What’s the greatest British comedy ever made? What film persists as perhaps the most re-quoted by fans over the past 50 years? And what work is primarily responsible for most of the world coming to know and love Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones?
The answer to all these questions is, of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, released 50 years ago this month. Co-directed by two of the Pythons – Gilliam and Jones –the movie takes a satirical buzzsaw to the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, chronicling their bizarre and often ridiculous journey to locate the titular golden chalice. Along the way, Arthur (played by Chapman) and his faithful band encounter a series of absurd obstacles, including the stubborn Black Knight (Cleese), the peculiar Knights Who Say "Ni" (led by Palin), the ferocious Rabbit of Caerbannog, and a bridgekeeper with a penchant for, let’s say, difficult questions. The cast members take on multiple roles, with Cleese portraying Sir Lancelot, Palin as Sir Galahad, Jones as Sir Bedevere, and Idle as Sir Robin.
Click here to listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of this film, conducted earlier this month. To hear the March Cineversary podcast episode celebrating Holy Grail’s 50th anniversary, click here.
Holy Grail, due in large part to its limited resources and shoestring budget (amazingly, it was financed in part by members of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and Genesis because the Pythons lacked financial backers), wasn’t afraid to defy audience expectations for a heroic adventure, historical costume drama, or feature-length satire, often deviating wildly from film storytelling formula and traditional comedy approaches.
The movie, which functions more as a series of gags and sketch pieces loosely strung together by a thin plot, didn’t balk at irritating its audience with the unexpected, including silly credits and Swedish subtitles, crudely animated interstitials, a phony intermission title card, an abrupt unresolved ending, and the absence of credits at the end. It had the guts to make fun of its ultra-low budget and employ edgy animation to depict otherwise unfilmable scenes, yet it still achieves a visually realistic look with its period-accurate costumes and props, dirty aesthetics, and authentic castle settings (thanks to its being shot on location in Scotland).
The comedy is absurd, silly, and random, mixing metaphors while managing to offend multiple groups equally, including the religious, the royal, the ignorant, the politically minded, the class/caste system, homosexuals, and women. It also defies the rules of classic narrative structure by having characters talk to the camera and its medieval universe unexpectedly invaded by 20th-century characters – namely a contemporary detective and two bobbies, whose reappearance becomes a crucial repeated joke.
Interestingly, the Grail itself functions as a Hitchcockian McGuffin – a device that motivates the characters but is never seen or obtained, further upending our expectations.
Per Alternate Ending essayist Timothy Brayton, Holy Grail
“provided an excellent vehicle for the dominant form of comedy in the Pythons' work, the aggressively weird conceptual gags in which something inordinately surreal plunges right on through a normal environment, generally leaving the characters inside that environment quite baffled and upset. Generally speaking, the group's favorite target for their absurd sensibilities were the most staid and English of situations…its travesty, satire, and parody are well-augmented by the precision of its surrealism, which only seems random. In fact, the film carefully builds up a series of comic motifs and call-backs, giving the whole thing a rather elegant structure that gives all of the jokes a feeling of inevitability even as they seem spectacularly random.” DVD Savant critic Glenn Erickson
wrote that the film
“withstands the weight of its own jolly pointlessness by virtue of a series of self-reflexive jokes aimed at deflating the pomposity of the epic movie format.” Reflect, for instance, on how the rousing score serves as an ironic musical bed for the silly situations, drab settings, and cowardly or unheroic actions of the protagonists.
Holy Grail also earns points as a comedy that feels contemporary, despite its 50-year vintage, because it’s so self-aware and meta, often joking about its low production values with lines like “It’s only a model” in reference to the image of a grand castle off in the distance.
It’s further deserving of celebration because it remains among the most quoted films of all time. Fans across the globe continue to mimic some of its most famous lines, including “We are the Knights who say ‘Ni!’” “Bring out your dead!” “I’m not dead yet!” “Help! Help! I’m being repressed!” “It’s just a flesh wound.” “On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.” “None shall pass!” and “Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!”
