MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL (1975) | First Time Watching | MOVIE REACTION & Review
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2024
- Kings, Quests, trojan rabbits, taunting Frenchmen, killer bunnies, kinghts demanding shrubbery, weaponized livestock.. MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL has it ALL, and I am so glad I finally watched!
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SPOILERS FOR THE FILM IN THIS VIDEO
00:00 Intro
02:02 Reaction
26:34 Commentary & Final Thoughts
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Terry Jones
John Cleese
Eric Idle
Terry Gilliam
Graham Chapman
Michael Palin
Carol Cleveland
Connie Booth
John Young
Terry Gilliam (dir.)
Terry Jones (dir.)
#reaction #moviereaction #firsttimewatching #montypython #montypythonandtheholygrail
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We didn’t have memes back then so the one liners in this film lived and were sporadically quoted for decades 😂 huge favorites there too. Perfect movie to disconnect ❤
Haha great point! Yeah, I can definitely see that :)
Only someone who doesn't know what the word _meme_ means can say such a silly thing.
Look up Richard Dawkins' definition of _meme_ (he coined the term after all).
Lmao I literally just saw the Swallow lines in comments yesterday. They live on FOREVER! So funny! 😅
@CliffSedge-nu5fv Manners. David had formed a great community here let's keep it friendly. Or at least civil.
@@CliffSedge-nu5fv I think most of us knew that by "meme" she meant "pictures from the internet with captions that you share online with your friends." which of course weren't a thing back in the 70s.
Graham Chapman was the perfect king: played everything straight, never cracked a smile, and took every moment completely seriously. It contrasts and amplifies the silliness perfectly.
Agreed. He was to this masterpiece as Leslie Nielson was to Airplane and the Naked Gun series.
@@larryjefferson7381
Exactly!
He did the same in Life of Brian, playing it straight while others were funny around him. When he played other characters like the guard with hiccups or Biggus Dickus, he was funny.
I’ve watched this since childhood but it wasn’t until like 5 years ago I realized OF COURSE the murderer of the historian wasn’t any of king Arthur’s men- the murderer had a horse!
The knights were framed, the knght who killed the historian was riding a real horse. I love the fact that the big threatening trojan rabbit was harmless and the cute furry bunny was deadly. And no credits at the end because all the people responsible for the credits were sacked. Just a few of the little details.
The animation was one of the innovations of their TV series. It provided transitions for unrelated comedic bits, and freed them from having to always finish a sketch with a big punchline. The animations were done by their one American member, Terry Gilliam, who you may have heard of, as he went on to direct films like Time Bandits and Baron Munchausen.
Gilliam also performed with them in minor bits. Here, he was Patsy, the Old Man From Scene 24, and of course himself as the animator who has the heart attack. In the TV series, he was Fang of the Spanish Inquisition.
Carol Cleveland (Zoot of the castle Anthrax) is often regarded as the unofficial female member of Python. However, the witch (Connie Booth, another American) was married to Cleese for a time, and together they wrote one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, Fawlty Towers.
Thanks for this reaction! Have loved this movie since seeing it at the cinema on release when I was a teen.
Btw, American group member Gilliam also directed "12 Monkeys", "The Fisher King", and "Brazil". The British Pythons started out as writers for David Frost and other TV shows, and were educated mostly at Oxford and Cambridge Universities (John Cleese studied law, Terry Jones (Sir Bedevere, prince Herbert, etc.) was a fine medieval historian, Graham Chapman (King Arthur in this movie) was a medical doctor, Michael Palin hosts BBC travel shows, etc.), following in the tradition of the "Oxbridge" comedy group Beyond the Fringe (playwright Alan Bennett, musician and actor Dudley Moore, comedian/actor and Private Eye publisher Peter Cook, and neuro-researcher/TV presenter/opera director Jonathan Miller). Hope you can check out the TV series, Monty Python's Flying Circus. Both the Pythons and Fringe followed the UK success of strangely surreal comedy from The Goons, that featured Spike Milligan (writer/actor - with cameos in Monty Python's Life of Brian, and the 1974 version of The Three Musketeers) and Peter Sellers (brilliant comic actor - The Pink Panther, Being There, Dr. Strangelove, etc.).
