Monty Python and the Holy Grail Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Director(s): Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones
Year: 1975
Country: UK
Language: English

Throughout the years there have been countless people who have come up to me in great delight over the comedy known as Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Critics and fans have hailed it as one of the funniest films of all time. I have seen it at least six times by now, it was my first comedy outside of animation. It is likely many casual film goer's only attempt at watching a film from the seventies. While the comedy troupe known as Monty Python made a compilation sketch film before this (And Now For Something Completely Different) Holy Grail was what made them serious contenders in the comedic feature film business.

Holy Grail begins with Arthur (Graham Chapman), King of the Britons, looking for knights to sit with him at Camelot. He finds many knights including Sir Galahad the pure (Michael Palin), Sir Lancelot the brave (John Cleese), the quiet Sir Bedevere (Terry Jones), and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Lancelot (Eric Idle).Through a satire of many historical events they find Camelot, but after a song they find Camelot quite silly. God then comes to them via cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail. They do so, while finding quite interesting characters along the way.

Considering the problems Python had, it's almost a miracle the film was made. Before the shooting began The Scottish Department of the Environment withdrew permission for the Pythons to shoot within their castles. Lead actor Graham Chapman's  alcoholism was in full effect, sometimes making it incredibly difficult for him to remember and even say his lines. Directors Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam were at each other's throat a fair amount of the time and their incredibly low budget made for no horses and virtual no real ending. However the way they managed to make the film despite budget problems makes for comedic legend. Instead of horses they had a person behind the knight banging coconuts together. Instead of a logical ending, police raid the scene and the camera shuts off.

Monty Pythons maintains humor by poking at the Western ideologies of Masculinity. Men are supposed to be tough, brave and have incredibly deep voices. While King Arthur has some brave moments, he is often thwarted by his cowardice "that rabbit's dynamite!" Sir Robin is constantly made fun of by his minstrels as they sing a song about his fear. The King of Swamp Castle seems to be the only real "masculine" character in this film, obsessed with having his son marry another woman because she has "huge...tracks of land". Yet he is seen as a fool also.

In conclusion, while I cannot confirm that this is the best comedy I've ever seen or the best Python film (I much prefer Life of Brian) Holy Grail is still an incredibly entertaining film that was dangerously close to not being made. It seems more of a series of funny Python sketches from their television show than a logical movie, but it does appear to be timeless. Who can forget the fight between King Arthur and The Black Knight? "Come back here, I'll bite your leg off!"  Praise it! 4/5