This work is also worthy of kudos because it continues to rank highly as one of the greatest comedies ever created. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine ranked Monty Python and the Holy Grail as the fifth-greatest comedy film of all time. In 2006, a Channel 4 poll of British viewers placed Holy Grail sixth on the list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films. In 2011, an ABC and People magazine poll revealed that Holy Grail was the second-best comedy of all time, behind Airplane!. And in 2016, Empire magazine ranked Holy Grail 18th on its list of the 100 Best British Films.
What is it about the Python sense of humor and comic sensibilities that made Holy Grail so successful? Monty Python’s brand of comedy was characterized by its dry, British-style wit, often delivered in a deadpan manner that enhances the funniness through understatement and irony. Their humor was irreverent, satirical, surreal, and absurd, frequently challenging conventional comedic structures and defying expectations with bizarre, nonsensical, and unexpected punchlines. The group consisted of a small, all-male troupe – John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, and Eric Idle – with its six members frequently playing multiple roles, often in exaggerated and deliberately unconvincing ways.
Their sketches and films featured satirical songs, which mock societal norms, historical events, and political issues with catchy tunes and darkly comedic lyrics. Case in point: the Knights of the Round Table tune and the snarky minstrel’s Bravely Bold Sir Robin ballads. The sextet also enjoyed subverting established canon or assumed characteristics. So instead of Bedivere the Wise, Brave Sir Robin, or Galahad the Chaste we get Bedivere the dunderhead, Robin the runaway, and Galahad the sexual opportunist.
A signature element of their comedy was the mixing of metaphors, such as blending a murder mystery or police procedural with a medieval action story or inserting 20th-century political issues—like repression and voting—into a medieval setting, creating anachronistic and highly satirical humor.
Like other comedy masters, the Pythons employed running gags for maximum comic effect, as evidenced by characters repeatedly saying they’re “not dead yet,” repeated mentions of swallows and shrubberies, Arthur consistently confusing the number 3 for 5, the darkly humorous lyrics of Sir Robin’s minstrel, the recurrent violence against shrieking cats, or the cowardly retreats continually made by Arthur’s supposedly valiant group.
The Pythons frequently played with gender roles and stereotypes, using cross-dressing and exaggerated performances to lampoon societal norms and expectations. We see, for example, Terry Jones playing a peasant woman, and John Cleese chewing the scenery as an insulting French Taunter.
Their humor could also be described as random and anarchic, often featuring abrupt scene transitions, unexpected fourth-wall breaks, ridiculous title credits, a sudden “Intermission” title card, and deliberately nonsensical plot developments. They regularly used speech impediments as comedic devices, too, exaggerating accents or lisps to create absurd characters.
Additionally, the Pythons frequently spoofed violence, warfare, barbarism, and Christianity-fueled carnage, using exaggerated brutality and slapstick-style gore to highlight the absurdity of historical and modern conflicts. Recall the Black Knight, who’s left with four bloodied stumps after his limbs are hacked off by Arthur, or the stuffy religious ritualism that prefaces the use of the Holy Hand Grenade.
Their work included head-trippy, psychedelic, two-dimensional animation as well, most famously created by Gilliam, which linked sketches together with surreal, often grotesque or crude imagery, such as the cartoon trumpeters who use their posteriors to play their instruments.
Embracing low-budget opportunism, Monty Python made clever use of simple props, costumes, and settings, commonly turning limitations into comedic strengths. Exhibit A: The simple syncopated clapping of two coconut shells and actors pantomiming a horse trot substituted for the lack of real horses which the filmmakers could not afford. Exhibit B: Gilliam’s madcap cartoonery depicting characters and escapades, such as the Black Beast of Aaargh or God appearing in the heavens, that otherwise would have required costly and elaborate special effects.