This movie was tightly scripted, and I still have the illustrated screenplay book on my shelf. 😂
Ending is a literal "cop out" and I love it! 😂
The story on "Tim" is John Cleese forgot the name he was supposed to have, and improvised the name as a joke, and they kept it in
When the Frenchman taunts him with the line "Your mother is a hamster and your father smells of Elderberries" he is basically calling his mother a whore and his father a drunk, as Elderberries were used to make wine at the time.
Ohhh!!! Haha well not that I needed his insults to make any sense, but this is great info!! Thank you. I wish I could have left that whole line in, but I got dinged for trying to include both the hamster/elderberry and the fart in your general direction. I went low with my choice lol.
Their first movie. A brilliant deconstruction of movies. The end is a literal cop-out. I love everything about this.
Cleese as the French instigator is one of my favourite things in a movie ever.
Cleese as the French Taunter was brilliant! 😂
Perfect timing! "One day lad, all this will be yours?" [David takes a big sip] "What, the curtains?" [David struggles not to spit laugh all over the camera] You picked up your glass and I thought, oh no! :)
We watched this in college, and for the rest of the time, my buddies and I used all of those iconic phrases every day. Our particular fave: "and there was much rejoicing" [waves imaginary flag]
Enjoyed rewatching this with you. Brings back such memories.
yeah perfect moment for the sip at one of my favotite lines in the Movie ...:)
Exactly what I kept thinking every time he picked up his peach tea. 😂
The real kicker for me was that he got his name wrong when recapping.
There are sooooooo many quotes from this movie that we say all the time! "I'm getting better." "You could say Dennis." (I have that whole exchange memorized. lol) Most of my friends in college could quote the whole scene with the "moistened bint" part. I love the wedding scene part... "What? The curtains?" and "Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who."
Graham Chapman (who plays King Arthur) was always my favorite (Monty Python member) , he passed away in 1989. You've gotta watch John Cleese's speech at his funeral, it's hilarious! Btw, watch John Cleese's classic and legendary ''Fawlty Towers'' (one of the greatest comedy shows ever made for tv), btw, the (gorgeous) lady who's the ''Witch'' in ''The Holy Grail'' is Connie Booth, she was his ex-wife, actress and co-writer of ''Fawlty Towers'.
"Fawlty Towers" was one of my father's favorite shows: when it was on PBS, we would watch it together, and he would nearly fall off his chair with laughter.
You are correct about the budget. It did not allow for horses, so they improvised. I have chain mail and a sword. I made a pair of hollow coconut halves for my daughter to use while following when we go to speceal showing of the holy grail
Both the shield and the tunic of "brave Sir Robin" have a chicken as his heraldic animal. Just one of the many features of this film you will only catch with repeated viewings. I saw this film totally by accident in the late 1970s on late night TV when I was a teenager. I was laughing so hard it woke my youngest sister, who came in and started watching with me and has also been a fan ever since.
The best way I have found to describe Monty Python is acerbic absurdism. They manage to intelligently poke fun at absolutely everything in the silliest of ways! And I am so here for it!!
"acerbic absurdism" love it!! Great description.
What I love, and that very few people seem to pick up on, is that they use power tools' sound effects when the build the Trojan Rabbit.
Great first time reaction. You caught lots of things a first time watcher misses.
15:51 Everyone misses the punchline to this scene: “Bloody weather!”
I’m a fan of satirical humor, so Monty Python’s Flying Circus was one of my favorite tv shows. Satirical sketch comedy. There were 6 guys, who played most of the rolls, and the supporting actors. The guy who plays Patsy (Terry Gilliam) is the only American. He is also the animator. Arthur was played by Graham Chapman who passed away in 1989. Sir Bedevere (kept lifting his visor) and Herbert were played by Terry Jones who passed away in 2020. The other Pythons are Eric Idle, John Cleese and Michael Palin
Lots of reviewers complain about the disjointed nature of the "plot", which gives the movie an appearance of a series of sketches thrown together. But that is the nature of the Arthurian cycle.
The original Grail story was left unfinished by the author and had no connection to Arthur. Subsequent authors remained true to the original and did not present a story which achieved a goal. Instead, the stories became tales of character development during the journey., achieved by overcoming odds and by developing moral maturity, worthy of good Christian knights. This theme was dubbed "The Hero's Journey" by Joseph Campbell. The Arthurian cycle branched off into a series of Hero's Journeys of individual members of Arthur's entourage.
