| Monty Python and the Holy Grail | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster for 2001 re-release |
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| Directed by | Terry Gilliam Terry Jones |
| Produced by | Mark Forstater Michael White John Goldstone |
| Written by | Monty Python |
| Narrated by | Michael Palin |
| Starring | Graham Chapman John Cleese Terry Gilliam Eric Idle Terry Jones Michael Palin |
| Editing by | John Hackney |
| Studio | Python (Monty) Pictures |
| Distributed by | EMI Films (UK) Cinema 5 Distributing (1974) Rainbow Releasing (2001) Sony Pictures Entertainment (USA, home video) |
| Release date(s) | 3 April 1974 (UK) 10 May 1974 (US) 14 August 1974 (Australia) |
| Running time | 87 minutes (Original) 89 minutes (Re-release) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English French Latin |
| Budget | £229,575 ($365,274) |
| Box office | £80,371,739 ($127,878,662) |
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1974 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 the gap between the third and fourth series of their popular BBC television programme 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 first two television series, Holy Grail was composed of new material, therefore considered the first "proper" film by the group. It generally parodies the legend of King Arthur's quest to find the Holy Grail. The film was a success on its initial release, and 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 to A Boy and His Dog.
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail loosely follows the legend of King Arthur. Arthur (Chapman) along with his squire, Patsy (Gilliam), recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise (Jones), Sir Lancelot the Brave (Cleese), Sir Galahad the Pure (Palin), and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot (Idle). On the way Arthur battles the Black Knight (Cleese) who, despite having had all his limbs being chopped off, continues to try fighting. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as it is a "silly[1] place." They are then instructed by God (represented by Chapman's voice and an animated photograph of cricket figure W. G. Grace[2]) to seek out the Holy Grail.
Their first stop is a French-controlled castle where they believe the Grail is being held. After several Franglais insults, the French attack Arthur and the knights by catapulting a cow and throwing several other animals. Arthur and the knights then try to sneak into the castle in a Trojan Rabbit, but this plan goes terribly wrong when they forget to hide inside it (thanks to Bedevere mentioning it at the last moment) and the rabbit is subsequently catapulted back at them. Arthur then decides the group should separate to seek the Grail.
Concurrently, in a manner of breaking the fourth wall, a modern-day historian is describing the Arthurian legend for a television program. He is suddenly killed by a knight on horseback, triggering a police investigation.
Each of the Knights encounters various perils on their quest. Arthur and Bedevere attempt to satisfy the strange requests of the dreaded Knights who say Ni. Sir Robin narrowly avoids a fight with the Three-Headed Giant by running away while the heads are arguing, causing embarrassment as the bard following him sings 'Brave Sir Robin ran away.' Sir Lancelot accidentally assaults a wedding party at Swamp Castle, mistakenly believing them to be holding a lady against her will, only to discover an effeminate boy. Galahad is led by a Grail-shaped beacon to Castle Anthrax, populated only by women who wish to perform sexual favours for him, but is "rescued" by Lancelot, though slightly against his will. The Knights regroup and travel to see Tim the Enchanter (Cleese), 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 (also called The Killer Rabbit) using the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. They enter the cave and discover, carved in stone, the last writings of Joseph of Arimathea, who claimed that the Grail should be found in the Castle of "Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh"; apparently he died while carving. The group then discuss about the impossibilities of dying while carving "Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh" and wonder of other castles that rhyme with "Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh". Suddenly, the group gets attacked by The Legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh, which devours Brother Maynard (Idle) as he was saying its name. Arthur and his Knights flee and barely escape by virtue of the beast's animator suffering a fatal heart attack.
