Summary
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are given and take up a quest from God to retrieve the Holy Grail from wherever it may be.
The Film
Where do you even begin with a film as revered, quoted, and strange as “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”?
I would like to start with the first time I watched this movie but I don’t remember it. I am sure it was my Dad who showed it to me but, for as many fond memories as I have of this comedy, it is a member of that cinematic society of films which have simply ‘always been” as far as my memory is concerned. As many boys my age, I have stories of the times I showed this classic of non-sequitur ridiculousness to unsuspecting first timers, awaiting their surprised guffaws and quizzical “huh?”’s at the knights who say Ni or the mysterious sorcerer, Tim.
These stories and the nostalgia I feel for those days may not exactly be the typical arguments for what makes a movie great but, if I am honest, these stories are part and parcel of the film’s place in cinematic history. While the film is funny, it isn’t the funniest film ever made, the characters are ridiculous, the voices difficult to understand at times, and the barrage of people quoting the film anytime you mention it, while not the fault of the film, is certainly enough to put some off of it entirely but for some of us, especially the old fogies who remember the pre-internet days, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” was the equivalent of a viral video which you couldn’t wait to tell your friends about, re-enacted a thousand times, and ‘drew inspiration from’ as you made your own backyard movies.
How do you review a movie like that? It isn’t the cinematography, humor, acting, or any of the typical metrics by which we typically judge film that make it a classic. It is the stories of sharing and the way that the film spread and was introduced to each new viewer that make it unique.
Monty Python, most of you will know, was a comedy troupe in England which had a TV sketch show and stage performances that were really groundbreaking for their use of non-sequitur humor that often broke the ‘rules’ of entertainment as well as the fourth wall. Their brand of satire had a huge impact on the comedy that came after it and not just in England. It was the highest grossing British film in the US the year it released and is widely regarded in the same breath as movies like Airplane as one of the greatest comedies ever made. Because of this, I posit, there were many people who loved this movie but, without the internet to connect them, they're left to find those communities or share the film with others all on their own. Many a dad would hope as he popped in a VHS of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” on a night when their wife was out that he was about to share it with a future Monty Python lover in the form of their son.
How many of us saw this film first as a shared experience with brothers, uncles, or fathers? How many of us have handed it down to our own children? I and other film critics, pundits, and viewers will often debate about what makes a good movie, what makes a film art, or what movies are instant classics but the fact of the matter is that what makes a film stand the test of time isn’t down to the craft of the film, although that certainly helps. It all comes down to whether we pass those movies down.
Each of us do this in our own way. True Myth Media is one of my efforts to pass my favorite films down through the years. When we show our kids a movie we loved as a kid, argue online about why the theatrical version of Star Wars is OOP, or even when Criterion puts out a new release we are all participating in the cultural act of tradition. The classics are simply the films that have been continually passed on, over and over again, from one person to another. “Casablanca” could lose classic status tomorrow if everyone who had seen it just decided they didn’t like it anymore and wouldn’t share it with anyone anymore.
This is why “Monty Python and the Hoy Grail” is a classic. It isn’t because the Black Knight scene is one of the most regularly quoted scenes in film history. It isn’t because it is such clever and poignant satire. It isn’t because Sir Bedevere’s logic is so unassailable.
It is because we keep watching it, sharing it, and passing it along to our children and friends, watching their faces with glee as they witness a group of men attacking and being defeated by a small stuffed rabbit.
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