"Farewell to Arms" NO YOU DID NOT!!! Bahahahahahaha! I giggled for a good while at that.
I have said, "I fart in your general direction" since I was a kid, and I see no reason to stop now. 😂❤
I can’t say for sure that no drugs were involved in the making of the film, but audiences found it howlingly funny when there were drugs involved in the viewing. The Monty Python TV show was shown for years on PBS. Lovely reaction, as always! Peace … PS. John Cleese has a wonderful small part in Silverado, if you’re looking for a Western to watch. Otherwise, A Fish Called Wanda.
".... when drugs were involved in the viewing..." 😀
Liquor was main Python vice. Graham Chapman (Arthur) was an alcoholic (gin, as I recall) and would drink a few pints a day.
Amazing movie, so happy everyone’s watching it. And yes, able to quote it backwards if necessary. It’s so good.
Patsy/the bridge-man, etc. are director Terry Gilliam by the way - the only American in the group who also made all the animations, which are all cutouts on glass-plate. After the Python-years he directed Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, Baron of Munchhausen, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Fisher King, and many more. About the writing: they worked in teams on everything, and yes: plenty got thrown out. It was a whole proces.
Thank you so much for all this info!! I love, love trivia and behind the scenes, so this is great. Loved the movie.
George funded Life of Brian, I think Pink Floyd helped pay for this one.
@@001Flange I stand corrected (edited my response). Love both those movies, so that’s where I got em wrong. Apparently Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull… wow
Got into Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band during covid, so it was only on this viewing I spotted Neil Innes as the bard. Anyways: the whole Python universe is a treasure trove of these connections.
Hope David decides to view some more, something like The Meaning of Life or And now for something completely different. Brian’s amazing, and he’ll love that one, but has also been done by half the internet 😇 There’s also a lot of fun in later collabs like ‘Fierce Creatures’, with the Python cast, ‘A fish called Wanda’ of course. And that lesser known one (name escapes me) where Cleese plays the headmaster who desperately wants to be on time.
And in time… Brazil, if he’s up for a challenge. (My absolute nr#1 movie)
yes, it was filmed in Scotland at Doune Castle and Castle Stalker and some landscapes in between. Doune Castle was also used as parts of Winterfell in GoT.
A literal blink-and-you'll-miss-it detail: The knight that slew the historian was on a horse!
That arrow sound effect and the "message for you, sir" is my notification sound for Amazon stuff.
i will never forget the first time i saw this - i was 14 and had zero idea what to expect. for the first half i was like what the actual fuck is this??? and i called my friend who had recommended it and she laughed her ass off and told me to start it over and just understand that’s it’s SUPPOSED to be silly. she stayed on the phone with me while i did this and kept quoting lines and it was the best ever.
I forgot how funny this was. I haven’t seen it since high school 😂 my husband still says “I fart in your general direction” 🤣🤣🤣
Hahahaha! You know what, that part in particular was SO hard because it comes back-to-back with "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberry!". I wanted to leave them both in, but copyright wouldn't allow it :( I had to make a "Sophie's Choice" lol
@@DavidvsFilm Like so may other little points in the film, those 'silly' taunts were actually founded in a deep knowledge of medieval history. At least one of the MP team was an Oxford educated historian who specialised in the period.
Hamsters were reputed to be highly sexually active, while elderberries were the most popular ingredient for a rural poor man's home-made wine; therefore the taunt suggests the mother was a tart and the father was a lower class alcoholic...
Always a classic
Dennis, the hyper-political peasant, played to perfection by Michael Palin, is my favorite skit in Holy Grail. Palin is one of the best Pythons imo.
The way he holds his answer so long in the witch burning scene that Eric Idle has to bite his scythe to keep from laughing is masterful 🤣🤣🤣
Patsy is played by co-director and Python animator Terry Gilliam fyi. His facial work and reactions to the hilarity are pretty great.
"Spamalot" is a hybrid piece they came up with, using two things as the basis:
- The "Camelot" song that you noted, and
- The "I don't like SPAM!" sketch from the original series.
It should be noted that the latter is the reason why we call unsolicited emails and ads "spam" today. Watch the sketch and do a quick google on "why do we call it spam?" :)
However wild and improvisational some scenes may sound, the Monty Python projects were very tightly and carefully scripted. I think that's one reason why they stand up so well: a lot of thought and preparations went into these seemingly casual movies. John Cleese has said that what we see is maybe 0.0001% ad libs.
