FIRST TIME WATCHING MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL | REACTION Please remember to LIKE & SUBSCRIBE 💞 And leave any comments down below, it's much appreciated 😊 Instagram: / dawn.marie.anderson TikTok: / dawn.marie.anderson
i think when they were going to make the film they were going to be on horses but then found out that the cost eg training and insurance was going to be to much and one of them said why dont we just have a couple of guys bang coconuts
@@robertgomez7414 No he was not actually on horseback as he ran pat him when he cut him so he was on foot too actually. You should check out Life of Brian and not leave out the funnier bits like you did in this one
@@orthochronicity6428 Right?? I first watched this back in the '80s and so many times after that, including multiple reactions, and it only _just now_ struck me that the knight who kills Frank has a real horse.
@@DawnMarieX Yup - my favourite line in my favourite movie. Best movie review ever for spotting that :D. I also like "I'm not" in the Life Of Brian...see if you can spot that...I also like Lancelot attacking the French castle, pointlessly, with his sword.
The point of Castle Anthrax was that Sir Galahad was virginal and chaste and so was tempted by all these young, attractive women. You seemed to lose patience with a lot of the scenes but that’s their humor. It’s not all fast paced. They jokes are in the delivery and the absurd characters.
The French Taunter, Tim the Enchanter and Sir Lancelot were all played by John Cleese. Aka Nearly Headless Nick. Look up “The Ministry of Silly Walks” and thank me later.
It took me decades to realize that the Frenchman's taunt of the "English kin-niggits" was a non-English readers's attempt to sound out the word 'knights'.
It's referenced in Game of Thrones, when Ser Davos is learning to read. (At least I can't imagine that him tripping over the word "kuh-niggit" was anything but a deliberate, if very subtle, homage!)
@@TimpanistMoth_AyKayEll The rider in front of the Meereen gates also insults Daario Naharis before combat saying "Your mother is a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries" in Low Valyrian.
I've heard it said that English is less a coherent language than a collection of words and grammarical rules stolen from other languages after dragging them into an alley and beating them senseless.
The reason for no horses is as simple as they didn't have the budget for them. So the coconut clopping was born and is an iconic bit of movie history now 🤣(edit: fun facts: The only horse in the movie is when the historian is killed, The French refer to them as 'Kuh-nigg-its" which is a phonetic pronunciation of KNIGHTS, and the end of the movie is literally a COP OUT.)
@@DawnMarieX coconuts were often used in radio dramas, so they decided to make a joke of it and it was such a perfect python joke that if they found the money to use real horses they still would have used coconuts because it's so silly.
And speaking of "cops" - did you ever notice that when they weigh the witch and she actually winds up weighing the same as the duck (their test to see if she's a witch) she actually says "It's a fair cop!"? 🤣 I know people who watched this movie several times yet missed this every time! It's hard to catch all the silly bits they threw into the mix! 😊
You seemed to miss the greatest line, ever: "Who's that then?" "Dunno, must be a king." "How do you know he's a king?" "Cos he ain't got shit all over him."
@@DawnMarieX Very true. x With this film, you're often laughing from the last gag and miss the next one. 🤣 (Sorry, I didn't get a notification of your reply, it's taken a year!)
The arrow sound effect followed by "Message for you, sir" has been my SMS tone for a long time. 'Nearly Headless Nick' is also the French taunter and Tim the Enchanter and a few others in the film. It 'almost' hurts that the role you know John Cleese for is his bit part in Harry Potter! The Knights of the Round Table didn't murder the historian, they were innocent (of that murder). The murderer had a real horse.
It is from an actual hymn: "Pie Iesu Domine. Dona eis requiem". "Holy Lord, Jesus. Grant them rest." or perhaps in this context "Holy Jesus! Give them a break!"
