Subscribe  

February 3, 2014

 ← Previous | Spring 2014 schedule | Next →

Rated PG
91 minutes

view trailer

format: 35mm

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

February 3, 2014 at 7:00 pm in 26-100

FREE admission and popcorn, sponsored by the de Florez Fund for Humor!

More FREE stuff for you! We've got a limited number of coconuts, and posters and passes for a FREE off-campus advance screening on Wednesday (Feb. 5) of The Monuments Men -- first come, first served!

From its opening multi-language titles (that sure looks like Swedish) to the closing arrest of the entire Dark Ages cast by modern-day bobbies, Monty Python and the Holy Grail helped to define "irreverence" and became an instant cult classic. This time the Pythonites savage the legend of King Arthur, juxtaposing some excellently selected exterior locations with an unending stream of anachronistic one-liners, non sequiturs, and slapstick set pieces. The Knights of the Round Table set off in search of the Holy Grail on foot, as their lackeys make clippety-clop sounds with coconut shells. A plague-ridden community, ringing with the cry of "bring out your dead," offers its hale and hearty citizens to the body piles. A wedding of convenience is attacked by Arthur's minions while the pasty-faced groom continually attempts to burst into song. The good guys are nearly thwarted by the dreaded, tree-shaped "Knights Who Say Ni!" A feisty enemy warrior, bloodily shorn of his arms and legs in the thick of battle, threatens to bite off his opponent's kneecap. A French military officer shouts such taunts as "I fart in your general direction" and "I wave my private parts at your aunties." Rabbits are a particular obsession of the writers this time around, ranging from the huge Trojan Rabbit to the "killer bunny" that decapitates one of the knights. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin collaborated on the script and assumed most of the onscreen roles, while Gilliam and Jones served as co-directors. [www.rottentomatoes.com]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail still stands as a gloriously silly and twisted send-up.
      -- Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer. Read this review.