Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

King Arthur and his knights embark on a low-budget search for the Grail, encountering many very silly obstacles.

Directors:

Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones

Writers:

Graham Chapman, John Cleese,

Stars:

Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle

Top 250 #87 | 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Graham Chapman	...	King Arthur / Voice of God / Middle Head / Hiccoughing Guard
John Cleese	...	Second Swallow-Savvy Guard / The Black Knight / Peasant 3 / Sir Lancelot the Brave / Taunting French Guard / Tim the Enchanter
Eric Idle	...	Dead Collector / Peasant 1 / Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Launcelot / First Swamp Castle Guard / Concorde / Roger the Shrubber / Brother Maynard
Terry Gilliam	...	Patsy / Green Knight / Old Man from Scene 24 (Bridgekeeper) / Sir Bors / Animator / Gorrilla Hand
Terry Jones	...	Dennis's Mother / Sir Bedevere / Left Head / Prince Herbert / Cartoon Scribe (voice)
Michael Palin	...	First Swallow-Savvy Guard / Dennis / Peasant 2 / Right Head / Sir Galahad the Pure / Narrator / King of Swamp Castle / Brother Maynard's Brother / Leader of The Knights Who Say NI!
Connie Booth	...	The Witch
Carol Cleveland	...	Zoot / Dingo
Neil Innes	...	First Monk / Singing Minstrel / Page Crushed by the Rabbit / Peasant #4
Bee Duffell	...	Old Crone
John Young	...	Dead Body / Historian Frank
Rita Davies	...	Historian's Wife
Avril Stewart	...	Dr. Piglet
Sally Kinghorn	...	Dr. Winston
Mark Zycon	...	Prisoner

Storyline

The movie starts out with Arthur, King of the Britons, looking for knights to sit with him at Camelot. He finds many knights including Sir Galahad the pure, Sir Lancelot the brave, the quiet Sir Bedevere, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Lancelot. They do not travel on horses, but pretend they do and have their servants bang coconuts to make the sound of horse's hooves. Through satire of certain events in history (witch trials, the black plague) they find Camelot, but after literally a quick song and dance they decide that they do not want to go there. While walking away, God (who seems to be grumpy) come to them from a cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail. They agree and begin their search. While they search for the Grail, scenes of the knight's tales appear and why they have the name they have. Throughout their search they meet interesting people and knights along the way. Most of the characters die; some through a killer rabbit (which they defeat with the holy ...

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Plot Keywords:

knight | holy grail | king arthur | castle | lancelot | 

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Taglines:

You can do worse than see it.

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English French Latin

Release Date:

25 May 1975 (UK)

Also Known As:

Mønti Pythøn ik den Høli Gräilen

Filming Locations:

Appin, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£229,575 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$45,487 (USA) (15 June 2001)

Gross:

$1,229,197 (USA) (25 May 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Michael White Productions, National Film Trustee Company, Python (Monty) Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (2001 re-release) Mono (original release)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Unusually for a Monty Python feature, all the female roles (apart from Dennis's mother, played by Terry Jones) are played by women. In the TV series and the two following films, almost all the female roles are played by men.

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Goofs

When Sir Galahad (Michael Palin) arrives at Castle Anthrax, he is told by Zoot that "8 score" (160) blondes and brunettes reside there. Later on, when Sir Lancelot comes to "rescue" him, he protests that he can handle the "150" girls.

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Quotes

[first lines]
King Arthur: Whoa, there!

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Crazy Credits

The directors of the firm hired to continue the credits after the other people had been sacked, wish it to be known that they have just been sacked. The credits have been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute. Executive Producer JOHN GOLDSTONE & "RALPH" The Wonder Llama Producer MARK FORSTATER Assisted By EARL J. LLAMA MIKE Q. LLAMA III SY LLAMA MERLE Z. LLAMA IX Directed By 40 SPECIALLY TRAINED ECUADORIAN MOUNTAIN LLAMAS 6 VENEZUELAN RED LLAMAS 142 MEXICAN WHOOPING LLAMAS 14 NORTH CHILEAN GUANACOS (CLOSELY RELATED TO THE LLAMA) REG LLAMA OF BRIXTON 76000 BATTERY LLAMAS FROM "LLAMA-FRESH" FARMS LTD. NEAR PARAGUAY and TERRY GILLIAM & TERRY JONES

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Connections

Featured in Hewy's Animated Movie Reviews: The Groovenians (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Big Country"
(uncredited)
Written by Keith Papworth
Published by De Wolfe Music Ltd.

User Reviews

The reason Robin Williams isn't in a nut house.

This is perhaps one of the greatest, funniest parodies in the history of film. I think the greatest definition of irony is that to be believably stupid on screen, you have to be very intelligent. This is a rare occasion where something can be so stupid that it's funny, with the addition of feeling you got your money's worth at the end. Examples of failures would be anchorman, austin powers, scary movie etc. The gore and clichés of three headed, and goofy "NI!" yelling knights are what give this movie discreet beauty.

Did I mention that the acting is also very good for a movie of this sort. All of the main characters, as they do in the series, take on numerous characters, all of whom are well established and each have their quirks about them. This was a well written, well thought out, and perfectly directed, low budget comedy. The funniest of any monty python film, and amongst the top comedies of all time. I laughed from beginning to end and bruised one of my lungs. I highly recommend this film to anyone. This is living proof that all you need is a good script and good actors.