Pick of the Week: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" DVD

Although it’s very silly and sometimes taxes my patience, I’ve loved “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” for years because of its dark humor, irreverent imagination, and quirky originality. I recently watched this film on the two-disc Collector’s Edition DVD set, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movie was just as entertaining as I had remembered. However, the Collector’s Edition differs from an earlier DVD offering only in that it provides a paperback copy of the complete screenplay and a collectible film cel senitype.

For the uninitiated, Monty Python was a group of six actors (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) who had a comedy television program called “Monty Python and the Flying Circus” on the BBC from 1969 to 1974. “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” released in 1975, was the group’s first movie.

The film purports to be about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table seeking the Holy Grail, but this is but a flimsy pretext on which to hang daft humor, sketch-style comedy, and off-the-wall dialogue.

When the film opens, it looks as though we’re watching something titled “Dentist on the Job.” Then the text “One moment please while the operator changes reels” appears on the screen. Next the opening credits for “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” appear, but these are subtitled in what looks like some Scandinavian language. Soon we are shown the text “We apologise for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.” After more than five minutes of this sort of hanky-panky, we finally get into the movie we expected to watch. I’m not always in the mood for this sort of thing, but there are times when this silly, zany, escapist type of humor is just what I’m looking for.

Monty Python fans have many favorite sequences and lines. One of mine is where King Arthur tells a peasant that he became king when the Lady of the Lake held aloft Excalibur. But the peasant responds, “Strange women lying in ponds, distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.”

Another line that always makes me laugh—and illustrates typically Pythonesque skewed logic—is when King Arthur tells Sir Bedevere, “Explain again how sheeps’ bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.”

To me, the funniest sequence in the movie unfolds when King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table meet Tim the Enchanter, who takes them to the small, but ferocious, killer bunny. To destroy it, they must use the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. I think it’s hilarious when they consult the “Book of Armaments,” chapter 2, verses 9 to 21, which reads in part, “First, shalt thou take out the holy pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three… Then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe.”

Although some dyed-in-the-wool Python fans think everything in the film is funny, occasionally the humor seems strained to me. To my mind, the Pythons just don’t know when to quit sometimes.

For example, our heroes meet a group called the Knights Who Say “Ni,” and the gag here is just how silly it sounds to say the word “Ni.” As far as I’m concerned, it’s a perfectly good one-liner, but it’s extended so long it makes me want to groan out loud. I realize, of course, that this sequence is some people’s favorite.

I think “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” has moments when it is gut-bustingly funny, and even at its worst, it’s nearly always amusing. I find myself smiling over parts of the film for days after I’ve seen it. However, truth be told, the movie is sometimes tedious, and I can’t deny that it has a weak narrative structure and the ending is not satisfying.

The Collector’s Edition two-disc DVD set comes with a wealth of bonus materials, and I have listed on the next page.