Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

The first full-length film from the team who brought you Monty Python's Flying Circus, this film is full of fantastic British comedy of the highest quality.

King Arthur (Graham Chapman) is on a quest from God, a quest to find the Holy Grail. With him are the Knights of the Round Table: Galahad (Michael Palin), Lancelot (John Cleese), Bedevere (Terry Jones) and Robin (Eric Idle), as well as Arthur's trusty servant Patsy (Terry Gilliam).

There really is no need to describe any more of the plot; I'll leave that up to you to discover (or re-discover) for yourself.

As with all material by the Python team (the entire above-mentioned cast, who wrote the film themselves), most of the characters are played by the Pythons themselves, with many of the cast doubling roles. There are exceptions to this, with frequent collaborators Connie Booth, Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes playing one role each (or sometimes two).

The script to this film is absolutely fantastic. The film feels like an extended episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, however, with short sketch-style scenes connected by the overarching storyline of Arthur and his knights searching for the Grail; but on the whole, the scenes could also stand on their own as comedy sketches.

The costumes, designed by Hazel Pethig (who also did all the costumes on Flying Circus), are adequate enough to convey the characters. This film was made on a very low budget, but the costumes at least are well done, considering.

Terry Bedford's cinematography is also good, within the budget constraints, obviously. A fair amount of the action takes place on location, as opposed to in a studio, so most scenes are simply shot with natural light, giving the film a very down-to-earth type of feel. But of course the value of this film is not in its visuals, but rather in its comedy.

The entire cast are fantastic, certainly if you like Monty Python and their style of comedy (which I do, which helps). Graham Chapman really shines as King Arthur, and was certainly the right choice of the six of them to play this role. The other standout performer - in my opinion - is Michael Palin, who definitely has the most different roles throughout the film (I counted nine in total). But he brings a different quality to each one, and it's easy enough to forget that all nine of those roles are being played by the same person.

Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam co-directed this film together (I suppose because they had the fewest acting roles between them, or something), and they have done a pretty good job here. I know that with the following Python films, Terry Jones would direct alone, which gives those later films more of a single unity that comes from having only one person at the helm. This one, however, as I've already said, feels like a really long episode of Flying Circus. Of course, again, if you're a fan, that probably isn't an issue, but still, this film does have a bit of a disjointed feel to it.

That being said, I will probably still continue to watch it at least a couple of times each year; it really is incredibly funny, even when you can quote the whole thing along with the cast.

6 1/2 out of 10.