The original poem (edit: Dies Irae, or Day of Wrath) in Latin is real fire-and-brimstone, a listing of all the sinners in Hell, and that’s the climactic end: Pie Iesu Domine, dona eis requiem. Finally reading it after tittering at that for twenty years made it funnier with the juxtaposition of the damnation and the monks hitting their heads with the books.
The main joke with the Castle Anthrax is that Galahad introduces himself as "Galahad the Chaste." So his great peril that he had to overcome was the danger of being seduced. The whole sequence is meant to poke fun at the "virtue" of chastity
Also, the true Quest of the Holy Grail is only to be found by someone who is without sin whatsoever, completely pure or they would be unworthy. Terry Gilliam makes fun of every possible thing involving King Arthur and everything surrounding the UK mythos of it. There is a lot of accuracy to the witch trials, government, filth, pseudo-science, and other things as well.
@@mikecronisto be fair, she not only weighed the same as a duck, but she turned John Cleese into a newt. It’s not as though a more modern court wouldn’t also have suspected her of being a witch. It may not be a capital crime today, but Polyjuicing your neighbors has got to at least count as assault and battery.
@@DawnMarieX - there's more jokes in Life of Brain. A complete story with an ending you'll be singing about. Oh!! *NO MOOSE or subtitles to read in the credits.*
When the witch gets convicted of weighing the same as a duck, she mutters "It's a fair cop", which is an almost untranslatable meme, meaning "You got me, and I can't even be mad about it", which is a reference to the kind of 'gentleman detective' crime mysteries for which England is still so well known. Oftentimes, when the culprit was exposed, he took it in surprisingly good stride, uttering something akin to "It's a fair cop.", meaning he bore no ill will towards the detective who just sealed his fate.
You need to be fully immersed in the Monty Python universe to get the mindset of things they carry over from one skit to the next. They used those bits of artwork to transition from one scene to the next in the TV show. The presence of moose etc. is in the spirit of what they did before.
not exactly. monty python are very understandable if you dont understand it its because you arent smart ebough to understand what they try to make understand you.
"It's a person or a group." Partly correct in both. The team named themselves 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. A flying circus is a rotating ensemble of performers whilst Monty Python was the dodgiest name they could think of to give this fictional talent manager. The group are now known as Monty Python.
Monty Python was a couple of Uni Comedy/Acting groups...they consolidated and got a show at the height of BBC TV officiousness and proceeded to give the 'highers' fits. All the movies are good but the show was best. I am a proud owner of the 16 ton DVD collection.
You’re half right...George set up Handmade films to bankroll Life Of Brian after the original production company pulled out due to the subject matter. This film was actually funded by bands like Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and a few record labels of the time.
The fact that the actors portrayed more than one role in the film, that's one of the best things about the whole movie! Also, I remember hearing that they only were able to afford one horse for the movie, so they came up with the idea of using the coconuts instead!
"Why are they sticking the trumpets up their butts." Beyond the absurdity, that's actually a period art reference. When Monks had to hand write their own bibles they'd draw art called Marginalia which tended to be absurd or obscene - people shagging, knights fighting snails etc. One known such artwork is a herald blowing that trumpet with their butt.
@@DawnMarieX There's actually a theory involving the knights fighting snails artwork. Many monks of that era were also gardeners/subsistence farmers and snails/slugs would have been the bane of their existence so their artwork reflected their fantasies of destroying the evil monsters that were munching on their vegetables.
@@radbarij I believe Terry Gilliam actually is a Medieval Historian, so he definitely would know about this (in fact, he knew that the early Middle Ages weren't a dirty, muddy cesspit like the movie depicts, but that's part of the joke).
You should do more movies. That was fun. Monty Python was a comedy troupe that had a TV show called "Monty Python's Flying Circus" in the late 60s and early 70s. After the show, they branched out into movies. The next movie to watch would probably be "The Life of Brian." After Monty Python, John Cleese, the guy who played Nearly Headless Nick in the "Harry Potter" films had an hilarious series called "Fawlty Towers" about an incompetent hotel in rural England.
