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Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) More at IMDb Pro »

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557 comments in total

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174 out of 199 people found the following comment useful :-
The reason Robin Williams isn't in a nut house., 3 October 2004

Author: uckpshh from london, england

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.

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122 out of 133 people found the following comment useful :-
the ultimate nonsense comedy, 27 August 2003
Author: vladymirror from Japan

Well, this is unquestionably one of the funniest movies ever made. The first time a saw it I laughed to tears and this is the only time that counts. The first time you get the best experience. I really envy those who haven't seen it yet.

From the opening scene to the sudden ending this one won't let you leave the room. Especially the opening scene: "Are you trying to say that coconuts migrate" or when John Cleese trying to be Tarzan, hanging on the rope said: "Can somebody give me a push." An absolute masterpiece.

Considering the low budget that the creators of the movie had at their disposal would probably make "The Holy Grail" the best movie in this genre-silly nonsense kind of stuff. It shows the great creativity and acting capabilities of the Monty Python crew. It comes to say that a movie can be made with a little bit of money - a great movie. 10 out of 10

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99 out of 113 people found the following comment useful :-
They could grab it by the husk....., 16 February 2004

Author: Manthorpe from Austin, TX

King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table set out on a quest to find the Holy Grail...as told to do so by a cartoon God that lives in the clouds...

Easily the most hilarious and original comedy ever made, Monty Python and the Holy Grail claims it's undisputed throne through insanely ridiculous situations and characters that will very likely never be duplicated. Pure comedic genius that doesn't go stale with age or decades of competition having been released. Simply seeing the way comedy films are made today, this film will very likely have a long reign before anything can even hold a candle to it. An absolute belly-laugh fest that never lets up.

Only the cast of Monty Python could have pulled this film off, with each actor playing many different characters...all hilarious! The genius in the actors' lines themselves are truly to be admired. The comedic style of talking in circles is one technique that most comedies do not try to do, simply because they can't compete with the genius of this film, which uses it flawlessly. Those that do try usually fall flat on their faces. Two particularly excellent examples of this can be seen in the beginning scene, in which the characters discuss the origins of coconuts.....and the other when Lancelot breaks into the swamp castle to save the "damsel in distress." This is merely one technique that the cast has perfected to conjure up laughs consistently throughout the entire film. The only way that I can imagine that someone might not like this film is if they simply do not enjoy it's type of humor. Too bad for them.

Another hilarious technique used in the film is the use of comedy in the background. From people slamming cats against poles for no apparent reason, to people filling up baskets with mud in the fields....all very strange and hilarious at the same time. It's also simply amazing that all of the characters are played by the same group of actors, which shows the great range all of them have. Some are simply unrecognizable from one character to the other and it sometimes takes a good eye to pick them out, which makes it fun. And I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but this film takes some turns that no sane person could see coming.

Ridiculous characters in ridiculous situations equals ridiculous laughter.

The epitome of all-star comedy that will no doubt continue to stand the test of time. Kudos to Gilliam and the rest of the Python crew. If you haven't seen it yet, make it your first priority in life!

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91 out of 111 people found the following comment useful :-
Ingenious, 19 July 2001

Author: Vicki (pop_mistress@yahoo.com.au) from Sydney, Australia

Monty Python have long been a source of amusement ...and from the opening scenes of this film with the never tiring *gallop gallop* of the two coconuts substituting horses it is so very easy to see why Monty Python and the Holy Grail will forever be classic that any aspiring comedian should view for FLAWLESS comedy...this film has everything one could wish for, 5 of the best comedians performing superb sketches in a feature length film..the one liners are memorable and the locations even more so...the rabbit is my favourite....arggggggggh!

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71 out of 85 people found the following comment useful :-
The King of Comedies!, 18 May 2003

Author: lambiepie-2 from Los Angeles, CA

The first time I saw this was on CBS at 11:30 on a Friday night. I was about 16 years old. I had seen a few Monty Python shows on PBS, so I knew who they were, and I was very interested in seeing this.

This film shows you just what all around comedy is all about.

It starts during the opening credits and ends in a way you don't see coming. The songs are....memorable. The drawings/animation are imaginative for its time and the Monty Python troupe was at its shining best playing a host of characters from the days of King Arthur. If you don't laugh at this today, you have no funny bone! Many other reviewers here hit this film on the nose, there isn't much more to add to how brilliant this piece of work it.

This is one of my all time favorites and is one of the top 10 films of all time.

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43 out of 46 people found the following comment useful :-
Monty Python at their best, 22 January 2005

Author: mjw2305 from England

In the Realm of King Arthur, the Monty Python team set out on a quest to recruit the best Knights in the kingdom and find the Holy Grail.

This is Classic Python Mayhem, where we encounter Killer rabbits, Knights who go Nee! and Horny Nuns who lure the unsuspecting in with there Grail Shaped Beacon.

The Cast all give Typically Hilarious Performances, bringing another must see to the Python Loving Audience.

If You Like Monty Python, you'll love it, if you don't then stay away.

If you've never seen Monty Python before then give it a try, yes it's dated but its still great fun.

