Theresa Corvino - Monty Python & The Holy Grail

Theresa Corvino
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Dir: Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones

Synopsis: King Arthur puts together his band of men travel on a search for the Holy Grail, overcoming many bizarre arguments.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is quite a mind-numbing rush for the first time viewer. Although the story seems simple, it is told in a random way with little to no structure of the plot line. The journey for the grail seems to run from episode to episode as they meet each individual challenge that relates in no way to the previous challenge.

Many breaks from the story include events such as the random music number when they visit Camelot. This music number lasts for several minutes and then disappears at the end of the scene. There is not a single other music number in the film.

Another surrealistic element in this film was the cartoonish elements like God and the angels and other random elements that appear to interact with the main characters or replace them temporarily in the story.

Another element in this film is paralleling the main story-taking place in the Middle Ages with a modern story-taking place in the modern age. These stories then meet at the end of the film in a totally unrealistic way that ends the film in a very sharp, awkward way.

Many of these avant-garde methods are completely unrealistic and strange but combine to create a unique film that gives Gilliam a style all his own and sets the film and its story apart as exceptional.