In an Uproxx essay, writer Matt Prigg
posited:
“After Holy Grail, the flood gates opened. It’s the movie that every sketch comedy troupe aspires to make, from Cheech and Chong to Kids in the Hall, from Broken Lizard to SNL. Wet Hot American Summer, Mo’ Money, and Run Ronnie Run owe it their lives as well. Even movies that are simply sketches, with no story, like The Kentucky Fried Movie, only exist because Python made it safe for sketch comedy troupes to invade the big screen, and you might as well throw the Muppets in there, too…It’s not hard to imagine Grail being a watershed movie for those into gory horror-comedies — people like Sam Raimi, the late Stuart Gordon, Peter Jackson, Edgar Wright, who must have thought this PG-rated comedy was onto something.” Ponder that Saturday Night Live, the definitive American TV sketch comedy show, debuted just a few months after Holy Grail’s release and less than a year after the Flying Circus television show ended its five-year run.
Additionally, ruminate on how few British feature films before Monty Python and the Holy Grail were widely accepted by Americans. There were Ealing comedies like The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955), the Richard Lester musical comedies A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help! (1965) starring the Beatles, and Bedazzled (1967) with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, but little else.
Following Holy Grail, America and the world benefited from a plethora of British film comedies, including two more Python features – The Life of Brian (1979), and The Meaning of Life (1983) – as well as A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), The Full Monty (1997), Notting Hill (1999), Edgar Wright pictures like Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007), Nick Park stop-motion animated films like Chicken Run (2000) and Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), and the live-action animated Paddington movies (2014 and 2017), among many others.
Holy Grail’s pervasive reach can also be traced across several other works, as well, including pictures directed by Gilliam that showcase flawed heroic quests and compromised heroes like Jabberwocky (1977), Time Bandits (1981), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), The Fisher King (1991), The Brothers Grimm (2005), and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018); Terry Jones’s Erik the Viking (1989), which also continues this tradition of imperfect heroes; History of the World Part I (1981) – Mel Brooks’ irreverent historical sendup appears to be an obvious descendent; This Is Spinal Tap (1984), in which Rob Reiner borrows Holy Grail's deadpan delivery and absurdist humor while also mimicking its low-budget aesthetic to blur the line between satire and reality; The Princess Bride (1987), Reiner’s parody of fantasy and adventure tropes that shares Holy Grail's playful medieval satire, subverting traditional heroic tales with comedic battle scenes, absurd dialogue, and a similar "None shall pass!" moment; Life is Cheap...But Toilet Paper is Expensive (1989) a surrealistic indie that embraces Holy Grail's surreal and chaotic humor, using no-frills filmmaking as a comedic device much like Monty Python did; Army of Darkness (1992), in which Sam Raimi parodies medieval epics with exaggerated slapstick, absurd anachronisms, and a bumbling hero reminiscent of Python’s take on King Arthur; Shrek (2001), which mocks fairy tale tropes with dry British wit, anachronistic humor, comedic songs, and absurd characters, much like Holy Grail did with Arthurian legend; Your Highness (2011), a film that follows Holy Grail's irreverent approach to knights and quests, replacing dry wit with crude humor while keeping the self-aware, anachronistic dialogue; Deadpool (2016), A superhero flick that channels Holy Grail's comedic style by frequently breaking the fourth wall and showcasing comedic gore; and Disenchantment (2018), Matt Groening’s animated series, which takes place in a medieval fantasy kingdom and owes more than a tip of the cap to Holy Grail. And Monty Python and the Holy Grail also fueled the creation of the Broadway musical Spamalot, with lyrics by Eric Idle, which enjoyed significant success and one multiple Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Predecessors that may have inspired the Python players include Spike Milligan and the Goon Show, the 1967 movie Camelot, and the 1974 film Lancelot of the Lake. Additionally, Holy Grail gives subtle nods to earlier movies that likely inspired the Pythons, among them Duck Soup (particularly its “We’re Going To War” song, elements of which seep into the Camelot number); The Wizard of Oz (recall how the imposing leader of the Knights who say Ni terrifies Arthur’s band and requests that they bring him a shrubbery, much like the Wizard asks Dorothy and company to fetch him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West); The Seventh Seal by Bergman (which also depicts flagellation and a witch-burning and includes Swedish subtitles in the opening credits); and Ivan the Terrible Part I (Prince Herbert is an effeminate, dim-witted royal forced into an unwanted marriage, similar to Prince Vladimir from the Sergei Eisenstein film).