The ending was literally a "cop-out", it took me ages to realise that. I saw it three times at the cinema when it first came out, and still didn't quite get everything. Watch Life Of Brian too.
You pretty much have to watch the Python movies a couple of times to get all of it. In that I mean that while you're preoccupied with what's going on the foreground of a scene, sometimes there is something absolutely absurd going in the background. "The Life of Brian" is packed with silly background activity like that.
Probably the closest I've seen to what a REAL sword fight would look like in a major Hollywood production is the duel between Vader and Obi-Wan in the original Star Wars. LOTS of footwork, winding, and controlling the line and working for angles. It's actually beautiful. Of course, it helps that the Great Bob Anderson is in the Vader Suit.
The guy who died under the Trojan Rabbit was also the monk singing "Iye, Iesu, domine" earlier, and he's Sir Robin's head minstrel as well. The scholar who gets slashed after the trojan rabbit scene is also the guy who was going to be stone dead in a moment and had to get whacked on the head to put him on the cart. The actors and settings all played multiple roles in this movie. That one castle appears three or four times as different castles.
I remember rewatching this movie for the nth time (and that was 15+ years ago) with a bunch of guys and the one girl who hadn't seen it before. She was all like "why are you laughing?" when we started laughing _before_ the payoffs. Thanks for letting me relive that.
@@DawnMarieX The french guy is Sir Lancelot and Tim the enchanter and Nearly headless Nick, also Q in some Bond Films and so many more... the one and only John Cleese
Not exactly. The people actually holding the trials DID know better (contrary to popular culture, learning and education didn't end with the collapse of the Roman Empire, even in the West). This was basically a way to get rid of troublemakers (mostly women who pissed off the church and local authorities by being too independent or smart, or perpetuating pre-Christian folk practices IE medicine which undermined religious and secular authority) under the illusion of a "fair trial," when really it was just a kangaroo court that manufactured evidence in such a way as no matter the outcome it would lead to a conviction. It's no accident that all of the actual tests would ultimately come out in favor of the accusers: Either the person who "passed" the test would die in the process, thus ridding them of the victim, or the victim would "fail," justifying their execution. Consider the practice of ducking: The "witch" was bound and thrown into water. If she floated, the "pure" water rejected her, proving she was a witch, and she would be convicted and executed. And since the human body is naturally buoyant, a "conviction" from this practice was virtually guaranteed. One the chance she DID sink she was innocent, but that was a small comfort considering she would be left to drown, anyway.
The best part of that scene is when John Cleese takes an ultra long pause before saying the "because they're made out of wood" line. Watch closely and you can see Eric Idle bite his sword to keep from cracking up and breaking character.
It was sending up Michael Palin's reputation at the time as being kind of the Paul McCartney of the group, though in actuality he was as out there as anyone in Python
6:40 Many "duel" situations often came down to grappling in the era of heavy armor. Wrestling and grappling was hugely important in the medieval period. For movies though, rolling around trying to find a weak point in the opponents armor with a dagger isn't very cinematic, and is too gruesome (and frankly brutal) for audiences.
One of my favorite things about Python is that they weren’t afraid to go in a completely absurd conceptual direction, mostly because they also weren’t afraid to bail out of a bit they couldn’t find a punchline for. It’s something you’ll likely notice a lot as you progress through the series.
We visited the castle some years ago and they were building sets for the Outlander tv-series. You can get a headset with Terry Jones from Monty Python guiding you and talking about filming the movie. The castle is used for almost every castle scene in the movie.
Great reaction. You're the first one that laughed as hard as me when he said he'll fart in your general direction! I suggest you watch Airplane! You'll laugh until your cheeks hurt.
