First time I saw this film at the theatre. During the *Intermission* scene. The movie house *ACTUALLY CLOSED THE CURTAINS & TURNED ON THE HOUSE LIGHTS. THEN TURNING OFF THE HOUSE LIGHTS & OPENING THE CURTAINS* in that short time frame. Even *The Movie Theatre* itself got in on the joke. That "Intermission" & "the animator had a fatal heart attack" scenes were my *favorites.* They were sooooo Monty Python.
@@matthewrawls1184 - *it was a first run movie theatre* (back when movie theatres had mainly one, maybe two screens plus a balcony). This showing was near my home (few miles away). Saw it a few more times at a second run theatre.
I'll never forget watching this in a theater when it first came out. I'd never heard of Monty Python, and had no idea of what I was in for. I was in a terrible mood when I entered the theater, but found myself laughing to the point of tears, simply by sitting through the opening credits. A memory I'll always cherish. It's hard to pick a favorite scene, but the peasants arguing with Arthur over class systems is near the top.
Ah, those were the days, when you go into a cinema to discover a world and a movie that you have never seen anything like before! My first experience of Python too, which kindled an undying love of that kind of humour and creativity. Always look on the bright side of life! -thank you Python!
I love stories like this. It gives more layers to something so simple. My 3 favorite scenes are the black knight fight, the bridge of death, and the rabbit attack
On top of how clever the movie is, they managed to make the dialogue endlessly quotable. Virtually every scene is in some way memorable because of this.
@@jdgustofwinddance.7748 Are you supposing coconuts migrate? What is your name? I blow my nose in your general dyrection, pleh. Bring forth the Holy Hand Grenade
One thing I noticed with the Sir Lancelot scene where he slaughters all the civilians is that later, when the prince was found to be alive after falling from the window, when he begins to sing all of the people in the room get up to join him. *Even the people who are supposed to be dead and had been lying still up until that point.*
That might have been inspired by Elizabethan theatre. At the end of a tragedy like Hamlet or Romeo & Juliet, all the cast, including the "dead" on the stage, would get up and do a silly song and dance number to end the show
Since it's my name I get to say the line every time someone meets me for the first time, "There are some who call me... Tim.." ....most people don't get it.. it's very sad.. they almost always say "oh..." and try to avoid eye contact after that.
And yet _Holy Grail_ does obey the first rule of good storytelling: it picks a consistent theme and sticks with it. The theme is expressed, in this case, not through action, dialogue, character development or plot, but through being the point of at least 75% of the jokes -- namely, "This violence is completely pointless."
This has always been one of my favorite comedy films. To answer one of your questions, I was one of those guys in the 1970s who saw it in the theater. This was actually my introduction to Monty Python, because I had not yet seen the Flying Circus series (in the US it was on Public TV at odd times, and I didn't actually know what it was until after I saw this movie). Anyway, at the end of the film, my friend and I were totally fooled by the fake film break, and we did sit there in the theater (and so did everyone else) for at least five minutes assuming the film was going to get going again. When the lights came up, we were like, "WTF?". It actually pissed us off at the time, but we grew to appreciate how we were kind of part of the joke, it was part of immersing the audience in the fakery. Also, concerning the coconuts/horses....if you watch Patsy banging the coconuts, you see that the sounds don't match the action, which means in addition to the coconuts representing fake horses, they actually were fake coconut sounds, added in post. It's like the fakery was itself fake, at least two layers deep. In fact, it makes me wonder if those are even real coconuts they are carrying, they seem so accurately sawn in half, more like little wooden bowls. It's like, the deeper you dig in the sounds and visuals, the more discordant it gets. I could go on and on, but I won't, but thanks for this analysis. In fact, I'm sure you could do a Part 2 and there would be plenty more to analyze.
Haha, yeah I can believe the ending pissed ppl off in the cinema. A really gutsy thing they did with that ending - like a defiance of the audience. That thing about the fake coconut sounds I'd picked up on too, but hadn't noticed the halves might be fake as well. These guys were so smart - layers of intelligence to their humour.
Seeing this first run in ‘75 at age 14, I was already a rabid Python fan via public tv. But that ending fooled me big time. Sat there thinking the film actually broke or something. I was fairly pissed at the time although I loved everything up to then. I’ve gotten over that but it’s still a part of my Python experience! They pulled one over on that 14 year old me. Hilarious.
He didn't mention my favorite joke in the end scene, where a cop slaps a shield out of a knights hand with the line "Put that down, that's an offensive weapon that is!" Officer I'm fairly certain that shields are in fact, for defensive purposes.
To be fair, that cop might just be a historian or something. Shields were used offensively using the rim as a blunt edge. Only a fair few shields were used expressly as defensive constructs such as the roman scutum and the pavise.
13:19 Fun fact: the "inhuman accuracy" here might seem like an action-movie cliche, but it's something Sir Perceval did in Chretien de Troyes' 12th-century poem about him. He kills a knight in the same way near the beginning of the poem, throwing a stick through the guy's eye from a distance. So it's a type of amazing feat that people have always imagined in swashbuckling stories.
Except this is that but even MORE extreme, throwing a two-handed sword like a spear (which is impossible), having it fly perfectly so that the double-edges are still sideways, having it then perfectly slide through the eye-slit of the man's helmet (which is *_perfectly_* sized for the sword), and for the sword to impale out the back of his head anyway, clearly demonstrating that it could have just gone through the helmet in the first place..
In the „Nibelungenlied“ (a centuries old epic), a musician manages to kill thousands of soldiers with his BOW (like the thing people use to play the violin), brandishing it like a sword. IN ONE CONTINUOUS FIGHT.
There are many seemingly absurd jokes in Holy Grail that seem more like references. Arthurian literature can be quite over the top and absurd itself at times. Even the "historical inconsistencies" in the film are probably references. The Trojan Rabbit seems like a random throwback, but the story of Troy (and Rome) was often retold in the Arthurian Cycles as a kind of origin story for chivalry and the knightly tradition. Even the inexplicable castles with French knights could be a reference to the fact that the vast majority of Arthurian poems were written in France and other continental countries. That's why I love this movie. Some of the bizarre jokes seem totally inappropriate for an Arthurian film, but are almost taken straight from the source material. It's a common occurrence in filmmaking, that many actual historical facts have to be left out, to conform to the audience's perception of what looks "realistic". The ridiculously filthy peasants in Holy Grail could almost be a parody of later historical epics like Kingdom of Heaven and their "realistic" portrayals of medieval commoners.
10:24 The greatest example of all is 1977 Star Wars. George Lucas didn't want any opening title credits to be at the beginning. He was the first to do so with much protest.
yeah, aren't the rules for credits on films made under (union/gild?) specific? I think Lucas broke said rules, paid the membership fine and then left the (guild/union/) not sure which organisation?
@@gepisar , yup. It's all for copyrights and the guild. DePalma talked Lucas into the scroll which is genius but in 99% of films, the sequence is bland and serves no purpose outside of legalities to screenwriters and such. Hitchcock and Kubrick are on a very small list of filmmakers who used the opening credit sequences creatively.
@@mk-ultramags1107 While not really creative in a story driving way, the Bond films always had great opening titles in the sense that they were actually artistic instead of just a blend show of names underscored by the film's main theme.
I’ve always loved the non sequitur ending of The Holy Grail. A lot of the old Flying Circus bits would end with the police conveniently coming in to put a stop to whatever comedic situation was afoot, to the point that The Argument Clinic sketch ends with them breaking the 4th wall break by saying the Flying Circus is guilty under law for using the fuzz arriving as an ending over and over again. It’s funny how in this film you actually see someone call the police and slowly piece together Arthur’s trail, like for once there’s an actual cause and effect at play with the police joke, however once you think about how pointless it was for the knights of the round table to murder some random historian in the forest you realize that the joke is that the setup is completely arbitrary and stupid lol. Such a clever spin on their running gag.
