Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Terry Gilliam/Terry Jones

Starring: The Monty Python Crew

From: Several entities, including… legendary rock bands?! More on that in the review

After an unexpected yet needed night off from motion picture viewing on Monday (among other things, taking a night off fit my schedule better) I decided to sign up for Netflix again after months away. This is another one of those movies I hadn’t experienced in at least 25 years so the time was right to hit “play.” By the way, it was not until today that I heard it was the 80th birthday of Eric Idle; choosing this last night on that platform was entirely by happenstance.

In my life not much footage from Monty Python’s Flying Circus has ever been seen by me; this kind of silly absurd humor is not always my bag-and I’ve known people who don’t like their schtick at all-yet at least with this irreverent clan, what they do usually amuses me. With Holy Grail, the film is definitely silly yet still is quite funny… right from the opening credits, the spoof Swedish subtitles and what that leads to. From there, all sorts of gags and ideas are thrown at the wall-many of them landing-as King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the quest for the Holy Grail are spoofed in a series of sketches. To say it’s “just a series of sketches” is not accurate, due to the number of running gags that appeared throughout, whether it be twice, on several occasions or often.

By now quite a few moments and lines have left their mark on pop culture and should remain in the lexicon for a long time coming—I am talking about such things as “it’s a flesh wound,” “what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow”, “tis but a scratch”, among many others. Those still are effective although less-heralded moments also worked for me. This is on the anarchic side and has a lot-from animated bits to 4th wall breaking to even a brief musical number-but never became an irritant to me and thus, I now realize it took WAY too long to see Holy Grail again.

There were some things I learned between the last viewing and last night. Several rock bands gave money to this production as “the studios” weren’t interested. That may include Elton John but certainly includes Pink Floyd, Genesis and Led Zeppelin. Another thing revolves around a debate that happened back in the late 90’s, so long ago that the viewing was on VHS. There was debate over what the last line of the suspected witch was. Subtitles told me it was “it’s a fair cop”; one reason why we were all bumfuzzled about it at the time… what the hell does that even mean?! OK, I had some idea yet for all the old British programming I’ve seen in my life, that phrase is new to me.