Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Short description
Monty Python and the Holy Grail follows King Arthur as he travels through medieval England gathering knights for his Round Table, among them Sir Bedevere, Sir Lancelot, Sir Robin and Sir Galahad. A divine charge sends the group in search of the Holy Grail, and their journey brings a series of absurd encounters, from a stubborn knight who refuses to stop fighting to taunting French soldiers and a killer rabbit. The film is a comedy built on the clash between Arthur's lofty quest and the foolishness of nearly everyone he meets.
The film was released in 1975 and runs 91 minutes. It was directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, the first of the 14 films Gilliam has directed, followed by Jabberwocky in 1977, and the first of six directed by Jones, whose later work includes Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones wrote the screenplay, and Mark Forstater and Michael White produced. The six members of the comedy troupe play most of the roles, with Graham Chapman as Arthur, John Cleese as the Black Knight and Lancelot, Eric Idle as Sir Robin, Terry Jones as Sir Bedevere, Michael Palin as Galahad and Terry Gilliam as Arthur's servant Patsy, across a credited cast of 47.
Its worldwide box office of 2 million dollars understates its standing. On IMDb it holds 8.2 out of 10 from 601,000 votes, with 7.8 out of 10 on TMDB from 6,623 votes, while a critics' rating of 8.6 out of 10 from 131 reviews places it slightly above those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Graham Chapman's (1941-1989) fondness for alcoholic beverages, which he unsuccessfully tried to combat, caused problems during filming, and not only because he kept forgetting his lines. On the very first day of filming, he was required to walk across the 'Bridge of Death.' While working on 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' (1969-1974), Chapman drank a lot to calm his nerves, but here he found that there was no alcohol on set, and it wasn't easy to quickly run to the nearest town to stock up. For this reason, Chapman felt unwell, he was shaking, and covered in sweat, and moved very slowly in front of the camera, despite being an experienced mountaineer in real life. No one on the film crew understood the reason for this, but the real culprit was actually delirium tremens.
- During one of the first test screenings before a live audience, Terry Jones, one of the scriptwriters and directors, noticed that the audience laughed much less at the jokes and gags when music was playing on the screen at the same time. Jones removed the musical accompaniment from such moments where possible. Throughout subsequent screenings, he noticed that audiences reacted much more positively to the gags in the absence of music, and since then, he has removed musical accompaniment from moments where the visuals became funny whenever possible.
- The photograph of God depicts William Gilbert Grace (1848-1915), one of the most famous cricket players in history.
- The ship in the film's finale was conceived by Terry Gilliam. It made a great impression on the other members of the film crew.
- The sound of coconut shells being struck together was used to imitate the sounds of galloping horses, simply because the budget didn't allow for the use of real horses.
- Part of the filming took place in Scotland, at Dun and Stalker castles, near a village.
- The knights' armor was actually made of wool, so considering the typical weather conditions in Scotland and England, the actors were constantly sweaty and freezing during filming. To make matters worse, the hotel where everyone was staying had only a limited number of bathtubs and hot water, resulting in a race for a hot bath at the end of each shooting day.
- When the first screening of the film began at the Cannes Film Festival, the credits rolled and the audience in the auditorium began to laugh. When the screening was stopped, the audience simply broke out in hysterics, assuming it was intentional. In reality, an anonymous tip had been received by the police about a bomb being planted in the cinema, so the audience had to be evacuated.
- During the witch-hunting scene, Eric Idle grinned and bit down on the blade of the scythe he was holding. This wasn't in the script; Idle couldn't contain his laughter and bit whatever was at hand, just to avoid bursting out laughing and ruining the take.
- King Arthur's army consisted of 175 students from Stirling University (they were filmed from different angles to make the army appear visually larger than it actually was). A request was made to the university administration, promising each extra actor two pounds sterling for a day's work, free transportation to the filming location, food, and 'a lot of fun.'
- The members of Pink Floyd were such ardent fans of the series "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969-1974) that they took breaks from recording the album "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973) to watch it.
- A real rabbit was used in the filming of the killer rabbit sketch; it was simply borrowed for the shoot and smeared with red paint, assuming it could be easily washed off afterward, which proved not to be the case. According to Terry Gilliam, if they had been more experienced filmmakers, they would have simply bought the rabbit outright. Either way, the animal was not harmed during filming. The rabbit bites were filmed using special dummies devised and created by Gilliam and special effects supervisor John Horton.
- The abrupt ending of the film is explained by the fact that there were insufficient budgetary funds to film the battle scene.
- During the duel between the Black and Green Knights, John Cleese and Terry Gilliam performed all the stunts themselves. Both had to learn to handle heavy swords while wearing full knightly armor. They had refused the use of stunt doubles and stunt performers in advance, and they themselves genuinely enjoyed the filming process.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
