'He must be a king.... he hasn't got shit all over him'
Monty Python and the Holy Grail 9
I have seen this and the other Monty Python films so many times that it's hard to imagine what it must be like seeing it for the first time nowadays. A certain generation (looking at you Sherlock) grew up with the Monty Python group in the same way today's generation are growing up with the MCU. It is hugely influential and will always be part of film history, not just in comedies.
It helps to be in the right frame of mind for this, but even if you're not, you should be after 10 mins. In a way there isn't much of the actual film to review here, so, at the risk of over-thinking it.....
England 932 AD
We are following someone claiming to be King of the Britons, most people don't seem to know or care that there is a king. We follow him and his trusty steed through the land, assembling the Knights of the Round Table and seeking the Holy Grail.
There is a story and there are main characters but essentially it is a sequence of sketches. They use Camelot myths, fairy tales and the odd Shakespearean plot to satire in a way maybe only they can, it is a very British production. On paper it maybe shouldn't work as well as it it does. There really arent many other things quite like it of this style of daft farcical comedy... Airplane gets close, the Naked Gun trilogy and some of the Mel Brooks comedies among others give it a good go but Monty Python is the king. There are so many great comedies but in terms of quality and classic status, there are only 2 or 3 other comedies (outside of other Monty Pythons) I would personally rate as high or higher, including This is Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman.
This is one of the most quotable films of all time. We have all almost certainly heard lines from this in other things. This isn't just because it is funny but also there are interesting points made.. It is easy to call this kind of comedy silly but there is often intelligence in its silliness, most of the scenes have a timeless theme and a social commentary to them; The king oppressing peasants, religious self harm, nonsensical witch hunts, pseudoscience, how they worship god, Anglo French relationships and marriage for business .
There are too many highlights to list so a few from the very top of the list; Knights who say Ni, Roger the Shrubber, Tim the enchanter, vicious rabbit, French taunting and of course the Black Knight scene which has since gone down in history. Watching this time, the bit that got me most was the hilarious scene explaining 'make sure the Prince doesn't leave the room' - brilliant.
If you were to rate this on technical quality and special effects, it wouldn't get that far as there was next to no budget, but some of the shooting is actually done fairly well and is pretty effective, especially the horror style when the characters are in danger. The comedic acting is top notch of course but even the odd moment of serious acting is also pretty good most of the way. The hand drawn animation is something they have always done and would have started as a budget measure, it has since become one of their trademarks, as has the 4th wall breaks.
There is nothing in there that shouldn't be but since there is so much broad and frantic comedy, there are inevitably, bits i don't love entirely; the spam-alot song and 3 headed knight I have never been totally sure about. And when I first saw this, about 20 years ago, I thought the deus ex machina ending was a real cop-out but since then I have grown to understand and like it more... A final battle is set up so of course we know to expect the unexpected, although it is somewhat set up earlier with the historian and police. It seems to snap us back into the present day, so not 932 AD atall and it makes the whole quest a waste of time and a joke in itself. This is the first of their films so maybe they had something to say about the film culture and its fakeness in general.
It's hard to determine why I find this so ingenious.. maybe partly because it is pretty relentless comedy (in the same way Texas Chainsaw Massacre is pure horror) they take almost all aspects of the film and put a comedy spin on it whereas most modern comedies, even the great ones, have a much more serious feel with funny moments throughout as releases.
Only really the music (other than the actual songs) is fairly serious most of the time. There is no trying to make it relatable or engrossing, it is totally original and entirely unpredictable. I love how they gave themselves total artistic freedom to do what they wanted (something that was happening through most film genres in the 70s) without trying to make it anything other than what it is and still It is charming and not offensive.
It would probably be easy to underestimate the talent and hard work needed to pull this off, the five of them all play many different characters-and actually play them well. It never feels like ridiculous slapstick and the comedic writing, timing and imagination is second to none, and of course alot of the minor dialogue would have been improvised.
It seems films like this don't get made anymore, and they probably never will again. If i was to choose 10 films to put in a time capsule, to be opened 100 years in the future, I think this would be one of them.
If you liked this then try the other Monty Python film The Life of Brian, which is another all-time classic and was hugely controversial at the time because of it's satire of Christianity, I could just as easily have chosen it.
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