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.)