There are ten days left in 2018. Because of this, I decided to list my top ten favorite movies at this moment in time, one per day (from 10 to 1) until the year ends, then we'll start 2019 off with new, hopefully better, content. Today, I reveal the film that is in the tenth slot: Monty Python and the Holy Grail. For those of you who don't know who Monty Python is: First of all, what are you doing with your life? And, second of all, they are a British comedy troupe that consists of John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gillam. Chapman, sadly, passed away from lung cancer in 1989. However, while they were all together, they created some of the funniest things known to man, including: Monty Python's Flying Circus, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, and, of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In this review, I'm gonna be explaining to you why Monty Python and the Holy Grail is one of my favorite movies. Spoilers are ahead, in case you haven't seen it, so tread lightly. Hopefully, you've seen this movie, though. Also, not all of the movies on this list will be comedies.
Let's go ahead and get this out of the way right now, given how this movie is one of the most famous comedies ever: This movie is hilarious. This movie is absolutely frickin' hysterical. From beginning to end, this is one of the most finely-crafted comedies ever created. It's insanely quotable, the fourth wall is entirely nonexistent, every joke (whether they be scripted or improvised) works beautifully. This is a perfect example of the comedic genius that is Monty Python. Every scene oozes with their style. The random animated segments, every other line is improvised, physical comedy, the members of the troupe are seen portraying almost all of the characters. For example: John Cleese plays Tim the Enchanter, that French guy that taunts King Arthur, Lancelot, The Black Knight, etc. Graham Chapman plays King Arthur, the middle section of Three-Headed Knight, he's the voice of God, etc. Michael Palin plays Galahad, the leader of the Knights Who Say "Ni", Dennis the Peasant, etc. I could go on all day, but I won't cause it'll save time if I don't. Just rewatch the movie and see if you can pick out all the dual performances.
I hadn't seen a movie that could leave me in stitches during the opening credits, until I saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The credits play out like normal, but then there's random inserts added at the bottom of the screen (usually having something to do with a moose). Eventually, the people in charge of the credits getting fired one by one until they're all gone. And, to make it even better, because the credit editors were all fired, there are no ending credits! The joke is set up in the beginning, it's never brought up again as the movie goes along, you've probably forgotten about it, and then the punchline happens at the end. It's a very well-executed bit that could only have been done by Monty Python. And then the movie starts properly, opening with a classic "using coconuts to create the sound of a horse galloping" gag. It's of course lampshaded in the very next scene when some guards ask King Arthur where he got the coconuts from. It leads to one of the best lines in the film ("Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?"), as well as bringing up the African vs European Swallow (which is a type of bird, for those who don't know) debate that comes back up during the Bridge of Death scene. The acting in this movie is top notch, as well. It has to be, given how every character has at least seven laugh out loud jokes that they have to deliver and keep a straight face the whole time. Special mention goes to the scene where a bunch of civilians are discussing how you can tell whether or not someone is a witch. It's so funny, and the best part of it is when Eric Idle bites down on his scythe to stop himself from cracking up and breaking the scene due to an extended pause Cleese took before delivering the "Because she's made of wood" line. Keeping a straight face during a funny scene is one thing, but forcibly stopping yourself from corpsing is even better.
The one scene that everybody remembers the most from this movie is definitely the "King Arthur vs Black Knight" scene. There's good reason for that, cause it's arguably the funniest thing in the whole film. When we first see the Black Knight, he's actually a little intimidating. He holds his own against a Green Knight (who suddenly has a battle axe in between one of the cuts), and ends the fight by straight up impaling the Green Knight through the face in a very good-looking effect. The swordplay between Arthur and the Knight is handled realistically and it makes for a pretty cool scene, and then Arthur starts lopping off his limbs. This is where all the most popular lines come from ("It's just a flesh wound", "I'm invincible/You're a loony", "Tis but a scratch/You're arm's off!"). I love the way that the Black Knights demeanor and tone of voice instantly changes after he loses one of his arms. He goes from this calm, cool, and collected knight to this man in a suit that clearly didn't think this plan through. Props to him for keeping up his attacks even after losing all his limbs, though.
