WHAT is your name?
WHAT is your quest?
WHAT is your favorite thing about Monty Python and The Holy Grail ?!
It’s been nearly 45 years since Monty Python, an English comedy troupe consisting of six actors: John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones, introduced us to savage killer bunnies and the violence inherent in the system.
Revolving around the legendary King Arthur’s journey to gather his Knights of Camelot and fulfill his god-given quest to reclaim to fabled Holy Grail, the sketch comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail has amassed legions of fans since its premier in 1975. And with good reason. Here are five of our favorite things about this endlessly watchable cult favorite.
1 The Humor Still Holds Up Today
Savage killer bunnies? Spontaneous rousing musical numbers? A pyromaniac horned sorcerer named Tim? Monty Python has it all.
With Monty Python and the Holy Grail the troupe did a bang-up job of stringing together running gags that are just as hilarious in 2019 as they were in the mid-70s when the movie first debuted. Take for instance how The Holy Grail has a no holds barred approach to aggressively, but good-naturedly, poking fun at the most problematic parts of history– like the ridiculousness of witch hunts and the questionable politics of monarchies– while telling the tale of King Arthur and his daft knights’ amusing misadventures.
The performances, physical comedy, and versatility of the actors also contributes to the decades of lasting humor. Everyone in the troupe plays multiple roles in the movie, and not only are they spectacular and side-splittingly funny in every role, it never gets confusing to differentiate who is who. The same can’t be said for many modern movies!
2 The King Arthur Myth Is Timeless
Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s acerbic humor acknowledges what those familiar with the King Arthur legend know: that the myth has had many incarnations over the hundreds of thousands of years it’s been told. When the French took a stab at expanding the myth in their book Le Morte d’Arthur (“The Death of Arthur”) they reduced the mighty and noble king to a cuckolded joke.
So having the French soldiers stubbornly encamped in a castle they seized obnoxiously lob insults at King Arthur and his knights is both historical humor and the kind of hilarity that lodges itself into the zeitgeist with no intention of ever letting go.
When the mustachioed leader of the French guards (played to perfection by John Cleese) has enough of Arthur’s blabbering, he catapults an entire castle’s worth of livestock over the walls, causing one of the King of the Briton’s loyal companions to be unceremoniously crushed by a cow, and the rest of the men to retreat in terror and fear of themselves being killed by one of the bovine bombs.
3 It’s Endlessly Quotable
Even those who haven’t seen The Holy Grail have, more likely than not, heard some of the most iconic quotes from the film several times throughout their lifetime. Even those who’re under a rock (or, erm a misfortunately catapulted cow) when it comes to pop culture.
- “Bring out yer dead!”
- “I fart in your general direction!”
- “It’s just a flesh wound!”
From the absurdity of the Knights who say “Ni!” and their demands for shrubberies to a squad of merry minstrels singing of the cowardly deeds of the knight they’ve pledged allegiance to The Holy Grail is chockablock with quotable comedy gold.
Some of the very best of one-liners come from an only too relevant to modern day encounter between King Arthur and a surprisingly politically savvy peasant named Dennis. The medieval SJW throws down a series of unforgettable zingers: “Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! HELP! HELP! I’m being repressed!” and most famously drops the mic on Arthur’s claimed authority as King of the Britons with his reply: “Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.”
4 It’s Campy AF But Still Clever
Even though the budget for the entire film was just $400,000 Monty Python and the Holy Grail unflinchingly embraces the bizarre and boldly brings together different mediums to tell its story and like playfully combining several unforgettable animated scenes (just google ‘Monty Python god scene’ to bear witness to the wackiness first hand) into the live-action.
And then there’s the coconuts.
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table galloping across Britain on invisible horses with their manservants tagging along behind them, clunking coconut halves together is one of the longest-running gags in The Holy Grail. Practicality and six broke blokes on a shoestring budget is the actual reasoning behind the nutty choice, but by fully embracing the camp, Monty Python and the Holy Grail forever claimed a space as a cult classic.
The Holy Grail also manages to do what many films stumble with and often straight-up fail at doing today– it juggles multiple plot lines, including being a story within a story without ever getting confusing or over complicated, like an esteemed history professor being filmed in the woods as he discusses the value of the King Arthur myth, being slain by an actual knight, and each of King Arthur’s knights going off on individual quests before being reunited in the final scenes. The police exploring the slain historian’s crime scene and roaming around the knights stomping grounds become one of the most hilarious shticks in the movie, and it ultimately cumulates in one of the most entertaining endings.
5 The Locations Are Lit
From the sweeping verdant hills of Glen Coe and the Scottish Highlands to medieval castles The Holy Grail’s locations are LIT. Kidwelly Castle in Wales, Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, England and Castle Stalker on Loch Laich in the Argyllshire region of Scotland all play supporting roles throughout the film. Think: the notorious Castle Anthrax in “The Tale of Sir Galahad”, and “The Castle of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh” in the final scenes of the film.
BUT most of The Holy Grail was filmed on location in Scotland, specifically at Doune Castle in Stirling. A 14th-century medieval courtyard castle Doune Castle was the setting for some of the most memorable scenes, like a Sir Bedevere’s (Terry Jones) meme-worthy Trojan Rabbit catastrophe!
The Scotland historical preservation society– Historic Environment Scotland, or HES– has nothing but love for the Monty Python film, and even invited Jones to narrate Doune Castle’s audio tour! A tour that was listened to by over 140,000 visitors in 2018 alone!
Film buffs and tv junkies will recognize that Doune Castle was also used as a prominent location in HBO’s Game of Thrones and Starz’s Outlander!