Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The legend of the Holy Grail provided a unifying motif for the film.

In January 1973 the Monty Python troupe wrote the first draft of the screenplay.[5][6] Half of the material was set in the Middle Ages and half was set in the present day. The group decided to focus on the Middle Ages, focussing on the legend of the Holy Grail. By the fourth or fifth draft, the story was complete, and the cast joked that the fact that the Grail was never retrieved would be "a big let-down ... a great anti-climax".[6] Graham Chapman said a challenge was incorporating scenes that did not fit the Holy Grail motif.[7]

Neither Terry Gilliam nor Terry Jones had directed a film before, and described it as a learning experience in which they would learn to make a film by making an entire full-length film.[8] The cast humorously described the novice directing style as employing the level of mutual disrespect always found in Monty Python's work.[6]

A 2021 tweet by Eric Idle[9] revealed that the film was financed by eight investors: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Holy Grail's co-producer Michael White, Heartaches (a cricket team founded by lyricist Tim Rice), and three record companies including Charisma Records, the record label that released Python's early comedy albums.[10] The investors contributed the entire original budget of £175,350 (about $410,000 in 1974). He added that this group also received a percentage of the proceeds from the 2005 musical Spamalot.[11]

According to Terry Gilliam, the Pythons turned to rock stars like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin for finance as the studios refused to fund the film and rock stars saw it as "a good tax write-off" due to the top rate of UK income tax being "as high as 90%" at the time.[12]

It has also been said by Gilliam that Elton John[13] financed the Holy Grail, although a 2022 tweet from Eric Idle has stated that this is not true.[14]

Doune Castle, used in several scenes

Castle Stalker, the location of the final scene

Monty Python and the Holy Grail was mostly shot on location in Scotland,[15] particularly around Doune Castle, Glen Coe, and the privately owned Castle Stalker.[16] The many castles seen throughout the film were mainly either Doune Castle shot from different angles or hanging miniatures.[17] There are several exceptions to this: the very first exterior shot of a castle at the beginning of the film is Kidwelly Castle in South Wales, and the single exterior shot of the Swamp Castle during "Tale of Sir Lancelot" is Bodiam Castle in East Sussex;[18] all subsequent shots of the exterior and interior of those scenes were filmed at Doune Castle. Production designer Julian Doyle recounted that his crew constructed walls in the forest near Doune.[19] Terry Jones later recalled the crew had selected more castles around Scotland for locations, but during the two weeks prior to principal photography, the Scottish Department of the Environment declined permission for use of the castles in its jurisdiction, for fear of damage.[17]

At the start of "The Tale of Sir Robin", there is a slow camera zoom in on rocky scenery (that in the voice-over is described as "the dark forest of Ewing"). This is actually a still photograph of the gorge at Mount Buffalo National Park in Victoria, Australia. Doyle stated in 2000 during an interview with Hotdog magazine[20] that it was a still image filmed with candles underneath the frame (to give a heat haze). This was a low-cost method of achieving a convincing location effect.

On the DVD audio commentary, Cleese described challenges shooting and editing Castle Anthrax in "The Tale of Sir Galahad", with what he felt the most comedic take being unused because an anachronistic coat was visible in it.[21] Castle Anthrax was also shot in one part of Doune, where costume designer Hazel Pethig advised against nudity, dressing the girls in shifts.[17]

In the scene where the knights were combatting the Rabbit of Caerbannog, a real white rabbit was used, switched with puppets for its killings.[22] It was covered with red liquid to simulate blood, though the rabbit's owner did not want the animal dirty and was kept unaware. The liquid was difficult to remove from the fur.[22] He also stated that he thought that, had they been more experienced in filmmaking, the crew would have just purchased a rabbit instead. Regardless, the rabbit itself was unharmed. Also, the rabbit-bite effects were done by special puppetry by both Gilliam and SFX technician John Horton.

As chronicled in The Life of Python, The First 20 Years of Monty Python, and The Pythons' Autobiography, Chapman suffered from acrophobia, trembling and bouts of forgetfulness during filming due to his alcoholism, prompting him to refrain from drinking while the production continued in order to remain "on an even keel". Nearly three years later, in December 1977, Chapman achieved sobriety.

Originally the knight characters were going to ride real horses, but after it became clear that the film's small budget precluded real horses (except for a lone horse appearing in a couple of scenes), the Pythons decided their characters would mime horse-riding while their porters trotted behind them banging coconut shells together. The joke was derived from the old-fashioned sound effect used by radio shows to convey the sound of hooves clattering. This was later referred to in the German release of the film, which translated the title as Die Ritter der Kokosnuß (The Knights of the Coconut).[23] Similarly, the Hungarian title Gyalog galopp translates to "Galloping on Foot".[24]

The opening credits of the film feature pseudo-Swedish subtitles, which soon turn into an appeal to visit Sweden and see the country's moose. The subtitles are soon stopped and claim that the people responsible have been sacked, but moose references continue throughout the actual credits. The subtitles were written by Michael Palin as a way to "entertain the 'captive' audience" at the beginning of the film.[25]

In Region 1, The Criterion Collection released a LaserDisc version of the film featuring audio commentary from directors Jones and Gilliam.[39]

