Watch Monty Python And The Holy Grail, FULL MOVIE on Internet Archive
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 British comedy film based on the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) and directed by Gilliam and Jones in their feature directorial debuts. It was conceived during the hiatus between the third and fourth series of their BBC Television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
While the group’s first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, was a compilation of sketches from the first two television series, Holy Grail is an original story that parodies the legend of King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail. Thirty years later, Idle used the film as the basis for the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail grossed more than any other British film screened in the US in 1975, and has since been considered one of the greatest comedy films of all time. In the US, it was selected in 2011 as the second-best comedy of all time in the ABC special Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time behind Airplane!. In the UK, readers of Total Film magazine in 2000 ranked it the fifth-greatest comedy film of all time;[4] a similar poll of Channel 4 viewers in 2006 placed it sixth.[5]
Plot
The opening credits of the film feature pseudo-Swedish subtitles, which soon turn into an appeal to visit Sweden and see the country’s moose. The subtitles are soon stopped and claim that the people responsible have been sacked, but moose references continue throughout the actual credits. The subtitles were written by Michael Palin as a way to “entertain the ‘captive’ audience” at the beginning of the film.[6]
In AD 932, King Arthur and his squire Patsy, who claps coconut shells as Arthur mimes riding a horse, travel Britain searching for men to join the Knights of the Round Table. Along the way, Arthur debates whether swallows could carry coconuts, passes through a town infected with a plague, recounts receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake to two anarcho-syndicalist peasants, and defeats the Black Knight. At an impromptu witch trial, he recruits Sir Bedevere the Wise, later joined by Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot, and the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film, along with their squires and Robin’s minstrels. Arthur leads the knights to Camelot, but changes his mind after the knights in the castle perform a musical number, deeming it “a silly place”. God then appears and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail.
Arthur and his knights arrive at a castle occupied by French soldiers, who claim to have the Grail and taunt the Britons, driving them back with a barrage of barnyard animals. Bedevere concocts a plan to sneak in using a Trojan Rabbit, but forgets to tell the others to hide inside it; the Knights are forced to flee when it is flung back at them. Arthur decides the knights should go their separate ways to search for the Grail. Meanwhile, a modern-day historian filming a documentary on the Arthurian legends is killed by an unknown knight on horseback, triggering a police investigation.
Arthur and Bedevere are given directions by an old man and attempt to satisfy the strange requests of the dreaded Knights Who Say “Ni!”. Sir Robin avoids a fight with a Three-Headed Knight by running away while the heads are arguing amongst themselves. Sir Galahad is led by a grail-shaped beacon to Castle Anthrax, which is occupied exclusively by nubile young women, who wish to be punished for misleading him, but is “rescued” against his will by Lancelot. Lancelot receives an arrow-shot note from Swamp Castle. Believing the author is a lady being forced to marry against her will, he storms the castle and slaughters several wedding party members, only to discover the author is an effeminate prince.
Arthur and his knights regroup and are joined by Brother Maynard, his monk brethren, and three new knights: Bors, Gawain and Ector. They meet Tim the Enchanter, a pyromancer who directs them to a cave where the location of the Grail is said to be written. The entrance to the cave is guarded by the Rabbit of Caerbannog. Underestimating it, the knights attack, but the Rabbit easily kills Bors, Gawain and Ector. Arthur uses the “Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch”, provided by Brother Maynard, to destroy the creature. Inside the cave, they find an inscription from Joseph of Arimathea, directing them to “the Castle of Aarrgh”. They are interrupted by an attack from the animated “Legendary Black Beast” that lives in the cave, which devours Brother Maynard and pursues the others. Arthur and the knights escape after the film’s animator unexpectedly suffers a fatal heart attack, erasing the Black Beast.
The knights approach the Bridge of Death, where the bridge-keeper demands they answer three questions in order to pass or else be cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. Lancelot easily answers simple questions and crosses. An overly cocky Robin is defeated by an unexpectedly difficult question, and an indecisive Galahad fails an easy one; both are magically flung into the gorge. When Arthur asks for clarification on a question regarding the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, the bridge-keeper cannot answer and is himself thrown into the gorge.
Arthur and Bedevere cannot find Lancelot, unaware that he has been arrested by police investigating the historian’s death. They find Castle Aarrgh occupied by the French soldiers from earlier in the film. After being repelled by showers of manure, they summon an army of knights and prepare to assault the castle. As the army charges, the police arrive, arrest Arthur and Bedevere on suspicion of the murder of the historian, and break the camera, abruptly ending the film.
Cast
Graham Chapman as:
Arthur, King of the Britons
The hiccuping guard
The middle head of the Three-Headed Giant
The voice of God
John Cleese as:
Sir Lancelot the Brave
The Black Knight
French Taunter
Tim the Enchanter
And other roles
Terry Gilliam as:
Patsy (Arthur’s servant)
The Soothsaying Bridgekeeper
The Green Knight
Sir Bors
the Weak-Hearted Animator
And other roles
Eric Idle as:
Sir Robin the-not-quite-so-brave-as-Sir-Lancelot
Lancelot’s squire Concorde
The collector of the dead
Roger the Shrubber
Brother Maynard
And other roles
Terry Jones as:
Sir Bedevere the Wise
Prince Herbert
Dennis’ mother
The left head of the Three-Headed Giant
And other roles
Michael Palin as:
Sir Galahad the Pure
Leader of the Knights Who Say Ni
Lord of Swamp Castle
Dennis
The right head of the Three-Headed Giant
The Narrator
And other roles
Connie Booth as Miss Islington (the Witch)
Carol Cleveland as Zoot and Dingo, the identical twin sisters
Neil Innes as the Leader of Robin’s Minstrels, Head Monk, Knight of Camelot, and the Servant Crushed by Rabbit.
Bee Duffell as the Old Crone
John Young as Frank the Historian and the Old Man
Rita Davies as Frank’s Wife
Avril Stewart as Dr. Piglet
Sally Kinghorn as Dr. Winston
Sandy Johnson as a Knight Who Says Ni, Villager at Witch Burning, Musician at Wedding, Monk, and Knight in Battle
Julian Doyle as Police Sergeant (uncredited)
Charles Knode as Camp Guard and Robin’s Minstrel (uncredited)
Roy Forge Smith as Inspector at End of Film (uncredited)
Maggie Weston as Page Turner (uncredited)