9/10

Also see, The Life Of Brian and The Meaning of Life

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56 out of 73 people found the following comment useful :-
Monty Pythonis never boring...no exception here!, 21 July 2003

Author: dead_parrot from Canada

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is hilarious. It was sort of my introduction to Monty Python and I became hooked on it after watching this. It's just so funny! We've all heard the story of King Arthur and how he pulled Excalibur out of the stone, etc. and in this movie, the Monty Python troupe basically parodies that legend. What more can I say? They're geniuses! Anyone who's ever seen 'Flying Circus' or 'Life of Brian' or anything else Python-related can probably back that up. If you want to become an addict (like me) this is a good place to start. You'll probably laugh hardest during the 'killer rabbit' scene.

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46 out of 55 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the greats, 29 February 2004
Author: Steve_Kaczynski from Somewhere in Europe

Although I am from the UK, I first saw this film aged 11 when I was living in Maryland, USA, not long after it first came out. I had discovered Monty Python's Flying Circus on PBS, a channel which then showed a lot of imported British TV shows, often of high quality. (I don't know if it still does, or even if it exists.) The film was outstanding, and even though I virtually know it by heart, I still occasionally watch it on video, nearly 30 years later. I remember describing the film with great enthusiasm to American children when I went to school and being puzzled that they could not understand what I was going on about. I think this is better than Life of Brian or The Meaning of Life. I think in those films Monty Python were trying a little too hard to shock. In this one, there is more genuine humour. In many funny scenes, the killer rabbit sequence has got to be the funniest, closely followed by the anarcho-syndicalist commune.

Monty Python have been well liked abroad, to a surprising degree, but there are many things about them that I think you have to be British or perhaps Irish to appreciate. For example, Chapman's performance as King Arthur is a perfect combination of the King Arthur legend with ideas of how a head prefect is supposed to behave in British schools. Cleese as Sir Lancelot is an uneasy but hilarious blend of well-bred English gentleman with psychotic loon. I don't know about nowadays, but in the 1970s this had a slightly subversive tinge, without overdoing it. Even the anarcho-syndicalist commune scene gets an extra impact from the way class structure works in British society. I don't mean to say that it's meant to be a political tract, only that for British people the absurd cavorting of these public school types gives an extra satirical layer of meaning to the film.

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51 out of 65 people found the following comment useful :-
Wonderful movie!, 28 November 2004

Author: marac-1 from Farmington, MN

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!

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45 out of 62 people found the following comment useful :-
The Silliest Film Ever Made..., 27 October 2003

Author: MovieAddict2008 from UK

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

From a technical viewpoint, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" could be called a seriously flawed and impaired film. Filmed on location in the UK with a minimal budget and regular "Python" cast members, I seriously doubt that anyone working on the project at the time had believed it would spark such a cultural phenomenon. And revisiting the movie now, post its release 28 years ago, is magical.

First-time viewers may be puzzled by the film's odd opening--in fact, stories of those who thought that they had entered into the wrong screening room come in abundance. But as soon as the voice of the coarse British man is audible the viewer realizes that he or she has been duped once again by the Python Troupe.

King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have been sent on a most glorious quest by God Himself--to seek and maintain the Holy Grail, the legendary cup that Christ drank from during The Last Supper, prior to His execution, and which later caught His blood as he was left danging upon the cross.

But the seriousness surrounding the Holy Grail is left wholly untouched by the members of Monty Python--instead, we follow King Arthur and his men as they come upon an odd assortment of characters, including The Black Knight, Dennis, The Knights Who Say "Ni!", and The Killer Rabbit, all of whom hinder the daring soldiers in their quest for the Holy Grail.

Many people will find the humor of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" ingenious, while others will find the exact same jokes and stints repetitive and ridiculous. I myself did not enjoy the film the first time I saw it as a child, but over the years I have come to appreciate its humor a bit more. I still find the jokes a bit too stretched out at times, and certain gags, though hilarious the first ten times, get a bit humorless the twentieth time around (the coconuts, for example, which are amazingly silly when first introduced, soon become tiring when they are treated as the highlight of a joke repetitively). However, often enough the jokes introduced at certain points in the films are merely played in the background further into the film--for example, the fact that the men do not ride on horses is quite a major idea the first time it is revealed, and becomes the central subject of a conversation between Arthur and the man atop the castle battlements. But later on the notion of no horses is played smaller and in the background as so we can concentrate on the current jokes at hand, as well as the missing horses as an added bonus.

There is absolutely nothing to truthfully discuss about "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," other than to say that at first it seems quite obnoxious, but it starts to grow on you. And this movie has definitely made a deep dig into our culture. In fact, on the commentary track for the newer DVD, John Cleese mentions that a pro American football player (or "footballer" as the English call them) and his buddy were thinking of a plan in the midst of a serious game. Their strategy was this on the field: Run away! Run away!

There are countless classic scenes, including the battle between The Black Knight and King Arthur ("I've had worse!"); the scene where Sir Lancelot the Brave (or Launcelot, as the script for the film names him) storms the Swamp Castle in hopes of rescuing a fair maiden and, in result, ends up destroying everything in his path (including the candle mounted along the wall leading to the spiralling staircase), saying that he gets a bit frantic and over-excited in this genre; Sir Robin and the Three-Headed Knight ("...when danger reared its ugly head he bravely turned his tail and fled..."); The Knights Who Say "Ni!" and their request for a shrubbery; the Killer Rabbit's attack on Arthur's merry men. That's just to name a few memorable scenes.

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" may be the silliest film ever put on celluloid. It rarely makes sense, sometimes falls a bit flat, but always puts a smile on your face. And that's an achievement.

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