@@ReddwarfIV worse, the Knight who Killed the Historian (KwKtH) rode a horse (which none of the Kniggits of the Round Table had) and wore a blue gryphon on his tunic (which none of the KotRT had).
Or an army colonel played by Graham Chapman saying what a silly sketch it was and then introducing the hermits on the mountain who actually socialise with each other more than most people do.
There's actually an interesting history to it. I think, at least. Sound recording equipment, for many many years, was too cumbersome to be able to record the sounds of horse footfalls, except in extraordinarily short bursts. Thus, for a long time, an alternative sound was required, and while not the only solution, coconuts being clapped together was a common one. The humorous thing is that, once sound recording equipment advanced to the point where is could accompany or follow behind a horse to pick up the noise, many audiences actually found the genuine sound of horse hooves less evocative of horse hooves than the old mockeries, and so continued to be used for some time. I have no idea if things like coconuts are still used, I assume synthesized sounds are used instead nowadays.
After I saw the holy grail as a kid, I asked my mom to buy a coconut from the grocery store, and I hollowed it out to make the hoof sounds...😁 (which is a satisfying sound to make) I also was in concert band at the time and brought the coconuts to school because we were playing a piece of music that needed some sound effects, and it worked!😁
In the 2008 special edition dvd they actually begin the movie with the opening credits to a completely different movie. After the credits end you hear a projectionist mutter about how they’ve got the he wrong film. Next we see a sign that says “one moment while we change reels.
It was "Dentist on the Job" - I was very confused the first time I watched my DVD copy since I'd not seen that bit on any other copies of the movie before.
Fun point about the Pythons always playing several different characters: When they enter the village looking for a shrubbery, they torture an old woman by saying NI at her. It wasn't until they finished filming the scene that they wondered why they bothered hiring an actress to play the old crone since one of them could've just done it with no issue. One of the rare times they followed a conventional film rule and then immediately realized they could've just broken that too!
Something of a theory I develop to rationalize the insanity of the movie's inconsistency is that Arthur, his knights and generally everybody else in the movie not in the modern day are cosplayers, all taking part in a big elaborate LARP session that goes horribly wrong when one of the cosplayers kills someone. Curiously, that knight had a horse and yet literally everybody else in the movie didn't. Was that knight just some random rich guy who stumbled into the session and after getting too carried away, killed someone by accident? Either way, the police arrested the wrong people.
Interesting! (About the horse rider killer not even being part of our python gang) Cuz I just noticed viewing the video above that when the cops pull up the woman says "that's them I'm sure of it!!" But you can't even see them when she says it as there's a huge truck in the way. Ordinarily id ignore this detail it's all chaos, but thanks to this video and all the comments you realize the Pythons DID think of every detail and on multiple levels!
You're right about missing things the first time round; "AD 932" never struck me before, but it might be a joke from medieval scholar, Terry Jones. If a historical Arthur existed he'd have lived in the 5th/6th Centuries, whilst the more familiar "Hollywood" Arthur was a product of the 12th/13th Centuries onwards. 932 is completely out of whack, whichever version of Arthur we pick.
I saw this in the theater in 1975. Since you had asked about the intermission, I want to say that, Yes, there were epic movies that I had watched somewhere during my 21 years. Intermissions were common at drive-in theaters that allowed us in the cars to make our way to the concession stand and back to our auto before the movie resumed. As to my experience in the theater with MPATHG, the intermission appeared as a joke. It then went on just long enough to lead people to believe it might be a real intermission. The timing was impeccable. Had it been shorter, I and other members of the audience would have reacted with "Oh, this is a joke intermission." However the seconds longer that it went on made it now appear that it was real. Some people did stand, only to have the movie resume. It quite reminds me of "Her Majesty" at the end of the Abbey Road album by the Beatles. When an album ended, the track would direct the needle to the center of the record, which engaged the record player to lift the arm and return it to the resting position, or, if albums were stacked, drop the next record to be played. The blank space after the end of the last song and the engagement of the mechanism was fairly standard on records of the day. When the jarring opening chord of "Her Majesty" would blare out during the time one was expecting silence, would often surprise or startle listeners, even after hearing the album previously. This reaction is completely lost on listeners of CDs, any tape media or digital media of today. So there.
"Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who". I remember sitting around in college, in the 1970s, laughing our asses off recalling this film and all it's crazy funny one liners. "Strange women, lying around in ponds, handing out swords is no basis for a form of government"! It's funnier talking about it, than actually watching it. So Great!
I think the funniest scene ever, in anything, that is any movie, television show, etc. is the scene where Brian leaps from the tower and ends up landing safely. I won't spoil anything but the most I ever laughed in my life was watching that scene.
@@guilhermefranco2930 Yes, much of the rest of Life of Brian is absolutely funny as well. Okay, for anyone reading this command, below is a major spoiler for the movie so don't read on if you have never watched the movie. In fact, if you haven't watched either Life of Brian or The Holy Grail, then what are you still doing here? Get!!! Anyway, what got me about the rescue scene in Life of Brian is that Brian runs up the stairs to the top of the tower with the Romans in hot pursuit. Now, we've all seen this same type of scene countless times in other movies. We *know* that Brian is going to jump off the top and land in a passing cart filled with hay, or whatever, so it was already funny that they were going with the obvious cliche. But after he jumps.... well, it's not as funny that he gets saved when jumping - it's HOW he gets saved in the most outlandish, ridiculous, contrived, over the top, and out of left field, 'where the hell did THAT come from?' way that absolutely took my by surprise and left me in hysterics for at least fifteen minutes after that. I was at a friend's house and we were watching the movie on VHS - they had to pause the movie until I could control myself. So, maybe it was how the scene hit me, but that was absolutely the funnhist s*** I ever saw, or have ever seen, in my life.
I showed this to my girlfriend and her 2 children who are from Mexico and hadn't even heard of Monty Python before. They laughed all the way through, right until the police show up to stop the storming of the castle. As soon as the credits started rolling, she looked at me, and in the saddest, most despondent tone said "amor... no..." while her kids ran in circles, hands to the sky, screaming all the interrogatives. My favorite memory of any movie.
A couple side notes that weren't really brought up is how every time the book of the movie is shown someone else's hand is there, almost pointing to how this story is all over the place. And at 24:10 where Arthur even flinched at the loud music starting up
I love the witch scene that pushes logic to insanity to get to an answer that does not make sense, something often seen in movies and only revealed if you really think about it.
As regards how old the word “shit” is, it’s actually a very old indo-European word meaning to split. In fact the words split, ship, and sever are cognate with shit.
I was weaned on Python comedy - one of my favourite parts of the Holy Grail is at the end when they are all arrested - it seems like either the writers ran out of ideas or they ran out of money . . . so, they ended the movie with a mass arrest. Brilliant regardless.
I think the French are there to comment there has been French input to the Arthurian myth/legend, which is supposed to be Uber British/English. Or it might be that historically the French and the English were enemies, but that seems to easy. Plus, the French guard tells Arthur they already got a grial. The intermission is a great moment because it happens near the end of the film and is completely unnecessary.
Chrétien de Troyes... But beware the Snark that is actually a Boojum. In 932 large swathes of France were actually part of England (or at least contested) until the Norman conquest of 1066 when the 'French' took over England.
Worth noting that I still have an old VHS copy of the movie, and there are a fair number of differences. In the more recent edition, Michael Palin is the narrator, but he was not on my VHS version. Some of the narrator lines also change. The whole sequence of the Tale of Sir Galahad is quite different - that whole sequence where Dingo questions the existence of the scene in the movie never happens. The ending in the VHS just...ends. Done. The intermission music isn't there. Also, obviously there are no end credits. All of the people responsible for making them had been sacked at the start.
The “get on with it” aside sequence with Dingo (Carol Cleveland) was not in the original American release of the film. Having seen Grail dozens of times at midnight shows in the ’70s, memorized it, quoted it at countless D&D games, imagine my shock watching it at a friend’s house, not knowing it was the British version, and Carol Cleveland suddenly breaking OOC and addressing the camera with ENTIRELY DIFFERENT DIALOGUE. The film is gift to mankind that keeps on giving.