You'll get lots of recommendations for their later movies. I want to put in a word for an earlier one, And Now For Something Completely Different. It's purely a series of sketches, most of them from their TV series (but restaged for film), but it gives you a good idea of where they came from and why they became popular, and contains some of the sketches that everyone still quotes.
The only ad lib was the line about the king: “He hasn’t got shit all over him.”
@@stephenkehl7158 And, of course, "............[long pause].......... Tim!" because John Cleese couldn't remember the much longer, cleverer, scripted name for his Enchanter character.
@@papercup2517True… I forgot about……. Tim
This is such a quotable movie! I grew up with my dad quoting it out of context all of the time lol. The moose stuff in the beginning was pretty confusing the first time around 😂
So, I read a comment mentioning how the ending came about but based on what I’ve read elsewhere I have to elaborate a bit. They literally had no budget to have a large scale fight scene, so they just abruptly ended it there lol. I’m guessing they decided to do a “cop out” once they knew that. Another fact, based on the budget, all of those extras getting ready to fight were local students - they got two pounds sterling, free transport, food, and “an abundance of crazy antics” for a day of work. All the other extras throughout the movie were various different people on the production team.
Oh, I’ve also been in the musical that is based on this - Spamalot. I played Herbert (among other roles). It was great. And going back to the moose, the program on broadway references that whole intro bit lol. The musical is a much more complete version of this (it actually has an ending lol) and has some pretty interesting stuff added I think. If you’re in NY in the near future they actually just revived it. Anyway, this is a classic and I try to watch it every few years because it never really gets old lol. Thanks for the reaction! Great as always
Bahahahaha!! I adore Monty Python. Quite a few of the jokes in this one are accurate, hilarious commentary on medieval culture, so much so that I had a professor in college who would use parts of the film to illustrate certain points. I'm thrilled that you enjoyed it.
My first watching of this was for a High School World History class - we watched the movie & for our semester final had to write an essay on how Holy Grail accurately reflected medieval history.
My friend group in middle school loooved this movie, but my mom wouldn’t let me watch it because she thought it was “weird and inappropriate” lol, but because my friends quoted it nonstop, I knew practically every line 😂
Your mother was right, of course. It was completely, wonderfully, relentlessly weird and inappropriate (as well as clever, witty and aware), which is why we all loved it.... :-)
In terms of Mel Brooks and direction of influence, BLAZING SADDLES came first. Both films end with anachronistic motor vehicles. “Tell them I said . . . OW” becomes “the castle of . . . Aaargh.” “Can’t you see that man is a ni-“ becomes the knights who say, “Ni.”
Their TV show is worth a watch too, I loved watching it back in junior high and high school on PBS back in the late 70s
The ending is both the biggest cinematographic insult and the greatest idea ever
You want Patrick Stewart in an Arthurian epic? Give Excalibur (1981) a watch. Excellent film. Every person in it was chomping on the set dressing, but that's what makes it epic. Many people in it who would go on to huge careers were largely unknown at this time.
Oh yes! The bite marks on the scenery are downright palpable. More reactions to that movie are definitely needed.
Excellent, thank you!!!
I love that you did a reaction to this because there are a couple of movies that you either love it or you hate it and I wasn't sure if you were going to be one or the latter but I'm glad you loved it another movie that I loved was lion in the winter
From moose to llamas to (killer) rabbits, this film has it all!! TY for reacting!
And featuring… a horse.
@@0okaminoand that's how you know Arthur or any of his knights weren't involved in the historian's death!
And flying cows... :-)
And it has European swallows. Not many films have European swallows you know.
This is THE quotable film, and funny no matter how often you see it. I really thought “the curtains” was going to be your spit take moment. I used to have a metal wall sign in my office “Black Knight Security” with the knight standing guard over his little bridge….it was a great conversation starter for some and for those who knew Python, they were easy to identify, they’d walk in, see it and just start laughing immediately.
Parts of the funding for the film were made by members of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Genesis who were all big fans of the series.
Patrick Stewart has been in a King Arthur movie, called "EXCALIBUR", and is a fantastic movie, directed by the great John Boorman.
If you want to see Patrick Stewart (and Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson and Helen Mirren) in a film about Arthurian legends, then you, my good friend, need to see the 1981 film, "Excalibur."
