MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
A film review by Nizam U. Ahmed
Copyright 1996 Nizam U. Ahmed
A castle atop a windy hill. Silence. Then we hear the sound of horse hooves approaching. Over the crest of the hill the figure of King Arthur appears. But he is on foot, hopping along on an imaginary steed, with Patsy following behind banging two coconut shells together. This opening scene encapsulates the whole tone of the Monty Python team's first venture into feature film territory. Sheer nonsensical silliness, delighting in subverting our preconceptions from the word go. Yet throughout all the idiocy, there is a constant sense of skewed logic at work, giving the feeling that maybe there is more to this than you think. In short, typical Monty Python.
Having read the first and final drafts of the script and seen the movie, it is clear why this film was such a success. Originally conceived as basically a sketch show set half in medieval times and half in the present day (notably in Harrods), the film would merely have been seen as a footnote to MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS. But the decision to have (almost) the entire movie as a full-blown 90-minute narrative was inspired. It proved that the Pythons were credible writers, directors and performers and paved the way for TIME BANDITS, BRAZIL, even A FISH CALLED WANDA.
Each scene is beautifully and carefully crafted: the tiny budget meant there was no room for excess lines and flat jokes which plagued their TV series. Yet the film still looks fantastic even today, peasants rolling in mud, the harsh and desolate landscape, the fog, all contribute to give the best impression of medieval times ever seen in film. Throughout it all, the Pythons perform exquisitly. The deadpan delivery and the improvised pauses, "um"s and "ah"s, are spot on.
Monty Python are probably the only comedy team since the Marx Brothers who are able to perform such clever material and yet remain so riotously funny. The silliness will grab you, but it is the sense of logic behind it that makes you come back for repeat viewings. For instance in the opening scene the castle guard is only interested in where Arthur and Patsy got the coconuts ("In Mercia? But the coconut's tropical!"). In any other comedy film, the coconuts would be a throwaway joke, yet here it is pursued to its limit. Both self-referential and deconstructionist, it succeeds on all levels.
There are minor flaws. The film suffers from an episodic quality, which is unsurprising considering the sketch show background. It is easy to recite scenes by heart because they stand up so well outside of the film's context, but as a result the narrative structure is weakened: scenes could easily be interchanged at will without much disruption, and probably were. Also, the Pythons could not totally compensate for the miniscule budget, some of the pyrotechnics and special effects are less than successful. And finally, the deliberately anti-climactic ending as the police round up the cast and crew is bound to annoy first-time viewers, although it is a clear indication of how far the Pythons were prepared to go to do things their way.
Nevertheless, MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL is a classic. Argument may rage over how it compares with MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN, but both films are landmarks in comedy cinema, unique events that have rarely, if ever, been equalled since.
OVERALL RATING: 90 %
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