@@AetherTales I grew up on the American VHS version in the 80s and I never saw Dingo break out of character. Also, the narrator sounded different. I'm not sure who it was.
Yes, they used to use coconuts as horse hoofs in movies. I saw an old short film about the foley artist. It was black and white and probably from the fifties. In it, they show all the things that they would use to make sounds. I also remember that thunder was a thin sheet steel that the waved violently. They had a old wash board but I forget what sound it represented. Raw meat, all kinds of stuff is used by the foley artist.
I like how it's an extremely memeable movie. Examples: - "Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?" - the holy hand grenade - the killer rabbit
The nordic lookin subtitles are using "Ø" and "Ä" together which is quite weird because in Danish/nowegian we use "Ø" and "Æ" and in german/swedish they use "ö" and "Ä"... Mixing the two seems very made up to me :P
Vät äre yu tälken abøøt? Dät iss der linguäge øv mai hømeländ. It iss a realli bëautiføl linguäge. Vi alsø realli läik den Mønty Pythøn møøvies in mai hømeländ.
My dad introduced me to Monty Python when I was a teenager. This came on Comedy Central on a Friday night and we watched it together. I never laughed so hard. It started my love for British comedy. Having lost him last May has been really rough but this brought back a wonderful memory.
Until today, the question-bridge scene makes me laugh so hard that I can't hold my tears. The dumb scenes makes this movie brilliant. I can watch it over and over, but the puns never gets boring.
Another thing to notice is when the Famous Historian is dead, you can still see him breathing (or maybe that's just my eyes being funny), which adds to the whole ridiculousness of this movie
Sorry, not gonna finish the episode. I never saw Monty Python, and 9 minutes in I'm dying on the floor from laughter. I'll be back once I watch the movie!
I believe that the titles are actually in Mock Swedish, as spoken by the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show. One of the guests actually learned Mock Swedish by correspondence and found out he wasn't speaking real Swedish.
The bit at Castle Anthrax where Zoot (or was it her "twin sister"?) talks about her scene not being cut was actually cut from the VHS version of the film, but is in the DVD. An additional funny bit there.
I actually don’t think it was in the theatrical version of the movie-at least not the version I saw way back in the 70s. My housemate and I watched the movie just last night, and the scene was unfamiliar to me (although I’ve certainly seen the film multiple times before).
Yes, the DVD version I have proudly announces that a whole X number of seconds of new footage has been added, specifically the "Get on with it!" scene that I didn't recall seeing before on the VHS version (I'm much too young to have seen it in theaters).
On the start of the Tale of Sir Robbin (20:00), those cliffs and the surroundings are covered in Eucalypts, so clearly that's filmed in Australia. Which then cuts to very much not a euc forest.
15:05 God DOES say why he's sending them after the grail: "Arthur, King of the Britons, your Knights of the Round Table shall have a task to make them an example in these dark times." Essentially, it's to give people hope that such noble knights exist to do such noble things as find this holiest of artifacts, the grail that Jesus drank from at the last supper. Bit vague, for sure, but the rationale for sending them after the grail is pretty clear.
It’s a red flag if you bring up this movie to a new acquaintance/friend and they haven’t seen it. How could one understand modern humor without experiencing the very essence of comedy?
I wouldn't necessarily say its a red flag if they haven't seen it, maybe if they've seen it and think its absolute crap, or refuse to give it a try for no or illogical reasons. If they just don't get the comedy that's fine. To each their own.
37:00 I discovered Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the late 1970s, during some kind of strike that forced the CBC to play movies more or less continuously. Whoever put on the Grail had the genius of immediately following it with what looked like a documentary on Norway. Another Python production, of course!
15:20 really bizarre for him to say that when just by thinking for a little bit reminded me that the Grail and Fleece were to be obtained to prove one's kingship, and both getting obtained heralds the end of their rule.
Your points about the serious, grand soundtrack were definitely *subconsciously* intentional on the directors' part at least! Originally the movie had a totally different score by Neil Innes, using period-accurate instruments (Sir Robin's song is an example that made it into the final cut). But Gilliam and Jones found that it sounded too "quaint" and that extra-serious, epic-sounding music made the film much funnier, since it acted as a contrast and foil to the absurd humor. So their conscious reason for choosing the epic music was a basic rule of comedy: silly humor is way, way funnier if it's contrasted with a serious tone. But as you point out, that contrast is always satirical on a deeper level, even if the creators weren't thinking about that at the time.
To my ear, it also sounds like the dramatic orchestral recording was deliberately corrupted to imitate the "sword-and-sandal" orchestral recording sound. Wow and flutter, bad frequency reproduction, sound sped up to match the film rate. It sounds much cheaper than it must have been to produce.
Little fun facts -In non English versions th scene about the cut scene is not dubbed but the original -The German name of the movie is Ritter der Kokusnuss (Knights of the coconut)
Rob already did a lot on some good Kubrick movies, I’m really excited about this one. He has a way of making inferences that tend to not be too far-fetched, and he’ll often even admit “Okay, this could be far-fetched, but this is what I think after so many careful watches.” It’s a lot more respectable than many other channels who clickbait and claim everything is 100% what they say.
When my group of friends first saw this, we watched it 3 or 4 times one day, back-to-back at least once, and we were all sore from laughing the whole time, and finding new jokes each time. I remember we re-wound the cow flinging scene several times. We could NOT get enough of the movie, and the rented VHS tape went from house to house for small viewing parties until it had to be returned.
1:20 This wasn't their first film, though it's easy to overlook it. Their first movie was literally just a 35mm widescreen reshooting of a series of sketches from the first season titled "And Now For Something Completely Different" and it was really there to advertise the show in foreign markets. It's also a great document of certain bits of Great Britain in 1970, just pay attention to the backgrounds, because they shot it on locations and not on a set.
One of the greatest Epics ever put on the screen. Words cannot describe the utter poetry and brilliance of MPATHG (Monty Python And The Holy Grail that is). A caleidoscope of multifacetted character study and interwoven plot lines any modern fiction writer would envy.
@@collativelearning what I love is in that scene we see Sir Bedivere testing to see if a swallow can carry a coconut...even though he wasn’t present during the coconut scene at the beginning of the movie so how would he know to try the test?
One more interesting gag about the “Famous Historian” scene, we know it’s not one of the main characters who killed him because he was actually riding a horse
You forgot to mention how all the slaughtered guards and guests spring to life (despite being bloodstained) as soon as the musical number begins at the end
36:31 I wasn't alive when Holy Grail was released and I first watched it like 40 years later on DVD and I actually sat through the black screen wondering if any credits will pop up.
That Golden Fleece story you reference actually had to due with a Greek tale about Jason and his Argonauts. It's quite good, look it up. It's at about 15:30 ish
I love the internal consistency of this film. Bedevere is complimented by Arthur at the end of the witch scene: 'Who are you who is so well versed in science' poking fun at Medieval reasoning. However it turns out the girl does weigh the same as a duck and breaks the fourth wall with a simple: 'It's a fair cop'. On set, Gilliam was trying very hard to make a 'real' movie and became very cross with Jones, who was happy to just replicate their sketch comedy television aesthetic. (It is Gilliam with a hard G, a la Guilliam, not a soft one a la Jilliam, b the way)...
The girl was being sarcastic because when she and then duck are removed from the scale you see the scale was rigged to tilt to one side, the duck’s side, so the duck would appear to weigh as much as the girl
i just came across your channel while searching "making of the holy grail" and i can't tell you enough about how happy i am to have done so! definitely worth an instant-sub. can't wait to see what's next.
I saw Spamalot here in my local Pavilion many years ago, it is smaller scale compared to the original Broadway version, but it does mock stage plays a lot. Even the Knight who say Ni literally used a ladder on display.
I seem to recall seeing movies in which not even the title is shown at the beginning of the movie. I also noticed in those movies that the normal standard order of opening credits of the major creative people behind the camera is in the reverse order at the end compared to when it's at the beginning, although the actors are still in order of standard billing. I'm really surprised you haven't seen many movies like that, or at least haven't noticed. I can't tell you which ones in particular were like that, but it's been plenty. Of course, I watch very few movies these days, and am very picky about ones that I see, so maybe it's just a stylistic choice by the kind of movies I like to see.
Fun fact: there were originally supposed to be horses but they ran out of money. Then one of them came up with the idea of coconuts and they thought it was even funnier.
@18:18 - the clapperboard even has "MP and the HG" with both director names and head of cinematography on it. In addition, according to the Monty Python website, Holy Grail was filmed "for 5 weeks during April and May", and the clapperboard states "May 24th". So that scene was most likely filmed during what is known as the "pick-up shots" stage of production, which always takes place at the very end of shooting schedules. Quite possibly amongst the last thing shot on location for the film!
Did you notice, in the Intermission background, there are what appear to be screaming faces? I forgot what it's called when we see faces in things, but it hardly looks accidental.
9:56 dk if it's been mentioned b4 or not: the opening title sequence largely alludes to the one of "the seventh seal" w style+sound effects + northern germanic laguage subtitles
Pre-written narration but still hard to record it without giggling here and there. That's something I find incredible about the Pythons - their ability to give hilarious performances of insane scenes and keep a totally straight face.
The brilliance of the ending. Is that, it is a “cop out” ending. Literally, ended by cops.
It's a fair cop.
Dangit
Out of all the times I've watched this, how have I never noticed how unsatisfying the end should be?
A gag used in "Flying Circus" several times, such as in the Argument Sketch.
Idk but I feel it kinda sad
First time I saw this film at the theatre. During the *Intermission* scene. The movie house *ACTUALLY CLOSED THE CURTAINS & TURNED ON THE HOUSE LIGHTS. THEN TURNING OFF THE HOUSE LIGHTS & OPENING THE CURTAINS* in that short time frame. Even *The Movie Theatre* itself got in on the joke.
That "Intermission" & "the animator had a fatal heart attack" scenes were my *favorites.* They were sooooo Monty Python.
That is hilarious and brilliant!!! Was that when the movie originally came out or a showing that happened many years after the film was released?
@@matthewrawls1184 - *it was a first run movie theatre* (back when movie theatres had mainly one, maybe two screens plus a balcony). This showing was near my home (few miles away). Saw it a few more times at a second run theatre.
@@kevinthetruckdriver353 That makes it even more impressive. Thanks for sharing!
Hahaha I love that they did this 😂🤣😂
@@kevinthetruckdriver353 I'm not even upset that I wasn't there. Just knowing that it happened is so great
fun fact, in germany this movie was titled: The knights of the coconuts.
That's pretty cool actually!
@@whenyouwalking it’s because they don’t ride on horses, and they use coconuts to make horse clopping sounds.
@@robbiewalker2831 i only wanted to state how our german humor works. ;)
@@ottonormal3354 there’s German humour?
@@macmuggo5459 not for me, im a former drill instructor and german, if i try to make a joke, ppl get hurt arround me.
The ending of the film suggests a sequel:
Month Python and the Holy Bail.
Good one.
I swear if this was intentional...
I’m hoping they plan a sequel! 😁😄
@@recapnerd2657 Yeah, not happening, buddy.
@@The_Algae a guy could dream! 😭
@@recapnerd2657 like... After that they did life of brian and the meaning of life. I don't think they have a sequel in mind for any of those
I'll never forget watching this in a theater when it first came out. I'd never heard of Monty Python, and had no idea of what I was in for. I was in a terrible mood when I entered the theater, but found myself laughing to the point of tears, simply by sitting through the opening credits. A memory I'll always cherish. It's hard to pick a favorite scene, but the peasants arguing with Arthur over class systems is near the top.
Ah, those were the days, when you go into a cinema to discover a world and a movie that you have never seen anything like before!
My first experience of Python too, which kindled an undying love of that kind of humour and creativity.
Always look on the bright side of life! -thank you Python!
@@johnnybgoodeish Absolutely. :)
I love stories like this. It gives more layers to something so simple. My 3 favorite scenes are the black knight fight, the bridge of death, and the rabbit attack
@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 That rabbit's dynamite!
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
On top of how clever the movie is, they managed to make the dialogue endlessly quotable. Virtually every scene is in some way memorable because of this.
Except the scene with the three-headed knight slayer.
@@jdgustofwinddance.7748 Are you supposing coconuts migrate?
What is your name?
I blow my nose in your general dyrection, pleh.
Bring forth the Holy Hand Grenade
We are the knights who say NI!
Bring us a SHRUBBERY
this was the most meme movie ever made, before memes
There isn't a single scene that is not memorable. At least, not one I can remember.
it's actually good writing that the discussion about swallows at the start had a pay-off with the bridge of death scene
Chekhov's Swallow
Also Bedevere is testing the theory of carrying cococuts in his first scene
This was maybe my favorite bit in the movie for just that reason.
Set up, reminder, payoff. Perfect!
@@leonsantana3646
Which one? European or African?
One thing I noticed with the Sir Lancelot scene where he slaughters all the civilians is that later, when the prince was found to be alive after falling from the window, when he begins to sing all of the people in the room get up to join him. *Even the people who are supposed to be dead and had been lying still up until that point.*
In the life of Brian many dead soldiers also sing in the last song
And the prince doesn't sing a note.
That might have been inspired by Elizabethan theatre. At the end of a tragedy like Hamlet or Romeo & Juliet, all the cast, including the "dead" on the stage, would get up and do a silly song and dance number to end the show
The subtitles are something we Norwegians like to call: Norwenglish. It's mixing Norwegian and English language. Making it sound super corny.
I assume it was meant to be Swenglish since it actually starts randomly shilling for tourism in Sweden at some point.
@@HaganeNoGijutsushi But it uses Norwegian and Danish alphabetical characters and only references to Sweden in the sentences
Ø and æ is often used thinking it is a swedish letter abroad. Though I have always seen it as a swedish/norwegian/english mix, so norswenglish
Isn't it the joke that they mix up the nordic countries?
@@lebens3585 It's Monty Python, their jokes have jokes.
"They can play old women, old men, young men."
You could just call him Dennis.
Dennis Reynolds?
The golden god. He hasn’t even begun to peak.
@Dondolf Trumpler omb ace fighter pilot I didn't know he was 37
@@thenorthstarronin You didn’t ask!
I didn't know they were called Dennis.
On second thought, let’s not go to comments section. It is a silly place.
I...I actually *hurt* myself reading your comment, Sir! Well done! 😂👍
god tier comment
D'you think this thread should've bee cut? We were so worried when the boys were writing it. But now we're glad!
@@TheRojo387 Get on with it!
@@TheRojo387 *GET ON WITH IT*
I still giggle at the "Brave Sir Robin" song. And Tim the Enchanter is the best.
So many great scenes, not sure I could pick a favourite. Tale of Sir Lancelot always gets me though.
Since it's my name I get to say the line every time someone meets me for the first time, "There are some who call me... Tim.."
....most people don't get it.. it's very sad.. they almost always say "oh..." and try to avoid eye contact after that.
@@SPFLDAngler worth it
@@SPFLDAngler Yeah, that's a good test of whether you will want to get to know them better or not.
@@collativelearning 'Are we gonna ahgue over 'oo killed 'oo'...
And yet _Holy Grail_ does obey the first rule of good storytelling: it picks a consistent theme and sticks with it. The theme is expressed, in this case, not through action, dialogue, character development or plot, but through being the point of at least 75% of the jokes -- namely, "This violence is completely pointless."