Several giants in comedy have credited the Pythons with significantly inspiring or impressing them. Martin Short said: ''Their influence was that absurdity in character could replace the punchline, the ba-dum-bum thing.'' Per Tommy Chong, ''They were the first to really show the world how funny men dressed as women could look.'' Tina Fey remarked: ''Sketch endings are overrated. Their key was to do something as long as it was funny and then just stop and do something else.'' Simpsons creator Matt Groening said: ''I just saw this streak in British humor of whimsical surrealism with just a hint of cruelty, and I found that incredibly appealing.'' He said he was motivated by Monty Python's "high-velocity sense of the absurd and not stopping to explain yourself." And SNL alum Mike Myers declared: ''Everything I've ever done can be distilled to at least one Python sketch. If comedy had a periodic element table, Python would have more than one atom on it.''
Believe it or not, it’s possible for a film as ridiculous as Monty Python and the Holy Grail to have themes. For starters, it’s hard to ignore the overall Python pessimism about human beings and their innate stupidity, pomposity, cruelty, and barbarism, which has been demonstrated throughout history.
“Grail is as funny as a movie can get, but it is also a tough-minded picture – as outraged about the human propensity for violence as it is outrageous in its attack on that propensity,” according to the late film critic Richard Schickel.
In tandem with this thought, Holy Grail also emphasizes the unjust subjugation and suffering of the lower classes. We hear the peasants say: “Help! Help! I’m being repressed!" "We’re all individuals!" "I didn’t vote for you!" "You can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
Perhaps the biggest message gleaned from all this absurdity is that there are no sacred cows: Even venerated legendary characters like King Arthur and his knights, as well as their gallant quest, are fair game for farce. Holy Grail suggests an inherent fallacy in classical heroism and skewers the assumption that ancient monarchs and their loyal chevaliers were chivalrous, honorable, morally righteous, spiritually motivated, or ordained by the Almighty.
The golden gift of the grail may have eluded King Arthur and his knights in this impish iteration of the myth, but the quest to thoroughly amuse its audience is undoubtedly achieved by Chapman, Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones, and Palin, and that represents this work’s most plentiful present to viewers. The absurd and irreverent lens through which the Pythons view this legend, and the irrepressibly hilarious way they weave contemporary culture into a quasi-haughty narrative – cleverly placing banana peels along the path from Camelot and consequently tripping up the self-important, sanctimonious, and simpleminded – never fails to entertain. No rewatch is wasted, as the troupe has carefully constructed the comedy with multiple layers of mirth that can be peeled back and re-appreciated or freshly discovered. Many of the jokes effortlessly land a perfect bullseye on the first viewing. But umpteenth watches can yield unexpected yuks that you probably missed, like the chicken image on Sir Robin’s shield, the fact that the stream the Black Knight is guarding is tiny and can easily be crossed without using the bridge, the old man among the crowd with shaving cream on his face, the “with special extra thanks to” opening credits signed by Richard Nixon, the mustache on the face of the sun symbol worn by Arthur, and the sudden reanimation of the wedding guests killed by Lancelot in Swamp Castle who break out into song with the rest of the throng. Holy Grail appeals to the lowbrow, the highbrow, and all brows in between with unbridled zaniness, witty satire, physical comedy that defies physics, and cutting politico-cultural commentary one minute and fart jokes the next. It’s a grand bouillabaisse of clownery with special English herbs and spices, and more than a handful of spam thrown in for good measure, that make for an endlessly fulfilling feast of funniness.
Posts