Nicol Williamson chews ALL the scenery as Merlin. It's great. (He and Mirren had a romantic past, and the enmity between Williamson's Merlin and Mirren's Morgana Le Fey is informed/enhanced by the lingering bitterness of their failed romance. It was truly inspired casting by director John Boorman.)
This film was well ahead of its time. It's not just breaking the 4th wall, it's being self aware of being a film.
I went to Scotland last summer, we visited the castle and the rabbit's cave, the cave wasn't that easy to find, but it was so worth it! There were stuffed rabbits and rabbit pictures, etc that people left there, like a freaky altar...and we loved it!
Haha That’s something I would totally want to see, and knowing me, I would talk about it and show people pictures the rest of my life if I did.
The intermission part was due to the knight getting scared on the bridge and needed encouragement to finish crossing. From the special follow the white rabbit DVD. That has so many gems.
One thing that surprises a lot of people about Monty Python is that they did not improvise in their films and TV shows. Like you guessed, they sort of had brainstorming sessions, but they were more like meetings, and they would hash ideas out until they got the wording and the action exactly the way they wanted and then not deviate from it on film. Also, the two Python actors you did not know were the only two who are now dead. Arthur was played by Graham Chapman, who died of cancer in the late eighties, and the other was Terry Jones, who died of dementia about three years ago.
The six main actors in this film, Cleese Chapman, Jones Gilliam, Idle and Palin also wrote the script. Before making movies they had a TV sketch series called Monty Pythons Flying Circus which was also brilliant. Their first film was a collection of their sketches from TV called And Now For Something Completely Different, which was also a regularly used catch phrase in the series.
Prince Herbert was played by Terry Jones who was also one of the directors. He directed Life of Brian too.
You have the entire MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS series. You will adore it.
The line "Thwank,message for sire" I use for the sound that plays when I get email.
I'm 50 now. I saw this in junior high when it came on one weekend and we all watched it. From then on in we were all quoting this constantly. Having seen AIRPLANE! a bunch before that we were heavily influenced by these. So my sense of humor is half British but 100% silly. The bunny was my spirit animal from before I knew what a spirit animal was. I hope I've made them proud. In the 90s they made Spamalot and I was lucky enough to see the original Broadway cast. This movie is basically part of my DNA now. That you haven't seen this until now explains a lot, David. I'm going to watch the reaction now and might need a 2nd comment.
This is a rare documentary using actual authentic Medieval film footage from the Middle Ages. Monty Python spared no expense having the rare Medieval film reels delivered by European Swallows.
Recommend checking out Holy Grail movie location videos to royally appreciate the creative filming talent.
From Monty Python's Flying Circus tv series, my favorite skit is Self Defense against fresh fruit.
Hahahaha
They were falsely arrested. The knight who killed Frank the famous historian rode a real horse.
Yeah I didn’t even catch that! One more example of how I’d be a terrible detective.
A farewell to ams. Priceless.
This movie is _ENDLESSLY_ quotable in daily life. A longtime favorite. 🥰🥰😂😂
My man!!! My 16-year-old self and all of my teenage friends embrace you! You are one of us now.
Thank you! I feel the love. Lol
(9:00) Spamalot is written by Eric Idle who is one of the Python crew
7:48 Hey, don’t judge, they were trusting the science.
Hahaha true.
Oh, and we always count, 1, 2, 5 ... 3, sir
They actually did a special theatrical run of this movie last December for it’s 48 1/2 anniversary. My dad and I went to see it.
Spamalot is indeed the musical of this movie. I highly recommend it! Love that the ending is a literal cop-out. My cousins and I watched this and quoted it often in the 90s/early 2000's! You'll notice with Sir Bedivere keeping lifting the front of his helmet because the lines on it are right in front of his eyes lol What i love about all the art/animation throughout that is so ridiculous is, that a lot of it appears to be taken from real art. Blowing the horns with their asses. And just look up medieval rabbit art. They're bloodthirsty.
Whenever this used to air on Comedy Central (90s kid, obvs!), my best friend and I would jump on the phone and “watch” it together. He passed away before our Sophomore year of HS, but this movie always makes me think of him and smile 😊
Thanks for another great reaction! [Edit: The only impression I’ve ever nailed is “I’m not dead yet/I feeeeel happy!”]