This has always been one of my favorite comedy films. To answer one of your questions, I was one of those guys in the 1970s who saw it in the theater. This was actually my introduction to Monty Python, because I had not yet seen the Flying Circus series (in the US it was on Public TV at odd times, and I didn't actually know what it was until after I saw this movie). Anyway, at the end of the film, my friend and I were totally fooled by the fake film break, and we did sit there in the theater (and so did everyone else) for at least five minutes assuming the film was going to get going again. When the lights came up, we were like, "WTF?". It actually pissed us off at the time, but we grew to appreciate how we were kind of part of the joke, it was part of immersing the audience in the fakery. Also, concerning the coconuts/horses....if you watch Patsy banging the coconuts, you see that the sounds don't match the action, which means in addition to the coconuts representing fake horses, they actually were fake coconut sounds, added in post. It's like the fakery was itself fake, at least two layers deep. In fact, it makes me wonder if those are even real coconuts they are carrying, they seem so accurately sawn in half, more like little wooden bowls. It's like, the deeper you dig in the sounds and visuals, the more discordant it gets. I could go on and on, but I won't, but thanks for this analysis. In fact, I'm sure you could do a Part 2 and there would be plenty more to analyze.
Haha, yeah I can believe the ending pissed ppl off in the cinema. A really gutsy thing they did with that ending - like a defiance of the audience. That thing about the fake coconut sounds I'd picked up on too, but hadn't noticed the halves might be fake as well. These guys were so smart - layers of intelligence to their humour.
Seeing this first run in ‘75 at age 14, I was already a rabid Python fan via public tv. But that ending fooled me big time. Sat there thinking the film actually broke or something. I was fairly pissed at the time although I loved everything up to then. I’ve gotten over that but it’s still a part of my Python experience! They pulled one over on that 14 year old me. Hilarious.
He didn't mention my favorite joke in the end scene, where a cop slaps a shield out of a knights hand with the line "Put that down, that's an offensive weapon that is!" Officer I'm fairly certain that shields are in fact, for defensive purposes.
I am picking up on so much I have missed by reading these comments, and I have seen the movie at least 15 times
I mean cops actually do like to classify shields as offensive weapons so they can arrest protestors using shields
To be fair, that cop might just be a historian or something. Shields were used offensively using the rim as a blunt edge. Only a fair few shields were used expressly as defensive constructs such as the roman scutum and the pavise.
@@Van-qp7eh Even certain types of pavise were specifically made to be able to be used offensively.
yaYA!!!
go to TEM SHOP!!!
When the wizard kept shooting random fireballs during the conversation I started dying. It’s just soooo stupid haha
And a flamethrower from his stick. If they'd have the budget, they've gone Revenge of the Ninja on the flamethrowers.
@@jocaerbannog9052 haha
It's that cheesy sound that they give to the firework explosion which blows up the tree that always gets me.
“I can see you’re a busy man...”
Oh, come on. Don't tell me you wouldn't do that if you had such powers powers. 😋
13:19 Fun fact: the "inhuman accuracy" here might seem like an action-movie cliche, but it's something Sir Perceval did in Chretien de Troyes' 12th-century poem about him.
He kills a knight in the same way near the beginning of the poem, throwing a stick through the guy's eye from a distance. So it's a type of amazing feat that people have always imagined in swashbuckling stories.
Except this is that but even MORE extreme, throwing a two-handed sword like a spear (which is impossible), having it fly perfectly so that the double-edges are still sideways, having it then perfectly slide through the eye-slit of the man's helmet (which is *_perfectly_* sized for the sword), and for the sword to impale out the back of his head anyway, clearly demonstrating that it could have just gone through the helmet in the first place..
In the „Nibelungenlied“ (a centuries old epic), a musician manages to kill thousands of soldiers with his BOW (like the thing people use to play the violin), brandishing it like a sword. IN ONE CONTINUOUS FIGHT.
There are many seemingly absurd jokes in Holy Grail that seem more like references. Arthurian literature can be quite over the top and absurd itself at times. Even the "historical inconsistencies" in the film are probably references. The Trojan Rabbit seems like a random throwback, but the story of Troy (and Rome) was often retold in the Arthurian Cycles as a kind of origin story for chivalry and the knightly tradition.
Even the inexplicable castles with French knights could be a reference to the fact that the vast majority of Arthurian poems were written in France and other continental countries.
That's why I love this movie. Some of the bizarre jokes seem totally inappropriate for an Arthurian film, but are almost taken straight from the source material. It's a common occurrence in filmmaking, that many actual historical facts have to be left out, to conform to the audience's perception of what looks "realistic". The ridiculously filthy peasants in Holy Grail could almost be a parody of later historical epics like Kingdom of Heaven and their "realistic" portrayals of medieval commoners.
@@mistersharpe4375 heres a crazy bit. The rabid rabbit was also a historical reference since rabbits were seen as evil in the dark ages.
@@lisat9707 That's fascinating. I had also completely forgotten about the many images of rabbits beating people with maces in illuminated manuscripts.
I suddenly have the urge to......invest in Malden.
Yes, everyone is welcome to North Malden, none more so than the businessmen and investors who shape our society of the future.
The guy on the horse with the historian actually has a horse! Lol i never noticed til now
Oh my god, how did I never notice the irony!
They probably had the budget for one horse, may as well use it for something unexpected!
@@castlemania08 very well could be. Makes its all the funnier too. The shortest briefest of shots lol
More likely the main cast couldn't ride horses well enough to act on them.
@@kenbroadbent7288 true (i'd assume)
10:24 The greatest example of all is 1977 Star Wars. George Lucas didn't want any opening title credits to be at the beginning. He was the first to do so with much protest.
yeah, aren't the rules for credits on films made under (union/gild?) specific? I think Lucas broke said rules, paid the membership fine and then left the (guild/union/) not sure which organisation?
@@gepisar , yup. It's all for copyrights and the guild. DePalma talked Lucas into the scroll which is genius but in 99% of films, the sequence is bland and serves no purpose outside of legalities to screenwriters and such. Hitchcock and Kubrick are on a very small list of filmmakers who used the opening credit sequences creatively.
@@mk-ultramags1107 While not really creative in a story driving way, the Bond films always had great opening titles in the sense that they were actually artistic instead of just a blend show of names underscored by the film's main theme.
Also, when he did it again in Empire, he was fined by the guild for putting the credits at the end. It was primarily the reason he left the guilds.
@@GermanLeftist , I agree. Bond always has good credit sequences. Its a staple of the series
I’ve always loved the non sequitur ending of The Holy Grail. A lot of the old Flying Circus bits would end with the police conveniently coming in to put a stop to whatever comedic situation was afoot, to the point that The Argument Clinic sketch ends with them breaking the 4th wall break by saying the Flying Circus is guilty under law for using the fuzz arriving as an ending over and over again. It’s funny how in this film you actually see someone call the police and slowly piece together Arthur’s trail, like for once there’s an actual cause and effect at play with the police joke, however once you think about how pointless it was for the knights of the round table to murder some random historian in the forest you realize that the joke is that the setup is completely arbitrary and stupid lol. Such a clever spin on their running gag.
It's a cop out.
Also, they arrest Arthur and Bedevere despite them looking nothing like the knight who killed the historian.
@@ReddwarfIV worse, the Knight who Killed the Historian (KwKtH) rode a horse (which none of the Kniggits of the Round Table had) and wore a blue gryphon on his tunic (which none of the KotRT had).
Or an army colonel played by Graham Chapman saying what a silly sketch it was and then introducing the hermits on the mountain who actually socialise with each other more than most people do.
Then on Benny Hill they always have these beautiful female cops come in and interrupt whatever craziness is going on.
Using coconuts as horse sounds is a common radio trope.
There's actually an interesting history to it. I think, at least.
Sound recording equipment, for many many years, was too cumbersome to be able to record the sounds of horse footfalls, except in extraordinarily short bursts.
Thus, for a long time, an alternative sound was required, and while not the only solution, coconuts being clapped together was a common one.
The humorous thing is that, once sound recording equipment advanced to the point where is could accompany or follow behind a horse to pick up the noise, many audiences actually found the genuine sound of horse hooves less evocative of horse hooves than the old mockeries, and so continued to be used for some time.