In 2001, Columbia Tristar published a two-disc, special-edition DVD. Disc one includes the Jones and Gilliam commentary, a second commentary with Idle, Palin and Cleese, the film's screenplay on a subtitle track and "Subtitles for People Who Don't Like the Film"–consisting of lines taken from William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2.[39] Disc two includes Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Lego, a "brickfilm" version of the "Camelot Song" as sung by Lego minifigures.[40] It was created by Spite Your Face Productions on commission from the Lego Group and Python Pictures. The project was conceived by the original film's respective producer and co-director, John Goldstone and Terry Gilliam.[41] Disc two also includes two scenes from the film's Japanese dub, literally translated back into English through subtitles. "The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations", hosted by Palin and Jones,[42] shows places in Scotland used for the setting titled as "England 932 A.D." (as well as the two Pythons purchasing a copy of their own script as a guide). Also included is a who's who page, advertising galleries and sing-alongs.[42] A "Collector's Edition" DVD release additionally included a book of the screenplay, a limited-edition film cell/senitype, and limited-edition art cards.[43]

A 35th-anniversary edition on Blu-ray was released in the US on 6 March 2012.[44] Special features include "The Holy Book of Days," a second-screen experience that can be downloaded as an app on an iOS device and played with the Blu-ray to enhance its viewing, lost animation sequences with a new intro from animator Terry Gilliam, outtakes and extended scenes with Python member and the movie's co-director Terry Jones.[45]

On the special edition DVD, the studio logos, opening credits and a brief portion of the opening scene of 1961 British Film Dentist on the Job is added to the start of the film. The clip ends with a spluttering, unseen "projectionist" realising he has played the wrong film. A "slide" then appears urging the audience to wait one moment please while the operator changes reels.[46][47]

The Black Knight's helmet. His lines, "Tis but a scratch" and "It's just a flesh wound…" are often quoted.[55]

The film's reputation grew over time. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Holy Grail the fifth-greatest comedy film of all time.[3] The next Python film, Life of Brian, was ranked first.[3] A 2006 poll of Channel 4 viewers on the 50 Greatest Comedy Films saw Holy Grail placed in sixth place (with Life of Brian again topping the list).[4] In 2011, an ABC prime-time special, Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, counted down the best films chosen by fans based on results of a poll conducted by ABC and People. Holy Grail was selected as the second best comedy after Airplane! In 2016, Empire magazine ranked Holy Grail 18th in their list of the 100 best British films (Life of Brian was ranked 2nd), their entry stating, "Elvis ordered a print of this comedy classic and watched it five times. If it's good enough for the King, it's good enough for you."[56]

In a 2017 interview at Indiana University in Bloomington, John Cleese expressed disappointment with the film's conclusion. "'The ending annoys me the most'", he said after a screening of the film on the Indiana campus, adding that "'It ends the way it does because we couldn't think of any other way'".[57] However, scripts for the film and notebooks that are among Michael Palin's private archive, which he donated to the British Library in 2017, do document at least one alternative ending that the troupe considered: "a battle between the knights of Camelot, the French, and the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog".[58][59] Due to the film's small production budget, that idea for a "much pricier option" was discarded by the Pythons in favour of the ending with "King Arthur getting arrested", which Palin deemed "'cheaper'" and "'funnier'".[58]

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes offers a 97% approval rating from reviews of 78 critics, with an average rating of 8.46/10. The consensus reads, "A cult classic as gut-bustingly hilarious as it is blithely ridiculous, Monty Python and the Holy Grail has lost none of its exceedingly silly charm."[60] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 91 out of 100 based on 24 critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[61]

Hank Azaria in the original Broadway production of Spamalot

In 2005, the film was adapted as a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Spamalot. Written primarily by Idle, the show has more of an overarching plot and leaves out certain portions of the movie due to difficulties in rendering certain effects on stage. Nonetheless, many of the jokes from the film are present in the show.[62]

In 2013, the Pythons lost a legal case to Mark Forstater, the film's producer, over royalties for the derivative work, Spamalot. They owed a combined £800,000 in legal fees and back royalties to Forstater.[63][64] To help cover the cost of these royalties and fees, the group arranged and performed in a stage show, Monty Python Live (Mostly), held at the O₂ Arena in London in July 2014.[65][66]

In May 2018, it was announced that 20th Century Fox had green-lit a film adaptation of the musical. Idle would write the screenplay and stage director Casey Nicholaw would direct. Filming was to begin in early 2019 but was delayed due to the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company.[67] On January 6, 2020, it was announced that the project would move to Paramount Pictures and that it was set to begin pre-production, with Idle and Nicholaw still attached as writer and director and Dan Jinks joining as a producer.[68]

• Larsen, Darl (2015). "Title and Credit Sequence". A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail: All the References from African Swallows to Zoot. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 1–26. ISBN 9781442245549.
• Li, Martin (2011). "Scotland on Film". Glasgow & the River Clyde. Hunter Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-1588437853.
• McCall, Douglas (2013). Monty Python: A Chronology, 1969–2012 (2 ed.). McFarland. ISBN 9780786478118 – via Google Books.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Book), Eyre Methuen, 1977, ISBN 0 413 38520 5. Contains screenplay, photographs, and other material.
• Palin, Michael (2006). Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.