Aww that is so sweet to read :) I remember "watching" things on the phone together! Wow, that goes way back. Oh the good ol' days...
I'm so happy for you that you have this happy memory with your friend. 😀🥲🫂
Awww... yes, watching on the phone was a thing. It's nice to have the memories.
Prince Herbert is one of my favorite Terry Jones characters. The comedic timing and physical comedy of shooting the arrow out the window makes me cackle every time.
Literally my favorite. Though it is a tough call considering the immense talent in this movie.
That black knight scene is my favourite ever scene. T’is but a scratch is part of my vocabulary 😂
Sir Bedevere was played by Terry Jones who also played the young Prince Herbert (who stood to inherit the curtains).
This is the epitome of ridiculous hilarity!!!
Now when you rewatch other shows/movies you will begin to recognize the enormity of how often this film has been parodied, memed, alluded to...50 years worth basically. I mean...it's even parodied in an episode of Xena the Warrior Princess...and yeah...I know this...huge Xena fan here!
So glad you liked it!😂💚
Hello and Hola!!!! Thank you! And you know I love me some ridiculous hilarity ;) One thing I do love about watching these modern classics is catching some references I've heard for years but never knew from where they came. Specifically "'Tis but a scratch..". Loved it.
@@DavidvsFilm It's just a flesh wound.😉😄
The part of Prince Herbert, and the part of the knight who continuously lifted his face shield to speak were played by the same Python member. Terry Jones. All the animations were done by “the old man from scene 24”. Terry Gilliam. ♥️🐍✌🏼😎🇺🇸
Terry Jones, degree is medieval English st Edmunds hall(teddy hall), Oxford university.also.directed the .movie with Gilliam
"Livestock Attack" was the name of my band in college!!!
if you've never seen the tv show, "And Now for Something Completely Different" is a best-of movie of sketches from the show with animations from Terry Gilliam (Patsy/the dead animator). It's an excellent primer for their humor.
the other Terry who co-directed with Gilliam, Terry Jones, was a *big* medieval scholar, and a lot of bits in the movie were taken from history (a town of serfs running themselves because no noble really wanted the land they were on, a religious order of flagellates who would flog themselves in public as a display of devotion, sir lancelot always charging into battle and killing indiscriminately, beseiged castles throwing food at the invading army as a boast that they could hold out, etc). he produced and presented a series of documentaries on medieval life for the bbc that is really good.
Thank you so much!
Mike Palin deserved an Oscar for his performance here
Almost no Python material was improvised. They wrote it and didn’t want anyone going off script.
The only ad libbed bit I know of in Holy Grail was Carol Cleveland’s cry of “Oh shit”.
Literal cop out in the end, genius
You probably noticed that the guys all played multiple roles - as well as writing the script and directing themselves. Prince Herbert was played by Terry Jones, who also played Sir Bedevere (the guy with the helmet visor problem), Dennis's mom, one of the supporting French soldiers, and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff - who can keep track? He was also the lead writer of the film, with Terry Gilliam, the animator, both on screen and behind the scenes, as well as Patsy, the Old Man from Scene 24, and a few other bits. All the guys contributed scenes and lines, but the two Terry's were the lead writers. All the Pythons were big intellectuals in different fields, and Terry Jones in particular, was a historian. He did a bunch of history documentaries for the BBC after Python. He brought his expertise in medieval history and literature to this script, making it, for all its insanity, one of the most accurate depictions of Medieval England ever put on film, according to at least one of my history teachers. That might be hard to believe - though the thing with the French was certainly realistic; they were quietly taking over castles in England all the time; the English did it to them, too; likewise, nobody recognizing the king or even knowing they had one was totally true to life. However, I can personally attest, because I'm the kind of nerd who reads medieval literature, that it is absolutely an accurate recreation of the way they told epic stories in those days. Random monsters, knights in black armor challenging random travelers to mortal combat, castles full of "temptresses," enchanters and sorcerers of various kinds, the king wandering around instead of, y'know, kinging, creepy magical exposition-hermits, everything this movie had, the original tales would give you, too. Including killer rabbits, which were a medieval pop-culture meme. It's kind of disconcerting to realize how smart this utterly nuts movie is.
Excelllleeennntttt comment, thank you so much!! Yeah I noticed a few of them in their musical chairs with regards to the roles, but several I didn’t catch.