I have no idea if things like coconuts are still used, I assume synthesized sounds are used instead nowadays.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 thats actually really cool thanks for that
If you listen to the director commentary on the Extraordinarily Deluxe Edition DVD they actually say the inspiration was from classic radio :D
I remember seeing it in cartoons as a kid, Looney Toons I think, but I can't be sure...
After I saw the holy grail as a kid, I asked my mom to buy a coconut from the grocery store, and I hollowed it out to make the hoof sounds...😁 (which is a satisfying sound to make) I also was in concert band at the time and brought the coconuts to school because we were playing a piece of music that needed some sound effects, and it worked!😁
In the 2008 special edition dvd they actually begin the movie with the opening credits to a completely different movie. After the credits end you hear a projectionist mutter about how they’ve got the he wrong film. Next we see a sign that says “one moment while we change reels.
It was "Dentist on the Job" - I was very confused the first time I watched my DVD copy since I'd not seen that bit on any other copies of the movie before.
I was wondering where that was...
That's the copy my Dad has. The first time I watched it on Blu-ray I was befuddled
My dad actually got to see this in the theatre. He said the "intermission" fooled quite a few people.
There's a small picket fence around the shrubs of the Knights who say "Nee."
I just want to say: awesome username, well thought, you little brat
I like the laurels particularly.
Ni
Nee!
Noo!
3:15 The guy who says "It's only a model" was the guy the made said castle model.
"The guy" meaning Terry Gilliam?
@@DMichaelAtLargeand it’s Gilliam with a hard G not Jilliam as Rob mispronounces
@@paulbrown6464 Yes, everyone knows that.
"Any similarity to the names characters, or history of real persons is accidental and unintentional. Signed Richard M. Nixon"
Fun point about the Pythons always playing several different characters: When they enter the village looking for a shrubbery, they torture an old woman by saying NI at her. It wasn't until they finished filming the scene that they wondered why they bothered hiring an actress to play the old crone since one of them could've just done it with no issue. One of the rare times they followed a conventional film rule and then immediately realized they could've just broken that too!
Something of a theory I develop to rationalize the insanity of the movie's inconsistency is that Arthur, his knights and generally everybody else in the movie not in the modern day are cosplayers, all taking part in a big elaborate LARP session that goes horribly wrong when one of the cosplayers kills someone. Curiously, that knight had a horse and yet literally everybody else in the movie didn't. Was that knight just some random rich guy who stumbled into the session and after getting too carried away, killed someone by accident? Either way, the police arrested the wrong people.
Yes! This is the way
Roger the Shrubber, the Arranger, Designer and Seller of Shrubberies also appeared to ride a horse-drawn carriage if my mind does not fool me
@@Ballin4VengeanceNo, go back and pause the scene and you'll see two humans pulling his cart. The non-horse device is consistent.
Interesting! (About the horse rider killer not even being part of our python gang) Cuz I just noticed viewing the video above that when the cops pull up the woman says "that's them I'm sure of it!!" But you can't even see them when she says it as there's a huge truck in the way. Ordinarily id ignore this detail it's all chaos, but thanks to this video and all the comments you realize the Pythons DID think of every detail and on multiple levels!
sounds like a credible theory to me
You're right about missing things the first time round; "AD 932" never struck me before, but it might be a joke from medieval scholar, Terry Jones. If a historical Arthur existed he'd have lived in the 5th/6th Centuries, whilst the more familiar "Hollywood" Arthur was a product of the 12th/13th Centuries onwards. 932 is completely out of whack, whichever version of Arthur we pick.
I always saw it as 93^2 A.D.
Could be a different "Arthur".
Welsh flag checks out. Cambrian Chronicles?
My favorite long death quote to yell out in theaters...."I'm not dead yet!"
I got better. 😁
@@lorisewsstuff1607 F'ing FINALLY!
@@jonathanaliff6121 Hahaha!
@@lorisewsstuff1607 Someone's seen Trapper John
I saw this in the theater in 1975. Since you had asked about the intermission, I want to say that, Yes, there were epic movies that I had watched somewhere during my 21 years. Intermissions were common at drive-in theaters that allowed us in the cars to make our way to the concession stand and back to our auto before the movie resumed. As to my experience in the theater with MPATHG, the intermission appeared as a joke. It then went on just long enough to lead people to believe it might be a real intermission. The timing was impeccable. Had it been shorter, I and other members of the audience would have reacted with "Oh, this is a joke intermission." However the seconds longer that it went on made it now appear that it was real. Some people did stand, only to have the movie resume. It quite reminds me of "Her Majesty" at the end of the Abbey Road album by the Beatles. When an album ended, the track would direct the needle to the center of the record, which engaged the record player to lift the arm and return it to the resting position, or, if albums were stacked, drop the next record to be played. The blank space after the end of the last song and the engagement of the mechanism was fairly standard on records of the day. When the jarring opening chord of "Her Majesty" would blare out during the time one was expecting silence, would often surprise or startle listeners, even after hearing the album previously. This reaction is completely lost on listeners of CDs, any tape media or digital media of today. So there.
"Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who". I remember sitting around in college, in the 1970s, laughing our asses off recalling this film and all it's crazy funny one liners. "Strange women, lying around in ponds, handing out swords is no basis for a form of government"! It's funnier talking about it, than actually watching it. So Great!
This is probably the best movie ever made.
nah. maybe the most quotable movie. the most meme movie. but definitely not the best. nobody knows what the best is
Spaceballs 2: The search for more money.
I have this tied with Life of Brian as my favorite comedy movies
Almost the best comedy, but that's The Life of Brian.
If you've only ever seen 1 movie, you could be right.
This and Life of Brian are pure comedy gold.
I think the funniest scene ever, in anything, that is any movie, television show, etc. is the scene where Brian leaps from the tower and ends up landing safely. I won't spoil anything but the most I ever laughed in my life was watching that scene.
@@matthewrawls1184 I get you but like... the "Romans, go home" scene
@@guilhermefranco2930 Yes, much of the rest of Life of Brian is absolutely funny as well. Okay, for anyone reading this command, below is a major spoiler for the movie so don't read on if you have never watched the movie. In fact, if you haven't watched either Life of Brian or The Holy Grail, then what are you still doing here? Get!!!
Anyway, what got me about the rescue scene in Life of Brian is that Brian runs up the stairs to the top of the tower with the Romans in hot pursuit. Now, we've all seen this same type of scene countless times in other movies. We *know* that Brian is going to jump off the top and land in a passing cart filled with hay, or whatever, so it was already funny that they were going with the obvious cliche. But after he jumps.... well, it's not as funny that he gets saved when jumping - it's HOW he gets saved in the most outlandish, ridiculous, contrived, over the top, and out of left field, 'where the hell did THAT come from?' way that absolutely took my by surprise and left me in hysterics for at least fifteen minutes after that. I was at a friend's house and we were watching the movie on VHS - they had to pause the movie until I could control myself. So, maybe it was how the scene hit me, but that was absolutely the funnhist s*** I ever saw, or have ever seen, in my life.
Just finished watching Life of Brian with friends. It was really good but I prefer the absurdity of Holy Grail. (Which we also watched awhile ago)
I quite like meaning of life as well.
I showed this to my girlfriend and her 2 children who are from Mexico and hadn't even heard of Monty Python before. They laughed all the way through, right until the police show up to stop the storming of the castle. As soon as the credits started rolling, she looked at me, and in the saddest, most despondent tone said "amor... no..." while her kids ran in circles, hands to the sky, screaming all the interrogatives.
My favorite memory of any movie.
A couple side notes that weren't really brought up is how every time the book of the movie is shown someone else's hand is there, almost pointing to how this story is all over the place. And at 24:10 where Arthur even flinched at the loud music starting up
I love the witch scene that pushes logic to insanity to get to an answer that does not make sense, something often seen in movies and only revealed if you really think about it.
Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film is my favorite knight
Sir not appearing in this film is all grown up now and appearing in other films....
@@philipkilmartin2312 you mean not appearing in other films.
