Review #192: 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (1975)

This is one of those films that I can't believe I had never seen before now. Also on this list are the likes of It's A Wonderful Life (1946) and The Great Escape (1963), but they will be seen all in good time. It's a shame I had waited so long to be honest, as it is quite possibly the most hilarious and brilliant comedy I've ever seen. There's not much to say about Monty Python that hasn't already been said, but it is well known that the group (John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin) were revolutionaries in the art of comedy, combining a number of elements to create an overall surreal and ingenious sense of humour.

The film is based loosely on the legend of King Arthur (Chapman) and the Knights of the Round Table. Arthur is on a quest to find the Holy Grail, and with his fellow Knights, encounters a number of dangerous and ridiculous obstacles along the way. These include a castle guarded by French knights with 'outrageous accents', the Black Knight, the Knights Who Say Ni, the Three-Headed Giant, the Rabbit of Caebannog, and the Beast of Arrrrrrggggghhhhh.

Whereas Life of Brian (1979) was a very intelligent and quite biting satire on religion, Holy Grail is pretty much just an excuse to be extremely silly. From the opening scene, where Arthur arrives pretending to ride on his imaginary horse while his squire bangs two coconuts together to make a galloping noise, you know that the film is not going to play by any comedy rules, and is certainly not afraid of being just plain weird. It plays out in an episodic structure, much like The Flying Circus, but the team are clearly at their most comfortable here and are certainly no slouches when it comes to comedy set-pieces. My favourite would probably be the famous Black Knight, who when Arthur has hacked three of his limbs in a brilliantly gruesome manner, is still trying to fight ("'tis but a scratch!").

The comedy comes from all angles - word-play, visual gags, surrealism, post-modernism, blink-or-you'll-miss-it background gags, and simply pulling silly faces - and they come thick and fast, including more laughs per minute than most comedies will be lucky to muster in 90 minutes. This is simply a brilliant film, and will forever remain amongst the greatest comedies ever created.


Directed by: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Country: UK

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie