Monty Python And The Holy Grail
A film that routinely tops many polls of movie fans as being āthe greatest comedy ever madeā, there can be little doubt that it does represent the 6 members of the legendary British comedy group Monty Python at the absolute peak of their powers, coming off the heels of their BBC sketch show in 1975, and is far funnier and more well done than any of their later cinematic work also. The fact that Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle,Terry Jones, and Michael Palin managed to not only tell a coherent story, but also played multiple roles each and (with the exception of the easily recognizable Idle) convincingly make all of them unique and distinct in their own way, says boatloads about the versatility that they embodied for years, not to mention doing so in a way that overcomes the productionās obvious low budget, as the same castles and settings are seemingly reused time and time again throughout the film, making it possible that the entire location shoot could very well be contained within a few miles radius. The plot involves King Arthur (Chapman) and his loyal servant Patsy (Gilliam) as they travel around and recruit different Knights to be members of the round table, including Sir Bedevere (Jones), Sir Lancelot (Cleese), Sir Galahad (Palin), and Sir Robin (Idle), when suddenly they receive a commandmant from God: Seek out and find the legendary Holy Grail and all good things foretold will come to pass. At this point thereās no longer any reason to discuss the plot but rather marvel at the various comic setpieces throughout, which all range from fairly good to hilariously great, with the two standouts that still hold up the most for this viewer after scores of viewings being first Galahad (who has taken a vow of chastity) winding up at a castle filled with a bevy of beautiful young women who are so excited that a brave, strong Knight has arrived to finally deflower them, and the other being when Lancelot crashes a royal wedding party mistakenly thinking that heās there to rescue a damsel in distress and winds up literally slaughtering a bunch of wedding guests, made even funnier by the fact that the revelers are having such a good time celebrating the impending nuptials that they make little to no effort to fight back when the heroic Lancelot is butchering them. However, thereās plenty of other awesome classic bits for the viewer to enjoy, including the gory Black Knight sequence; the confrontation between Arthur and a peasant named Dennis whose political views offend the Kingās ears; Bedevereās scientific experiment to prove if a beautiful girl is really a witch like an angry mob claims; Sir Robin and his minstrel who sings happily of his liegeās cowardice; and of course the infamous Killer Rabbit, maybe the most famous animal performance in the history of comedy. This of course is just a selection from among many, many other bits, suffice to say that the Pythons go so far with their lunatic storytelling that they literally break down the fourth wall, as well as the boundaries of time and space with the ending. There is absolutely no doubting their genius or sense of timing, and that perhaps is why this movie has endured decades after its release while weāve seen one unfunny lump of crap excuse for a comedy come and go, because it perfectly captures the sense of ridiculous characters in absurd situations, and that sort of comedy, when done right, is the kind of comedy that never gets oldā¦
10/10