@@paulbla5575 "sorry" my Python is a little rusty..
Aptly named
@@philipkilmartin2312 Go change your armor!
Best ending ever. I never even considered how people felt after the lights came on in the theater after no credits
As regards how old the word “shit” is, it’s actually a very old indo-European word meaning to split. In fact the words split, ship, and sever are cognate with shit.
Does that also relate to a sewer?
The sea is full of shits
I see, well I'm going to shit, goodnight :)
I was weaned on Python comedy - one of my favourite parts of the Holy Grail is at the end when they are all arrested - it seems like either the writers ran out of ideas or they ran out of money . . . so, they ended the movie with a mass arrest. Brilliant regardless.
Also... 1974 and anti-war protests straight out of the BBC news feed...
Monty Python used the police arrest as a running gag for their Flying Circus, and here they were again, doing their job
They ran out of money.
What, no mention of the "aptly named Sir-Not-appearing-in-this-film"?
With a giant baby head
I think the French are there to comment there has been French input to the Arthurian myth/legend, which is supposed to be Uber British/English. Or it might be that historically the French and the English were enemies, but that seems to easy. Plus, the French guard tells Arthur they already got a grial. The intermission is a great moment because it happens near the end of the film and is completely unnecessary.
Chrétien de Troyes... But beware the Snark that is actually a Boojum. In 932 large swathes of France were actually part of England (or at least contested) until the Norman conquest of 1066 when the 'French' took over England.
Worth noting that I still have an old VHS copy of the movie, and there are a fair number of differences. In the more recent edition, Michael Palin is the narrator, but he was not on my VHS version. Some of the narrator lines also change. The whole sequence of the Tale of Sir Galahad is quite different - that whole sequence where Dingo questions the existence of the scene in the movie never happens. The ending in the VHS just...ends. Done. The intermission music isn't there.
Also, obviously there are no end credits. All of the people responsible for making them had been sacked at the start.
The “get on with it” aside sequence with Dingo (Carol Cleveland) was not in the original American release of the film.
Having seen Grail dozens of times at midnight shows in the ’70s, memorized it, quoted it at countless D&D games, imagine my shock watching it at a friend’s house, not knowing it was the British version, and Carol Cleveland suddenly breaking OOC and addressing the camera with ENTIRELY DIFFERENT DIALOGUE.
The film is gift to mankind that keeps on giving.
@@AetherTales I grew up on the American VHS version in the 80s and I never saw Dingo break out of character. Also, the narrator sounded different. I'm not sure who it was.
Yes, they used to use coconuts as horse hoofs in movies. I saw an old short film about the foley artist. It was black and white and probably from the fifties. In it, they show all the things that they would use to make sounds. I also remember that thunder was a thin sheet steel that the waved violently. They had a old wash board but I forget what sound it represented. Raw meat, all kinds of stuff is used by the foley artist.
The sound of ET walking is someone slapping a bowl of jelly if I recall correctly.
breaking fresh celery for bone breaks..
I like how it's an extremely memeable movie.
Examples:
- "Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?"
- the holy hand grenade
- the killer rabbit
The whole movie is just so quotable. Every scene, almost every line of dialogue.
‘Tis but a scratch is also another infamous line.
The nordic lookin subtitles are using "Ø" and "Ä" together which is quite weird because in Danish/nowegian we use "Ø" and "Æ" and in german/swedish they use "ö" and "Ä"... Mixing the two seems very made up to me :P
Party on, dude!
Yeah, I figured it was Danish or Dutch with a touch of Scand.
Vät äre yu tälken abøøt? Dät iss der linguäge øv mai hømeländ. It iss a realli bëautiføl linguäge. Vi alsø realli läik den Mønty Pythøn møøvies in mai hømeländ.
@@Poopookachew1 Danish IS Scandinavian.
My dad introduced me to Monty Python when I was a teenager. This came on Comedy Central on a Friday night and we watched it together. I never laughed so hard. It started my love for British comedy. Having lost him last May has been really rough but this brought back a wonderful memory.
Until today, the question-bridge scene makes me laugh so hard that I can't hold my tears. The dumb scenes makes this movie brilliant. I can watch it over and over, but the puns never gets boring.
Another thing to notice is when the Famous Historian is dead, you can still see him breathing (or maybe that's just my eyes being funny), which adds to the whole ridiculousness of this movie
Sorry, not gonna finish the episode. I never saw Monty Python, and 9 minutes in I'm dying on the floor from laughter. I'll be back once I watch the movie!
I envy you for watching it for the first time
Good man. It is an experience for the ages. The credits broke my chest first viewing.
I believe that the titles are actually in Mock Swedish, as spoken by the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show. One of the guests actually learned Mock Swedish by correspondence and found out he wasn't speaking real Swedish.
The bit at Castle Anthrax where Zoot (or was it her "twin sister"?) talks about her scene not being cut was actually cut from the VHS version of the film, but is in the DVD. An additional funny bit there.
Yes i remember it was cut from one version but had forgotten which.
I actually don’t think it was in the theatrical version of the movie-at least not the version I saw way back in the 70s. My housemate and I watched the movie just last night, and the scene was unfamiliar to me (although I’ve certainly seen the film multiple times before).
And my own reaction was “Get on with it.”
Yes, the DVD version I have proudly announces that a whole X number of seconds of new footage has been added, specifically the "Get on with it!" scene that I didn't recall seeing before on the VHS version (I'm much too young to have seen it in theaters).
Funfact: In germany this movie is called "the knights of the Cocunut" (Die Ritter der Kokosnuss)
Talk about spoiling the first gag!
Never thought of it like this. Even on the poster it says "Sets the cinema back 900 years"
"Makes Ben Hur look like an Epic!"
Why am I laughing so hard at this?
The final gag was excellent, sir.
30:50 I love how they *clearly* used a plastic skull for this scene..
With the cutoff top, typical of medical skulls.
Now you got me wanting to find a “made in somewhere” label on the skull.
On the start of the Tale of Sir Robbin (20:00), those cliffs and the surroundings are covered in Eucalypts, so clearly that's filmed in Australia. Which then cuts to very much not a euc forest.
15:05 God DOES say why he's sending them after the grail:
"Arthur, King of the Britons, your Knights of the Round Table shall have a task to make them an example in these dark times."
Essentially, it's to give people hope that such noble knights exist to do such noble things as find this holiest of artifacts, the grail that Jesus drank from at the last supper.
Bit vague, for sure, but the rationale for sending them after the grail is pretty clear.
It’s a red flag if you bring up this movie to a new acquaintance/friend and they haven’t seen it. How could one understand modern humor without experiencing the very essence of comedy?
At least they get to experience it for the first time.
I wouldn't necessarily say its a red flag if they haven't seen it, maybe if they've seen it and think its absolute crap, or refuse to give it a try for no or illogical reasons.
If they just don't get the comedy that's fine. To each their own.
37:00 I discovered Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the late 1970s, during some kind of strike that forced the CBC to play movies more or less continuously. Whoever put on the Grail had the genius of immediately following it with what looked like a documentary on Norway. Another Python production, of course!
I've been looking for an extensive Holy Grail analysis for so long, thank you so much for this! Talented work!
15:20 really bizarre for him to say that when just by thinking for a little bit reminded me that the Grail and Fleece were to be obtained to prove one's kingship, and both getting obtained heralds the end of their rule.
Your points about the serious, grand soundtrack were definitely *subconsciously* intentional on the directors' part at least! Originally the movie had a totally different score by Neil Innes, using period-accurate instruments (Sir Robin's song is an example that made it into the final cut). But Gilliam and Jones found that it sounded too "quaint" and that extra-serious, epic-sounding music made the film much funnier, since it acted as a contrast and foil to the absurd humor.
So their conscious reason for choosing the epic music was a basic rule of comedy: silly humor is way, way funnier if it's contrasted with a serious tone. But as you point out, that contrast is always satirical on a deeper level, even if the creators weren't thinking about that at the time.