With their final destination now 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 (Gilliam) before they can cross the Gorge of Eternal Peril; Sir Lancelot succeeds and crosses the bridge, but Sirs Robin and Galahad fail and are thrown into a chasm below. Arthur manages to trick the bridge-keeper and both he and Bedevere cross the bridge while a very short Intermission is played during their crossing. Lancelot becomes separated from Arthur and Bedevere, and is later shown being arrested by police for the murder of the historian. Arthur and Bedevere travel to the Grail castle, which turns out to be occupied by the same French forces who insulted and drove them off earlier. Arthur then amasses a large army of knights and prepare to storm the castle, but just as they begin to charge, the modern police arrive on the scene. Arthur and Bedevere are arrested, and one of the officers knocks the film out of the camera, putting an abrupt end to the movie. There are no end credits, only several minutes of organ music from the Intermission playing over a black screen.
The film was mostly shot on location in Scotland,[3] 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.
In the scene where the knights were combatting the Killer Rabbit, a real white rabbit was used. He was dyed with what was assumed to be a washable red coloring liquid in the shots after the battle. When filming wrapped the rabbit's owner was dismayed to learn the dye could not be rinsed off. Gilliam described in an audio commentary that the owner of the rabbit was present and shooting was abruptly halted while the cast desperately attempted to clean the rabbit before the owner found out, an unsuccessful attempt. He also stated that he thought that, had they been more experienced in film-making, the crew would have just purchased a rabbit instead. Otherwise the rabbit himself was unharmed. Also, the rabbit-bite effects were done via special puppetry by both Terry Gilliam and SFX technician John Horton.
As chronicled in The Life of Python, The First 20X Years of Monty Python, and The Pythons' Autobiography it was revealed that Graham Chapman was suffering from acrophobia, trembling, and bouts of forgetfulness during filming. These were the results of Chapman's long-standing alcohol addiction, and he decided from that moment on to remain "on an even keel" while the production continued. Nearly three years after Holy Grail, Chapman vowed to quit drinking altogether (which he successfully achieved in December 1977).
Originally the knight characters were going to ride real horses, but after it became clear that the film's small 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[4] ("The Knights of the Coconut").
| Actor | Main Role | Other roles |
|---|---|---|
| Graham Chapman | King Arthur | Voice of God, Hiccoughing Guard, Middle Head of Three-Headed Knight |
| John Cleese | Sir Lancelot | 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 | Sir Galahad | 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 |
In addition to several songs written by Python regular Neil Innes, several pieces of music were licensed from De Wolfe Music Library. These include
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.[10]
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. Disc One includes two commentary tracks (featuring Idle, Palin, and Cleese in the first, Jones and Gilliam in the second), "Subtitles For People Who Don't Like the Film", consisting of lines taken from William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, and a feature for the Hard of Hearing, where the menu is read aloud in a very loud voice.
As an extension of the group's penchant for never abiding to a generic formula, the film (if not already in progress) commences with a short subject named "Dentist on the Job" (Its American title is Get on With It, a phrase spoken multiple times throughout Holy Grail) After the opening credits, the projectionist (played by Terry Jones) realizes it is the wrong film and puts the correct one on (But not until after he displays the "Please Wait" caption).
Also is a deleted scene where Galahad meets Dingo, during which she breaks out of character, turns to the camera and asks the audience if they should cut that scene. Her response is everyone yelling "GET ON WITH IT!" (including God). (The DVD box says the deleted scene is a mere 24 seconds).
Disc Two includes a "brickfilm" version of the "Camelot Song" as sung by Lego minifigures,[11] two scenes dubbed in Japanese and translated back through subtitles. "The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations", hosted by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, shows places in Scotland used for the setting titled as "England 932 A.D." (as well as the two Pythons purchasing a copy of their own script as a guide). Also included is a who's who page, advertising galleries, sing-alongs, and a small featurette about the proper use of a coconut (presented by Michael Palin).
A 35th anniversary edition on blu-ray is scheduled to be released in the US on March 20, 2012. [12]
This film is #41 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.[13]
In 2011, ABC aired a primetime special, Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, that counted down the best films chosen by fans based on results of a poll conducted by ABC and People. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was selected as the #2 Best Comedy.
A number of works, such as video games, novels, and newspapers pay homage to this movie.
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