“On second thought, let us not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.”
45 years ago, we had the Monty Python crew give us a project that, while not in my opinion their best, is by far their most quoted. Though I may personally prefer Life of Brian, there’s no denying that Monty Python and the Holy Grail has permanently permeated pop culture with a barrage of litanies and quotes ranging in topics from anarcho-syndicalist collectives, to shrubberies, to killer rabbits!
This wasn’t strictly their first theatrical outing, but the one beforehand was essentially a clip show, so it’s fair to call this the first real Python film. Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones were tossed into the director’s seat with little prior experience in this sort of direction…and it does show, for good and for ill. Most of the first half is basically just a series of sketches as King Arthur (Graham Chapman) bumbles about the land atop a nonexistent horse powered by coconut noises, trying to find knights for his quest—but given that everyone was coming into this after the TV show, that’s pretty much what you’d expect anyway.
And while I prefer the second half of the film, which actually has a semblance of narrative…there’s no denying that scenes like the one-sided duel with the Black Knight, or trying to appease the shrubbery-obsessed Knights of Ni, are funny as all hell, and have become so engrained in culture that you can start quoting them now. Better yet, the visual side of things is done well enough that even knowing it line by line doesn’t necessarily stop you guffawing at seeing John Cleese’s knight reduced to an angry stub on the ground! The lack of budget meant the Pythons had to work with not much of anything, and that brings the focus squarely back to the comedy itself.
Being an eclectic group, the Pythons always bought a lot to the table, which is why their material has so much to pick from. It’s interesting that there is more authenticity to the proceedings than you might think, coconuts and pseudo-communistic medieval peasants notwithstanding. The first knightly duel we see isn’t that far off from the brawling real brutal combat became, and the craggy Scottish landscape, combined with the rather ingeniously shot single castle they used, gives it just the right dark ages sort of look. Even smaller things, like Lancelot’s berserker nuttiness, have some grounding in the original legend.
I will admit that some of the bits in the first part, like the village witch trials or Castle Anthrax, fall a little flat to me—not that there’s a shortage of funny parts—but things really start kicking when we meet the enchanter known only as…Tim. From there on out, it’s classic scenes like the White Rabbit, and my absolute favorite part:
But that’s enough listing off the scenes. I still prefer Life of Brian for a its themes, a stronger narrative and just a slight more consistency, but this one’s great too, go see it if you haven’t. Let’s discuss the legacy a little bit.
For one, Monty Python absolutely permeated geek culture for years, up until the earlier years of the internet. You couldn’t move on early message boards for quoting this film, and while such things have been utterly superseded by an endless barrage of whatever the kids are considering ‘memes’ these days, it did grate on a few who had heard all the ‘Ni’ parroting before. Hell, even among some games of Dungeons and Dragons, quoting the film would often be banned, lest everyone be reduced to reciting the entire script. Perhaps that’s why for some it became a little passe…but enough time as passed that perhaps, you can just about get away with muttering something about a holy hand grenade before your dungeonmaster drops the ceiling on you.
Another aspect? Well, we haven’t had any serious big-name Arthurian film in years. There was Excalibur in the early eighties, but many find it harder to take seriously after watching this one. After that, there’s been the occasional entry, but they always seem to try and ‘reimagine’ Arthur, be it as some celt-fighting Roman in that 2004 film seemingly only me and three other people watched. Or that Guy Ritchie attempt in 2017 that made even less of a splash. Maybe it’s fear of being compared to Python, but after 45 years, I think you can get by on maybe not all of the current audiences making jokes about unladen swallows.
So, while having a slightly mixed legacy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail still has lots to snicker at, whether you want to watch it just for the quotes, or pick up on something new, or just check it out for the first time. Either way, just get on with it, and give it a watch.
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