Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Bring out your dead!
THE SUMMARY: King Arthur of Camelot is ordered by God upon a quest to find a divine treasure, so he recruits a band of knights to skip across the English landscape, clap coconuts, and navigate absurd situations in a deadpan, fourth-wall breaking journey. It has its moments, but good comedy must be consistently funny. Like usual, British comedy isn’t. Holy Grail isn’t as bad as Life of Brian, but it’s not one I want to watch again either.
FROM MOVIE-PICKER DRACULLAMA: ‘We are the knights who say ni’ (just don't say the word the Knights of Ni cannot hear). A classic of British silly humor with a cult-like following. The extreme low budget made the movie more enjoyable due to the strange adaptations they chose. Coconuts anyone?
THE BEST:
The poor-quality slapstick: Holy Grail’s best is its low-budget violence. The Black Knight’s limbs falling off with ease, the French launching livestock at Arthur and company, the killer rabbit flying between vicious maulings, Lancelot slaying at the original red wedding, and more - the most consistent laughs and the most memorable moments in this movie are its unconvincing, preposterous gore.
But even that I have trouble crediting fully. It’s funny, but only in same way that your high school senior project video is funny. It’s funny because it sucks, so there’s an element of laughing at it, rather than with it. Still, this is a movie that aims for laughs, and in this area, it earns them.
Some decent lines: Absurd comedy doesn’t do much for me. Just because a concept is silly doesn’t mean it’s smart or entertaining. From my now two-movie experience with Monty Python, much of it to me is just silly for silly’s sake. Meh.
Dry humor, however, delivered in proper deadpan style, I love - and Holy Grail has a few lines and moments in that theme: ‘there are some who call me… Tim,’ ‘now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time,’ even the drawn-out counting scene, to name a few. I’d like more of this writing style, and less of the ‘silliness.’ And a lot less of the squawking delivery.
An actually decent musical bit: In general I hate musical bits. I hate them presented seriously, and I hate them presented as gags too. Tell me a joke, don’t sing one to me. I will make an exception for Sir Robin’s song though - it’s the description of the many gruesome ways he could die that got me.
Kniggits?: What did he just say? I had to rewind. Apparently from this origin, it has become a general insult, though I’m not sure Raja Mohan will allow it.
Cow-tapult
The killer rabit
Kniggits
THE WORST:
Most of the comedy is a miss: For every joke or line that lands, there are dozens that don’t. Absurd isn’t always funny. Examples: clapping coconuts to mimic horse hoof sounds the whole time, the famous ‘air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow’ line, and the godawful opening credits. I laughed a total of zero times throughout these moments, because there’s very little to ‘get’ about it. It’s just silly to be silly, and that’s not particularly clever or satisfying.
Obnoxious squawky voices: I hated Brian’s mom in Life of Brian for this reason, and I hate it in this movie too (the Knights of Ni are the worst and primary offenders). It’s like walking into Petco and listening to a parrot talk for 90 minutes. Making the voice annoying doesn’t make the line funny. Most of the time, it makes a bad line worse.
Bad ending: I get the anti-climax is the joke. That doesn’t make it entertaining. The movie sets up for some sort of epic final battle, and then just bitches out to have the cops stop the whole thing and the joke is on you for expecting something actually good.
See, it’s funny because it’s low budget, so they couldn’t afford to make it good. Hilarious. That can work somewhat in the context of the gore, because at least they try within their limitations. With this ending, they don’t even try. ‘It’s good because it sucks’ is the aim, but actually it sucks because it sucks.
It’s easier to listen to actual parrots
THE RATING: 2/5 Wickies. A few laughs, but those laughs are far too infrequent for a movie that brings only comedy to the table.
YOUR RATING: Vote here ⬇
NEXT WEEK: The Matrix (1999)
AFTER THAT? YOU PICK - VOTE! June’s nominations are from listener Dracullama.
Want to be the movie nominator for the month? Here’s how - fill out the form below. Note: once you are entered, you are eligible for selection on an ongoing basis. One entry per participant - multiple entries will be rejected.