Release Year: 1975

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy

Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones

Writers: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle

Welcome to the age-old tale of Arthur, the legendary king of the Britons, and his valiant Knights of the Round Table. They'll perform heroic feats of daring and cunning that will leave you breathless.

From laughing so hard, that is.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is where fantasy and adventure meet flat-out ridiculousness. Apparently it's a killer combination, since it's held up for more than four decades—unlike a lot of things we could list from 1975 (cough, polyester, cough)

The movie was produced by Monty (Python) Pictures and was written and directed by the Monty Python crew, the insanely funny absurdist comedy troupe made famous by their TV sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. They made do with a measly $400,000 production budget (measly for Hollywood, that is), and they shot the entire film in twenty-eight days.

The Pythons themselves played all of the main characters—and then some. Graham Chapman takes the lead as King Arthur who's followed by Lancelot (John Cleese), Bedevere (Terry Jones), Galahad (Michael Palin, who plays a whopping ten roles), Robin (Eric Idle), and Patsy (Terry Gilliam) on his journey through a very odd version of the Middle Ages, where knights bang coconuts instead of riding horses and people seem weirdly preoccupied with the airspeed velocity of swallows.

Despite the low budget and the fact that the Pythons and the two directors, Jones and Gilliam, had never done a feature length film (and admitted to basically figuring it out as they went), the film was a smashing success. It's considered to be one of the funniest films of all time, ranking consistently in the top five best comedies in polls and reviews from the likes of Total Film and ABC. It has an amazing 97% "Fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes film critics. 

Nobody gets 97%.

But don't take it from us; take it from The New Yorker:

We saw it last week, and it is our very deep, very personal privilege to report that, during the entire length of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the audience were either laughing or getting ready to laugh. The chairs were laughing, the rug was laughing, the exit signs were laughing, and the building next door was laughing. (Source)

Sure, the quests may be pointless (shrubbery?), the knights may not always be brave, the damsels may be a little more ready for action than your typical innocent maiden, and the monsters may be a tad unconventional (killer bunnies?). But all the components of a traditional Arthurian adventure are present and hilariously accounted for. We're talking brave knights, quests, beautiful damsels, fights to the death, fantastical monsters...and weird accents.

The movie had such staying power that the Pythons created a blockbuster Broadway version in Spamalot—a musical that won three Tony awards, including Best Musical. We could go on about The Holy Grail forever but, seeing as the movie itself is so much funnier, we're going to take Arthur & Co.'s advice and just...get on with it.

How many times have you heard the following lines?

"It's only a flesh wound."

"We are the knights who say "ni!"

"I fart in your general direction!"

"I'm not dead yet!"

The answer, if you're over seven years of age and haven't spent your life under a rock, is probably somewhere around a gazillion.

Most films have one catchphrase, like, say, "Show me the money!" A couple of uber-famous movies have two or three: "We'll always have Paris," and "Round up the usual suspects" both come from Casablanca. 

But Monty Python and the Holy Grail created approximately one quintillion catchphrases. In fact, we defy you to watch this movie for five minutes and not land on a phrase you've heard repeated, parodied, or referenced.

Why is this movie to eternally quotable? Is it the originality? The timelessness of that crazy Python humor? The total non-sequitur-ity of the non-sequiturs?

We think the answer is "all of the above." And we also think that's why you need to study this film.

Because even if you aren't concerned with understanding all of The Holy Grail's nuanced references, that doesn't mean it isn't worth watching and thinking about. Despite being one of the most ridiculous comedies ever, loaded with brilliant farcical humor, it covers some fairly interesting issues. Serious ones, like stereotypes, the use of violence in religion, social class conflict, even questioning the very nature of filmmaking.

In fact, we'd go so far as to say that studying The Holy Grail is as entertaining as watching it. Analysis doesn't kill these jokes. Heck, nothing short of an asteroid hitting Earth could kill these jokes.

And after a bit of Python-joke mining, you'll end up having a deeper appreciation of what makes these jokes so evergreen, so ironic and subversive, so absurdist, so full of non-sequiturs, and so full of rabbit gags.

Full disclosure: if you enter the weird, lunatic world of the people who brought us the Ministry of Silly Walks, you'll never be the same again. You'll have a deeper appreciation of migratory bird patterns, how to properly identify and punish witchcraft, the ins and outs of building swamp castles, and the importance of knowing what your favorite color is.

There's only one downside to entering the rabbithole (don't worry—not the Killer Rabbit Of Caerbannog's hole) of Monty Python; you might find yourself binge-watching episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. 

But take a page from Sir Lancelot and be brave—no good knight turns away from peril.