Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Monthly Movie Marathon

[diebitter]

What can I say? Makes Ben Hur look like an epic.


There's something fantastic about Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It has scenes that are parochial and very English (the references to the class system: 'I'm being repressed!'), absurd (the killer rabbit, Lancelot 'storming' a wedding and killing assorted guests, the glorious Black Knight), silly (the taunting French castle guard, the Knights who say 'Nii!'), but it creates such an air of filthy peasant reality, every historical film ever made since has to take care not to invoke its memory (Peter Jackson says in the Lord of the Rings commentary he was extremely careful never to have scenes of peasants standing around, to avoid invoking this movie). Some fail (see the early scenes of 'Excalibur' for examples). And it transcends its Englishness, its absurdities and its cheapness (why no horses? The budget didn't allow for them, but did that stop the boys? Did it hell.), to become something great, not only a good comedy, but something that is very, very, very rewatchable (there's no obvious jokes, just quotable silliness and absurd situations). It also retains a zingy freshness (like all truly great comedies).


An in spite of all this, I am aware some people can watch this, not laugh once and find it boring and ridiculous, and get confused because the same actors keep appearing as different characters, and I sort of understand. Some things, some people just don't get.

Easily in the top 20 comedies ever made, and probably in the top 10.

I enjoyed watching it again for the umpteenth time, good choice, Lounge!

(Oh, and if ever I find a genie and get 3 wishes, I'll be wishing to be stranded in Castle Anthrax.)

[Fishwhenican]

I LOVE this movie!

There are very few movies I can say I really love but this is one of them. You are 100% correct that some people can laugh at it and others just don't get it. It is exactly that way with me and my wife. I love it and she just gets that WTF look and is bored silly.

My sister actually really likes it as well so maybe there is some weird genetic coding that is needed to get Monty Python??

[diebitter]

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My sister actually really likes it as well so maybe there is some weird genetic coding that is needed to get Monty Python??

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm maybe. Have you any English ancestors?



Biggest laugh for me if the guy who goes on and on about how hard he'd worked to build a castle in a swamp, and when his son asks why he has to marry, he says 'cos we live in a bloody swamp!'. lolol.

[Fishwhenican]

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My sister actually really likes it as well so maybe there is some weird genetic coding that is needed to get Monty Python??

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm maybe. Have you any English ancestors?


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LOL, No, I do not think that we have any English ancestors. I think we are supposed to be mainly German with some polish mixed in.

[dcasper70]

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(Oh, and if ever I find a genie and get 3 wishes, I'll be wishing to be stranded in Castle Anthrax.)

[/ QUOTE ]
Sir Lancelot: We were in the nick of time. You were in great peril.
Sir Galahad: I don't think I was.
Sir Lancelot: Yes, you were. You were in terrible peril.
Sir Galahad: Look, let me go back in there and face the peril.
Sir Lancelot: No, it's too perilous.
Sir Galahad: Look, it's my duty as a knight to sample as much peril as I can.
Sir Lancelot: No, we've got to find the Holy Grail. Come on.
Sir Galahad: Oh, let me have just a little bit of peril?
Sir Lancelot: No. It's unhealthy.
Sir Galahad: I bet you're gay.
Sir Lancelot: Am not.

[KilgoreTrout]

This film occupies a side stage in the core of my being.

[Coffee]

It is one of those transcendent comedy pieces, in my opinion. I will think about parts of it from time to time and just start laughing, completely out of the blue.

My favorite line is probably when they are reading from the Book of Armaments, and it is said, "And the Lord did grin...", because the concept of the Lord actually grinning kills me.

[Blarg]

I thought it was very uneven, and I was actually disappointed the first time I saw it, though some parts had me laughing pretty hard. I pretty much never watch it now, but what makes me like it when I do is seeing all those Monty Python episodes so many times in the past(I have the full set, too). So my past laughs kind of inform my present ones. I think it helps to know the comedic genius of these guys, to get you through the flat parts or the ones that just seem to wander off. A trained Pythonite is always on the cusp of laughter and so damn happy these guys could even exist and get any product out whatever.

[SL__72]

I just watched Life of Brian again last night. These movies are so great.

[shadowtrooper]

I was fortunate enough to see this on the big screen with a theater full of people last summer. There is something about seeing it with a large group of people who got it and loved it that made the experience of watching the movie so much better than watching it at home.