Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The first time I watched “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” was one of the most unexpected experiences I’ve ever had. We had our first week of band camp at Lassiter my freshman year in 1992. At the end of the week, our section leaders brought out a TV and VCR and showed us “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” which was quoted often the week prior. I had watched Looney Tunes and “The Simpsons” and all manner of parody by that point, but I had still never seen anything like Monty Python’s cinematic debut. There’s still nothing quite like it.
By choosing the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Monty Python set out to create an anarchic comedic epic that pokes fun at the self-serious historical epic genre, while also brandishing their singular sensibilities. Like a lot of top shelf parody films, several films in the genre have come after that have had a hard time not falling into the same traps that Monty Python laid out in this one, and some have actually embraced absurdity in a successful manner while telling their stories. I’m sure you have some examples of both in your head right now.
While the film is nominally the story of King Arthur (played by Graham Chapman), how he builds the Knights of Camelot- although they do not go there, as “it is a silly place”- before they try to search for the Holy Grail (though only in England, oddly enough), this is more about how much ridiculousness Monty Python can pack into a 90-minute movie. The opening credits, with its subtitles and references to moose and llamas as they sack the creators of the credits not once, not twice, but three times. The frequent debates about swallows and coconuts in England, which are used to create the horse-riding sound effects. “Bring out your dead,” and what to do when someone is “not quite dead yet” when the body collector is there. How a “witch” weighs as much as a duck. Scene 24. The Knights Who Say, “Ni.” The silly horniness of Castle Anthrax. The murder of the historian. The groom-to-be who Lancelot goes to save. The musical numbers. The intermission 10 minutes before the film ends. The murderous bunny. The animated sequences (done by Gilliam, the only American of the troupe). The abrupt ending, which even now I’m not quite how I feel about.
I’ll admit that, 33 years later, I’m still not completely the Monty Python fan I probably should be. I have some episodes of “Flying Circus” as well as “Life of Brian,” but I haven’t watched the entire series, or “The Meaning of Life” or their other filmed appearances. For me, it’s been more about the insanity of “Holy Grail,” and the memory of how watching it became a significant moment early in my high school life, two years before I really fell hard into movie love. But “Holy Grail” was very much a Trojan rabbit in terms of helping shape what I love about films, and in particular, comedies. Like Mel Brooks, like Looney Tunes, like “Airplane!” and “Naked Gun,” “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” reminds me whenever I watch it how, when it comes to films, great art doesn’t mean an immaculate production- just perfect execution. Few films have landed their execution better than Monty Python did here.
