the camera, abruptly ending the film.

as Arthur, King of the Britons, the hiccuping guard, and the middle head of the Three-Headed Giant, as well as the voice of God

Graham Chapman

as Sir Lancelot the Brave, the Black Knight, French Taunter, and Tim the Enchanter, among other roles

John Cleese

as Patsy (Arthur's servant), the Soothsaying Bridgekeeper, the Green Knight, Sir Bors, and himself as the Weak-Hearted Animator, among other roles

Terry Gilliam

as Sir Robin the-not-quite-so-brave-as-Sir-Lancelot, Lancelot's squire Concorde, the collector of the dead, Roger the Shrubber, and Brother Maynard, among other roles

Eric Idle

as Sir Bedevere the Wise, Prince Herbert, Dennis' mother, and the left head of the Three-Headed Giant, among other roles

Terry Jones

as Sir Galahad the Pure, Leader of the Knights Who Say Ni, Lord of Swamp Castle, Dennis, and the right head of the Three-Headed Giant, among other roles, and the film's narrator

Michael Palin

as Miss Islington, the Witch

Connie Booth

as Zoot and Dingo, identical twin sisters

Carol Cleveland

as the Leader of Robin's Minstrels, Head Monk, Knight of Camelot, Servant Crushed by Rabbit.

Neil Innes

Bee Duffell as the Old Crone

as Frank the Historian and the Old Man

John Young

Rita Davies as Frank's Wife

Avril Stewart as Dr. Piglet

Sally Kinghorn as Dr. Winston

as a Knight Who Says Ni, Villager at Witch Burning, Musician at Wedding, Monk, and Knight in Battle

Sandy Johnson

as Police Sergeant (uncredited)

Julian Doyle

as Camp Guard and Robin's Minstrel (uncredited)

Charles Knode

as Inspector at End of Film (uncredited)

Roy Forge Smith

as Page Turner (uncredited)

Maggie Weston

"Wide Horizon", composed by Pierre Arvay; used during the opening titles.

"Ice Floe 9", composed by Pierre Arvay; used during the opening titles.

"Countrywide", composed by Anthony Mawer; used during the beginning titles after the first titlers are sacked.

[26]

"Homeward Bound", composed by ; used as King Arthur's heroic theme.

Jack Trombey

"Crossed Swords", composed by Dudley Matthew; played during King Arthur's battle with the Black Knight.

[27]

"The Flying Messenger", composed by Oliver Armstrong; played during Sir Lancelot's misguided storming of Swamp Castle.

[28]

"The Promised Land", composed by Stanley Black; used in the scene where Arthur approaches the castle on the island.

[29]

"Starlet in the Starlight", composed by Kenneth Essex; briefly used for Prince Herbert's attempt to express himself in song.

[30]

"Love Theme", composed by Peter Knight; also used briefly for Prince Herbert.

[31]

"Revolt", composed by Eric Towren; used as the army charges on Castle Aaargh.

[32]

In addition to several songs written by Python regular Neil Innes, several pieces of music were licensed from De Wolfe Music Library. These include:


Innes was supposed to write the film's soundtrack in its entirety, but after the team watched the movie with Innes's soundtrack, they decided to go instead with "canned" music, music borrowed from existing stock recordings. One problem with Innes's music, apparently, was that they considered it too appropriate, so that, according to Python scholar Darl Larsen, it "undercut the Pythons' attempt at undercutting the medieval world they were trying to depict".[33]

List of films considered the best

Postmodernist film

Production music

Larsen, Darl (2015). "Title and Credit Sequence". . Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 1–26. ISBN 9781442245549. Archived from the original on 15 April 2022. Retrieved 15 April 2022.

A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail: All the References from African Swallows to Zoot

Li, Martin (2011). "Scotland on Film". Glasgow & the River Clyde. Hunter Publishing, Inc.  978-1588437853.

ISBN

McCall, Douglas (2013). (2 ed.). McFarland. ISBN 9780786478118 – via Google Books.

Monty Python: A Chronology, 1969–2012

, Eyre Methuen, 1977, ISBN 0 413 38520 5. Contains screenplay, photographs, and other material.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Book)

Palin, Michael (2006). . Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years

at IMDb

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

at Rotten Tomatoes

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

at Metacritic

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

at IMDb

Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Lego

Archived 7 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine

2012 interview with Carol Cleveland, covering Holy Grail and the TV series

Archived 3 April 2004 at the Wayback Machine

Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow