Monty Python was to comedy what the Beatles were to popular music....and not just because they too were British and had a member named John. Brilliant, absurdist, and audacious, the Oxford and Cambridge educated Pythons revolutionized television humor by bringing an intellectual edge to their uniquely satirical brand of comedy. Prior to the 1969 debut of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the public's idea of sketch comedy was Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and the Carol Burnett Show. Some of Carol's skit ~especially Tim Conway's dentist~ hold up beautifully today, but Laugh-In is strictly a product of its era.
What made Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and the two Terrys (Jones and Gilliam) so groundbreaking was their take-no-prisoners approach. Bearing a style light-years removed from vaudeville, sacred cows were fair game for the Pythons as they fearlessly took on religion, sex, and other hallowed institutions....and made us absolutely howl with laughter!! Who can forget their classic argument skit? Or the funniest (and deadliest) joke in the world? Or the Ministry of Silly Walks?
Unlike the Fab Four, the Pythons' exposure to American audiences was not the result of a single appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was a gradual experiment that began in, of all places, Texas....by which time the Flying Circus had ceased production. In 1971 the Pythons had released a feature film called AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, but in actuality it was a compendium of their zaniest sketches, which also included the Olympic hide and go seek event, the Blackmail game show, and, let us not forget, the upper class twit of the year.
By 1975, the troupe had gained sufficient popularity to embark on their first bona-fide movie made strictly for the silver screen: MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. Like on the Beatles' A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, this Fab Six didn't have a big budget to play around with, but they sure managed to make do with less! With Chapman playing the lead role of King Arthur, the others basked in playing so many multiple characters they would have made chameleons like Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers envious. The HOLY GRAIL script called for at least five castles, but there was only enough room in their funds for just one. That problem was rectified by simply filming the garrison available to them by using different camera angles. However, my favorite behind-the-scenes anecdote involves horses; because they couldn't afford any, the "riders" merely skipped along onfoot and emulated the clippety-clop sound of equine hooves by banging two coconuts together. 🤣
Satirizing Arthurian legend, the movie takes place in 932 England ~pre Norman conquest~ where Arthur, King of the Britons, and his servant Patsy "gallop" the moorish countryside. The Pythons waste no time getting to the side-splitting hilarity as Arthur stops at castle #1 and asks the gatekeeper up above if anyone there wishes to join him in his court of Camelot. What begins as a recruiting inquiry escalates into a fluctuating discussion about coconuts within a temperate zone and the migratory patterns of unladen swallows, whether they be European or African.
Moving on, Arthur, approaching castle #2, inquires about its occupancy to a peasant named Dennis(!), where it soon devolves into a very funny discourse ~with Marxist overtones~ over "outdated imperialist dogma" nine centuries before Communist Manifesto was even published. Okay....so no knights of Camelot are to be enlisted here!! The most fondly remembered scene in the movie quickly ensues as Arthur reluctantly engages in a sword fight with the Black Knight ("Tis but a scratch).
In time King Arthur assembles his court of Camelot (a silly place!), starting with Sir Belvedere, followed by Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot, Sir Robin, and assorted squires and minstrels. Oh.... I forgot to mention Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film.😄 One day God himself appears from the heavens and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail. Castle #3 beckons as Arthur unsuccessfully attempts to barter with its French occupants ~more than a century before the Norman conquest.
Realizing that they may have a better chance of locating the Grail separately Arthur and his fellowship ~I mean, his knights~ temporarily split up in the hopes of regrouping at a later date. The not-so-brave Robin has the least success, showing his true colors by chickening out of confrontations. Meanwhile, an exhausted Galahad collapses at the doorstep of castle #4, drawn there by the grail shaped beacon lit high above. He is tended to by more than two dozen virginal young women who haven't seen a man in ages and are desperately wanting to be deflowered. Sadly, Galahad is "saved" by Lancelot, who drags him away from the peril despite repeated pleas from Galahad to let him stay behind and "face the peril".🤣
As for Lancelot, he has his own (mis)adventure when, assuming he's rescuing a fair lass being forced to marry against her will, storms into the grounds of castle #5 and slaughters more than half of the wedding guests. It turns out the lass in question is actually the effeminate son of a wealthy landowner using the marriage as an opportunity to acquire more land. Meantime, in Scene 24 ~a "smashing scene with some lovely acting"~ Arthur and Belvedere receive cryptic clues about the Grail's location from a mysterious old man, and soon come face to face with the dreaded Knights Who Say Ni.
Directed by the two Terrys, MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL is an unconventionally disjointed comedy that goes off in all sorts of loopy directions. But this is not a critique because that was exactly how the Flying Circus was constructed, with Terry Gilliam's delightfully crude animation linking everything together. The movie's opening credits alone are a blueprint for the silliness to come, with fake Swedish subtitles and endless references to moose. (ie. Miss Taylor's moose by....)😂 Even Richard Nixon gets a nod.
Neil Innes, the unofficial "seventh Python", proves himself invaluable to them in the music department. A musical satirist, Innes joined the Flying Circus for their final season and contributed to their comedy albums. On THE HOLY GRAIL, in addition to appearing on-screen as one of Robin's minstrels, Innes delivers a pretty good score, one that's compatible with a medieval motion picture, not to mention a pair of interesting parody songs about the knights of the Round Table and the (not so) brave, brave Sir Robin.
Special kudos must also be reserved to the Pythons for their remarkably accurate visual interpretation of the Middle Ages. Many past movies set in feudalism England always portrayed it with a certain pageantry featuring the type of costumes and set designs that usually received Oscar nominations. The well read Pythons countered that myth by showing the mud, blood, and complete lack of glamor. The seemingly never-ending cold Scottish precipitation made filming physically uncomfortable, but, in the end, it contributed enormously to THE HOLY GRAIL's medieval composition.
Released to mixed reviews in 1975, the ensuing decades have been very kind to MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, where it is now justifiably regarded as one of the funniest movies ever made, as surely as the Flying Circus was to television. The Pythons proved to be highly influential on every subsequent laughfest in its wacky wake. Let's face it; without them, there would have been no Saturday Night Live, no South Park, and no Simpsons. When it came to defining comedy, Monty Python's gift seemed almost sent from heaven. 🔚
What made Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and the two Terrys (Jones and Gilliam) so groundbreaking was their take-no-prisoners approach. Bearing a style light-years removed from vaudeville, sacred cows were fair game for the Pythons as they fearlessly took on religion, sex, and other hallowed institutions....and made us absolutely howl with laughter!! Who can forget their classic argument skit? Or the funniest (and deadliest) joke in the world? Or the Ministry of Silly Walks?
Unlike the Fab Four, the Pythons' exposure to American audiences was not the result of a single appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was a gradual experiment that began in, of all places, Texas....by which time the Flying Circus had ceased production. In 1971 the Pythons had released a feature film called AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, but in actuality it was a compendium of their zaniest sketches, which also included the Olympic hide and go seek event, the Blackmail game show, and, let us not forget, the upper class twit of the year.
By 1975, the troupe had gained sufficient popularity to embark on their first bona-fide movie made strictly for the silver screen: MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. Like on the Beatles' A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, this Fab Six didn't have a big budget to play around with, but they sure managed to make do with less! With Chapman playing the lead role of King Arthur, the others basked in playing so many multiple characters they would have made chameleons like Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers envious. The HOLY GRAIL script called for at least five castles, but there was only enough room in their funds for just one. That problem was rectified by simply filming the garrison available to them by using different camera angles. However, my favorite behind-the-scenes anecdote involves horses; because they couldn't afford any, the "riders" merely skipped along onfoot and emulated the clippety-clop sound of equine hooves by banging two coconuts together. 🤣
Satirizing Arthurian legend, the movie takes place in 932 England ~pre Norman conquest~ where Arthur, King of the Britons, and his servant Patsy "gallop" the moorish countryside. The Pythons waste no time getting to the side-splitting hilarity as Arthur stops at castle #1 and asks the gatekeeper up above if anyone there wishes to join him in his court of Camelot. What begins as a recruiting inquiry escalates into a fluctuating discussion about coconuts within a temperate zone and the migratory patterns of unladen swallows, whether they be European or African.
Moving on, Arthur, approaching castle #2, inquires about its occupancy to a peasant named Dennis(!), where it soon devolves into a very funny discourse ~with Marxist overtones~ over "outdated imperialist dogma" nine centuries before Communist Manifesto was even published. Okay....so no knights of Camelot are to be enlisted here!! The most fondly remembered scene in the movie quickly ensues as Arthur reluctantly engages in a sword fight with the Black Knight ("Tis but a scratch).
In time King Arthur assembles his court of Camelot (a silly place!), starting with Sir Belvedere, followed by Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot, Sir Robin, and assorted squires and minstrels. Oh.... I forgot to mention Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film.😄 One day God himself appears from the heavens and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail. Castle #3 beckons as Arthur unsuccessfully attempts to barter with its French occupants ~more than a century before the Norman conquest.
Realizing that they may have a better chance of locating the Grail separately Arthur and his fellowship ~I mean, his knights~ temporarily split up in the hopes of regrouping at a later date. The not-so-brave Robin has the least success, showing his true colors by chickening out of confrontations. Meanwhile, an exhausted Galahad collapses at the doorstep of castle #4, drawn there by the grail shaped beacon lit high above. He is tended to by more than two dozen virginal young women who haven't seen a man in ages and are desperately wanting to be deflowered. Sadly, Galahad is "saved" by Lancelot, who drags him away from the peril despite repeated pleas from Galahad to let him stay behind and "face the peril".🤣
As for Lancelot, he has his own (mis)adventure when, assuming he's rescuing a fair lass being forced to marry against her will, storms into the grounds of castle #5 and slaughters more than half of the wedding guests. It turns out the lass in question is actually the effeminate son of a wealthy landowner using the marriage as an opportunity to acquire more land. Meantime, in Scene 24 ~a "smashing scene with some lovely acting"~ Arthur and Belvedere receive cryptic clues about the Grail's location from a mysterious old man, and soon come face to face with the dreaded Knights Who Say Ni.
Directed by the two Terrys, MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL is an unconventionally disjointed comedy that goes off in all sorts of loopy directions. But this is not a critique because that was exactly how the Flying Circus was constructed, with Terry Gilliam's delightfully crude animation linking everything together. The movie's opening credits alone are a blueprint for the silliness to come, with fake Swedish subtitles and endless references to moose. (ie. Miss Taylor's moose by....)😂 Even Richard Nixon gets a nod.
Neil Innes, the unofficial "seventh Python", proves himself invaluable to them in the music department. A musical satirist, Innes joined the Flying Circus for their final season and contributed to their comedy albums. On THE HOLY GRAIL, in addition to appearing on-screen as one of Robin's minstrels, Innes delivers a pretty good score, one that's compatible with a medieval motion picture, not to mention a pair of interesting parody songs about the knights of the Round Table and the (not so) brave, brave Sir Robin.
Special kudos must also be reserved to the Pythons for their remarkably accurate visual interpretation of the Middle Ages. Many past movies set in feudalism England always portrayed it with a certain pageantry featuring the type of costumes and set designs that usually received Oscar nominations. The well read Pythons countered that myth by showing the mud, blood, and complete lack of glamor. The seemingly never-ending cold Scottish precipitation made filming physically uncomfortable, but, in the end, it contributed enormously to THE HOLY GRAIL's medieval composition.
Released to mixed reviews in 1975, the ensuing decades have been very kind to MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, where it is now justifiably regarded as one of the funniest movies ever made, as surely as the Flying Circus was to television. The Pythons proved to be highly influential on every subsequent laughfest in its wacky wake. Let's face it; without them, there would have been no Saturday Night Live, no South Park, and no Simpsons. When it came to defining comedy, Monty Python's gift seemed almost sent from heaven. 🔚