I really appreciate all the historical info as well. I didn’t realize this!
Your continuous insistence of the Pythons taking drugs in order to have written this is funny, because obviously there were no drugs, these guys were just really funny writers. Eric Idle has said that if they had been taking drugs, nothing would have been written. The only ‘drug’ that was there throughout this period was alcohol, but that was because of Graham Chapman (King Arthur), who by this point, was a 24 karat alcoholic and made him extremely difficult to work with and so he was trying to give it up while making the film, but there are some moments where you can tell he isn’t all there and he even suffered from DTs whilst filming the Bridge of Death scene.
Each Python had their own writing styles and groups (John Cleese and Graham Chapman were one partnership, Michael Palin and Terry Jones were the other and Eric Idle wrote on his own, while Terry Gilliam did the animation), and they would often meet up once a week or month to compare what they had done and try to work it into the script.
I will NEVER forget when a roommate and I got high (back in our 20s) and put this movie on. Big mistake. If it was possible to die from laughter, we would have. Especially the massive double-take the Frenchman did when the Trojan Rabbit was approaching. We were literally on the floor, barely able to breath from laughing so hard. As soon as we regained our composure we rewind the tape and watch it again. 🤣😂
OK after hearing this, I feel like this is the recommended way to watch this movie lol.
If you want to see Sir Patrick Stewart in an Arthurian film, check out John Borman's Excalibur(1981).
Arthur is Graham Chapman an original Python, he was also the voice of God and the hiccoughing guard. Terry Jones was Dennis' Mother as well as Sir Bedevere [he that kept opening the see through visor] and Prince Herbert in the tower. Michael Palin was Dennis, and the guard who knew about swallows, and Galahad The Pure. All the pythons played several major characters and quite a few lesser ones as well ............ yep, no budget !
This is the only movie saved on my phone. Always watchable to kill a few moments when you need to.
"BOOIINNNGGG... Message for you, Sir!" might be a good ringtone...
The swamp castle bit is the best part 😂😂
John Cleese ad libbed the name Tim for the enchanter because he'd forgotten the original name.
Haha- Works for me because that cracked me up!
no mney left for the final fight so they did LITERALLY a "cop out"
also we know they are innocent as the killer was on a REAL horse and none of them have real horses they use coconuts xD
ah and the enchaters name was supposed to be super long and complicated but he forgot his line said tim and it was so great they kept it xD
when it comes to the actors its all the monty python guys playing several characters each so if u dont know them u probably dont know anyone as most are played characters by them xD
The bunny scene gets me every time 🐰
Hilarious! So bad, so perfect.
Patrick Stewart actually appeared as a knight in the 1980 movie Excalibur.
The epitome of British humor. ❤🤍💙
'supp, David! 😄I adore the French K-nig-it. "Fetchez la vache!" MOOOOO. Also the peasants in the collective...
If you haven't seen the 1976 film Excalibur, I think you should. There's a watery-tart handing out swords. 😊
Author is Graham Chapman the first monty python member to die I don't know much he did outside of Monty python I reccomend yellow beard, it has 3 out of 5 month pythons in it, Peter Boyle, madelin Kahn, and cheech n chong in a pirate adventure in pretty sure Terry Gilliam directed
The guy playing Arthur was Graham Chapman. You don't recognize him mostly because he died from cancer before he turned 50. He was actually a qualified physician, but as far as I know, he never practiced medicine.
Thank you :)
"OH SHIT! Poor historian..."
"Frank!!!" 🤣🤣🤣
The running gag of the dead historian and the resulting investigation that ends the movie is such a good, albeit dark, joke.
And the irony that Arthur & Co couldn't have done it because they have no horses 🤣🤣🤣
I remember when I was grown-up and I watched the Monty Python TV series on DVD and a lot of these cutaway animation jokes make a lot more sense in the film if you watch the complete tv series because they are so frequent.
I have a feeling I would like the show quite a bit.
Belvidir is Terry Gilliam outside of money python is an amazing director
Mel Brooks High Crusade is like a fitting sequel to me.
A highly recommended movie is ''A Fish Called Wanda'', with John Cleese, Michael Palin (''Sir Galahad the Pure''), Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline, you should watch it with Marc.
Agreed, it's so good and worth both of them seeing it.
Has anyone else already noticed how much David sounds like Jason Mantzoukas?
Such a happy guy.