Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Directors:

Terry Gilliam
Terry Jones

Writers:

Graham Chapman (written by) &
John Cleese (written by) ...

Release Date:

10 May 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy

Tagline:

Makes Ben Hur look like an Epic

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Knight | Castle | King Arthur | Holy Grail | Camelot

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

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 / Voice of Cartoon Scribe / Prince Herbert
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

Also Known As:

Mønti Pythøn ik den Høli Gräilen (International: English title) (subtitle)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | Latin

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

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

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (re-rating) (2001) | Canada:PG (Ontario) (original rating) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Portugal:M/12 | UK:15 (video rating: 1988) | Brazil:18 | Argentina:Atp | UK:12 (re-rating) (2006) | UK:A (original rating) (cut) | New Zealand:M | Australia:PG | Canada:G (Quebec) | Finland:K-16 | Iceland:L | Ireland:15 | Norway:16 (original rating) | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Appin, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK

Company:

Michael White Productions

Trivia:

Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Film is Michael Palin's infant son Tom.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Towards the end of Brother Maynard reading the message in the cave, Sir Robin lowers his shield, and it can be seen that he is played by a stand-in and not Eric Idle, who is playing Brother Maynard instead.

Quotes:

[first lines]
King Arthur: Whoa, there!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Baldur's Gate (1998) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Magenta

Wonderful movie!

This is such a great film that a professor of mine actually used it in a Medieval Civilization class as extra credit. This was not because the movie was so historically accurate, but because the movie was so much funnier when we applied what we learned in her class to it! It was really hard to pick only 10 funny lines!

To anyone that watched it once and didn't quite get it or got frustrated the first time, here is a tip: Catch it on DVD with the subtitles or closed-captioning on. That way you will be sure to catch all of the French insults and the other one-liners that fly by so fast! I don't recommend doing that with kids in the room - my 7-year-old picked up a couple of words on the screen that he had missed previously...

Enjoy!