Monty Python and the Holy Grail Turns 50
upstart writes:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail turns 50:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is widely considered to be among the best comedy films of all time, and it's certainly one of the most quotable. This absurdist masterpiece sending up Arthurian legend turns 50 (!) this year.
It was partly Python member Terry Jones' passion for the Middle Ages and Arthurian legend that inspired Holy Grail and its approach to comedy. (Jones even went on to direct a 2004 documentary, Medieval Lives.) The troupe members wrote several drafts beginning in 1973, and Jones and Terry Gilliam were co-directors-the first full-length feature for each, so filming was one long learning process. Reviews were mixed when Holy Grail was first released-much like they were for Young Frankenstein (1974), another comedic masterpiece-but audiences begged to differ. It was the top-grossing British film screened in the US in 1975. And its reputation has only grown over the ensuing decades.
The film's broad cultural influence extends beyond the entertainment industry.Holy Grail has been the subject of multiple scholarly papersexamining such topics as itseffectivenessat teaching Arthurian literature orgeometric thought and logic,thecomedic techniquesemployed, and whythe depiction of a killer rabbit is so fitting (killer rabbits frequently appear drawn in the margins of Gothic manuscripts).My personal favorite was a 2018 tongue-in-cheek paper on whether the Black Knight could have survived long enough to make good on his threat to bite King Arthur's legs off (tl;dr: no).
So it's not at all surprising that Monty Python and the Holy Grail proved to be equally influential and beloved by Ars staffers, several of whom offer their reminiscences below.
They were nerd-gassing before it was cool
The Monty Python troupe famously made Holy Grail on a shoestring budget-so much so that they couldn't afford to have the knights ride actual horses. (There are only a couple of scenes featuring a horse, and apparently it's the same horse.) Rather than throwing up their hands in resignation, that very real constraint fueled the Pythons' creativity. The actors decided the knights would simply pretend to ride horses while their porters followed behind, banging halves of coconut shells together to mimic the sound of horses' hooves-a time-honored Foley effect dating back to the early days of radio.
Being masters of absurdist humor, naturally, they had to call attention to it. Arthur and his trusty servant, Patsy (Gilliam), approach the castle of their first potential recruit. When Arthur informs the guards that they have "ridden the length and breadth of the land," one of the guards isn't having it. "What, ridden on a horse? You're using coconuts! You've got two empty halves of coconut, and you're bangin' 'em together!"
That raises the obvious question: Where did they get the coconuts? What follows is one of the greatest examples of nerd-gassing yet to appear on film. Arthur claims he and Patsy found them, but the guard is incredulous since the coconut is tropical and England is a temperate zone. Arthur counters by invoking the example of migrating swallows. Coconuts do not migrate, but Arthur suggests they could be carried by swallows gripping a coconut by the husk.
The guard still isn't having it. It's a question of getting the weight ratios right, you see, to maintain air-speed velocity. Another guard gets involved, suggesting it might be possible with an African swallow, but that species is non-migratory. And so on. The two are still debating the issue as an exasperated Arthur rides off to find another recruit.
The best part? There's a callback to that scene late in the film when the knights must answer three questions to cross the Bridge of Death or else be chucked into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. When it's Arthur's turn, the third question is "What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" Arthur asks whether this is an African or a European swallow. This stumps the Bridgekeeper, who gets flung into the gorge. Sir Belvedere asks how Arthur came to know so much about swallows. Arthur replies, "Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know."
The plucky Black Knight ("It's just a flesh wound!") will always hold a special place in my heart, but that debate over air-speed velocities of laden versus unladen swallows encapsulates what makes Holy Grail a timeless masterpiece.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.