To my ear, it also sounds like the dramatic orchestral recording was deliberately corrupted to imitate the "sword-and-sandal" orchestral recording sound. Wow and flutter, bad frequency reproduction, sound sped up to match the film rate. It sounds much cheaper than it must have been to produce.
Little fun facts
-In non English versions th scene about the cut scene is not dubbed but the original
-The German name of the movie is Ritter der Kokusnuss (Knights of the coconut)
"Its not that terrible."
"No, I meant terribly violent."
"Oh yeah, yeah..."
The ending actually got me, when I first watched the movie at home on a dvd.
Rob already did a lot on some good Kubrick movies, I’m really excited about this one. He has a way of making inferences that tend to not be too far-fetched, and he’ll often even admit “Okay, this could be far-fetched, but this is what I think after so many careful watches.” It’s a lot more respectable than many other channels who clickbait and claim everything is 100% what they say.
After this, I would love to hear Rob’s critique of John Boorman’s “Excalibur”.
Thats gonna be legendary
He would have to read Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur for comparison. It's a hard slog, believe me.
@@andreraymond6860 I think a comparison to MP & the Holy Grail would be more entertaining.
@@andreraymond6860 You don't have to read Le Morte D'Arthur at all to appreciate that movie. Totally unnecessary.
When my group of friends first saw this, we watched it 3 or 4 times one day, back-to-back at least once, and we were all sore from laughing the whole time, and finding new jokes each time.
I remember we re-wound the cow flinging scene several times. We could NOT get enough of the movie, and the rented VHS tape went from house to house for small viewing parties until it had to be returned.
1:20 This wasn't their first film, though it's easy to overlook it. Their first movie was literally just a 35mm widescreen reshooting of a series of sketches from the first season titled "And Now For Something Completely Different" and it was really there to advertise the show in foreign markets. It's also a great document of certain bits of Great Britain in 1970, just pay attention to the backgrounds, because they shot it on locations and not on a set.
Also my #1 comedy movie, for the multi layered, almost psychedelic nature of it...You could go even deeper.
Planning too. Got notes prepped for a second vid
@@collativelearning
Awesome, Rob! Will look forward to it.
"We are eight score blonde and brunettes" and then the legal disclaimer, "all between the ages of sixteen and nineteen and a half". Clever
In probably all of the US, 18 is the minimum legal age, so 16 actually bothered me even though I’m sure it was different in the 1100s, but still
Cole, it's 16 in the UK and has been for decades. I can see why you'd find it unsettling if you're used to a higher age of consent, though x
@@coleozaeta6344 Monty python is British, Legal age for consent to sex in the UK is 16
@@coleozaeta6344 Bruh its 16 in most states here too ya sillygoose
In Missouri we have a Romeo and Juliet law (weird I know), where the age of consent is 14 if you are under 21, then it's 17 when you are 21 or over
Loved the last joke at end Rob, good one.
One of the greatest Epics ever put on the screen. Words cannot describe the utter poetry and brilliance of MPATHG (Monty Python And The Holy Grail that is). A caleidoscope of multifacetted character study and interwoven plot lines any modern fiction writer would envy.
Masterpiece
he glossed over the best scene in the entire movie. the we found a witch scene.
A great scene, but didn't have much to do with the theme of the video :)
@@collativelearning Fair enough its my favorite comedic scene for sure I appreciate your videos they are very interesting, have a nice day
@@collativelearning what I love is in that scene we see Sir Bedivere testing to see if a swallow can carry a coconut...even though he wasn’t present during the coconut scene at the beginning of the movie so how would he know to try the test?
@alexanderbretta BURN HER ANYWAY
@alexanderbretta shill on, comrade.
I loved Monty Python's Icelandic Saga. Invest in Malden!
My brother and i were in fits when we first saw that.
One more interesting gag about the “Famous Historian” scene, we know it’s not one of the main characters who killed him because he was actually riding a horse
You forgot to mention how all the slaughtered guards and guests spring to life (despite being bloodstained) as soon as the musical number begins at the end
36:31 I wasn't alive when Holy Grail was released and I first watched it like 40 years later on DVD and I actually sat through the black screen wondering if any credits will pop up.
I'm not sure how much of this Rob Ager actually "got" But this analysis made the movie even more funny. Truly a Thanksgiving miracle sir Thank you!
That Golden Fleece story you reference actually had to due with a Greek tale about Jason and his Argonauts. It's quite good, look it up. It's at about 15:30 ish
I love the internal consistency of this film. Bedevere is complimented by Arthur at the end of the witch scene: 'Who are you who is so well versed in science' poking fun at Medieval reasoning. However it turns out the girl does weigh the same as a duck and breaks the fourth wall with a simple: 'It's a fair cop'.
On set, Gilliam was trying very hard to make a 'real' movie and became very cross with Jones, who was happy to just replicate their sketch comedy television aesthetic. (It is Gilliam with a hard G, a la Guilliam, not a soft one a la Jilliam, b the way)...
The girl was being sarcastic because when she and then duck are removed from the scale you see the scale was rigged to tilt to one side, the duck’s side, so the duck would appear to weigh as much as the girl
" what are those things coming out of her nose?"
Space Balls!!"
" Oh shit there goes the planet."
One of the best youtube videos I've seen in ages
And the really amazing thing is, back in the 70's we didn't even have youtube!
something that always made me and my friends laugh is that you can see "the famous historian" breathing when hes laying on the ground
i just came across your channel while searching "making of the holy grail" and i can't tell you enough about how happy i am to have done so! definitely worth an instant-sub. can't wait to see what's next.
10:40 "A minefield (mindfield?) obstacle in film production" I almost thought for sure you slipped in a Prodigy reference there!
I saw Spamalot here in my local Pavilion many years ago, it is smaller scale compared to the original Broadway version, but it does mock stage plays a lot. Even the Knight who say Ni literally used a ladder on display.
Saw Spamalot back in the day. Went in not expecting much as it wasn't the original crew but it was really good.
The scene with the massing army was taken straight from Spartacus, right down the the drum tapping and the camera work.
10:24 I know few other examples. No Country for Old Men, Hellboy, Full Metal Jacket, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Dark Knight trilogy.
Eyes Wide Shut
Didn't rack my brain hard enough!
I seem to recall seeing movies in which not even the title is shown at the beginning of the movie. I also noticed in those movies that the normal standard order of opening credits of the major creative people behind the camera is in the reverse order at the end compared to when it's at the beginning, although the actors are still in order of standard billing. I'm really surprised you haven't seen many movies like that, or at least haven't noticed. I can't tell you which ones in particular were like that, but it's been plenty. Of course, I watch very few movies these days, and am very picky about ones that I see, so maybe it's just a stylistic choice by the kind of movies I like to see.
Honestly, opening titles are more of the exception than the rule these days. At least for major blockbusters.
Fun fact: there were originally supposed to be horses but they ran out of money. Then one of them came up with the idea of coconuts and they thought it was even funnier.
@18:18 - the clapperboard even has "MP and the HG" with both director names and head of cinematography on it. In addition, according to the Monty Python website, Holy Grail was filmed "for 5 weeks during April and May", and the clapperboard states "May 24th". So that scene was most likely filmed during what is known as the "pick-up shots" stage of production, which always takes place at the very end of shooting schedules. Quite possibly amongst the last thing shot on location for the film!
Did you notice, in the Intermission background, there are what appear to be screaming faces? I forgot what it's called when we see faces in things, but it hardly looks accidental.
Pareadolia
9:56 dk if it's been mentioned b4 or not: the opening title sequence largely alludes to the one of "the seventh seal" w style+sound effects + northern germanic laguage subtitles
The best part of the video is Rob chuckling at the movie.
Pre-written narration but still hard to record it without giggling here and there. That's something I find incredible about the Pythons - their ability to give hilarious performances of insane scenes and keep a totally straight face.
The music as they approach the final castle via boat is indeed mind-blowing my awesome.
As always, an excellent analysis.
I love your videos and your voice is so relaxing!!