The one scene that everybody remembers the most from this movie is definitely the "King Arthur vs Black Knight" scene. There's good reason for that, cause it's arguably the funniest thing in the whole film. When we first see the Black Knight, he's actually a little intimidating. He holds his own against a Green Knight (who suddenly has a battle axe in between one of the cuts), and ends the fight by straight up impaling the Green Knight through the face in a very good-looking effect. The swordplay between Arthur and the Knight is handled realistically and it makes for a pretty cool scene, and then Arthur starts lopping off his limbs. This is where all the most popular lines come from ("It's just a flesh wound", "I'm invincible/You're a loony", "Tis but a scratch/You're arm's off!"). I love the way that the Black Knights demeanor and tone of voice instantly changes after he loses one of his arms. He goes from this calm, cool, and collected knight to this man in a suit that clearly didn't think this plan through. Props to him for keeping up his attacks even after losing all his limbs, though.
My personal favorite scene is the bit where those French guards taunt King Arthur and his men. It's easily the most quotable scene. John Cleese sells the French accent flawlessly, manages to deliver his lines with both a comedic and a hateful tone, gives us some of the best lines in the whole movie, and does all of it while keeping a straight face. That is the markings of a comedic genius. And, yes, I love the lines that the Frenchman gives us in this scene. I'm more often than not finding myself quoting his tauntings, especially the hamster bit. As I said before, this is a very quotable movie. Every single scene has lines that a lot of people find themselves quoting often. The Knights Who Say "Ni" say nothing but lines that have become memes in recent years, as does Tim the Enchanter. The Holy Hand Grenade scene will live on forever. The King of the Swamp Castle and his son get a lot of funny lines, too. The Prince desperately trying to sing, but the King continuously shutting the music cues down was a very good instance of breaking the fourth wall, which happens a lot in this movie. The best instances of fourth-wall breaking in this movie would be the moments when the Black Beast of AAAARRRRRRGGGHHH was killed by "the animator suffering a fatal heart attack", one of the head maidens in Castle Anthrax pondering to the camera about her worries about the scene being cut, the subtitle jokes in the opening credits, the fact that the movie had no ending at all, and "Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film".
The soundtrack is also very good. The original songs are catchy, well-written, and (most of all) funny, and the score is surprisingly orchestral given the type of movie that this is. Epic, blaring trumpets playing over a shot of King Arthur miming riding a horse while a guy claps coconut halves behind him will never not be funny. I also greatly appreciate the call-back jokes. The aforementioned abrupt ending as a result of the credit editors being fired, God reappearing while the maiden muses about her scene getting cut to should "GET ON WITH IT!", the African vs European Swallow conversation being brought back up in the Bridge of Death scene, briefly being able to see a knight tying a coconut to a swallow's feet in order to test the theory in the first place. All of them work and get a big laugh out of me. And, on the tropic of the "GET ON WITH IT" scene, I love the implication that all of the characters that Arthur and his knights have to interact with are all just standing around somewhere waiting on their scenes to happen. Along with God and Dennis the Pea sent reappearing to tell the Castle Anthrax maiden to hurry up, Tim the Enchanter appears, the army of knights from the last scene appear, the old man from scene 24 appears. All of those people hadn't been scene yet in the movie, which gives off the idea they they all want the movie to move along faster so that they can get their screentime in. I love it and I wish more movies could cleverly pull it off.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is one of the greatest/funniest things I've ever seen in my life. Every joke hits at the right moment and works impeccably. The overly-long gags (like the guards not knowing what to do with the Prince of the Swamp Castle or the bit with Lancelot continuously running towards one of the guards in a scene roughly two minutes later) surprisingly don't overstay their welcome. They go on a bit longer than the rest of the jokes, yes, but they do different things within the jokes that keeps it consistently funny. This is an easy choice for my tenth favorite movie at the moment. I'm not gonna say "of all time" cause I'm very young and my opinions on these ten movies will probably change when I get older. That's life. Stay tuned for the next nine days, when I reveal my next nine picks.