I had a 10th grade teacher named Gary Mabe in florida and I had him for world history and it was a known fact that once we got to this time period he showed this movie. I had never seen it before. And I waited until he showed it in class to see it and fell in love with it immediately. Sadly he just passed away a few weeks ago from a brain tumor. So to you Mr. Mabe I say, go away or I shall taunt you a second timeuh
@@DawnMarieX The 6 members of the group wrote, directed and starred in the film, each playing several roles. Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam shared directing duties, Gilliam is also the animator and the only American in the group. He's had a career of directing such films as "The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen" (watch this one), "Brazil" and "12 Monkeys".
You would probably enjoy Terry Gilliam's first solo film Jabberwocky (1977), which stars Michael Palin. It is also a funny medieval story. It has the same visual style (The same director of photography as The holy grail).
Regarding the "bring out your dead" scene, there was a serious plague going on during this time in our world history and people use to bring carts to collect people's dead so they can be buried in Mass Graves and bodies burned. This was a common practice in times of plague, especially among the commoners. It was very dark time.
Something you missed, as I did the first several times I've enjoyed this movie over the ages, is every character is portrayed by one of 4 or 5 main Monty Python Characters. The Frenchmen you enjoyed is also Lancelot and also one of the Coconut Banger with a huge backpack. They swap roles and if as you get to know them you will see each with each skit. They were a great Bunch of Folks and I don't think there was an ego among them as they all shared in credit equally and supported each other fiercely. There are a group of men unlike no other with regards to fame of fortune...
Airplane!, The Naked Gun, and Top Secret you need to react to and sure hope you do! Your sides will hurt from laughing so hard. Thank you for this Great reaction to this classic movie!
The Tale of Sir Galahad is just "sworn to chastity" Galahad being repeatedly tempted by beautiful maidens (with awful names). He's on the verge of falling--and having the greatest experience of his life--when Lancelot barges in and drags him away. Weirdly, when I first saw this on PBS in the '80s, the only part that WAS cut was the whole "Get on with it!" bit.
Yeah, to each their own, I suppose, but I thought it was hilarious how many things they could fit in there to tempt him and then he was fighting his fellow knights to "face the peril single-handed."
Fun fact: At the premier of this movie at select theatres, they gave away coconuts to the first however many people through the gate. Some people still have them to this day.
I use the term "K-BRAAB" (from "knees-bent running-about advancing behavior") to describe the situation of doing a whole lot to accomplish a whole little...
It’s a redo of a number of sketches from the Flying Circus television program, which was originally unavailable in the US. If you watch the first two seasons of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, you see all of these, though with different transitions and other little changes.
Monty Python were the 4Chan trolls of their time. If you love this movie, then "Yellowbeard" should be on your list (since everyone else is recommending other Monty Python movies). Not technically a Monty Python film, but it was a Graham Chapman (King Arthur) passion project and the humor is similar.
Karl Smith, Thought I heard she was his ex-wife at the time of the movie. Although, perhaps after that movie she became his ex-wife.🤣🤣🤣 Dawn, when you see the one character Eric Idle, holding a knife over his mouth after Sir Bedivere asks why do witches burn, it was him trying to hide him laughing. If you look closely, you can see him start to laugh right before covering his mouth..
Great movie. Other great Monty Python movies are The Life Of Brian, The Meaning Of Life, And Now for Something Completely Different and sort of Monty Python movie with some of the members is A fish called Wanda
Great reaction. I do suggest you may want to partake of a little something before watching any Monty Python. They're the kings of non sequiturs and one scene may have nothing to do with the previous scene except a running joke like swallows and coconuts. The members of Monty Python are mostly well-educated and a lot of the scenes are based on reality rather than standard movie choreography and art. During the Black Plague, people were dying so fast that they did actually have people going through the streets with carts calling for people to bring out their dead and people in the countryside may not have known they had a king or who that king was. When you watch Life of Brian, it is actually true that there were a lot of "messiahs" and religious fervor during the period that Rome occupied the area. We're just more familiar with the religion that evolved into a religion going by the same name today.
The next best comedy to watch is Team America: World Police. No one else has reacted to it. Its a real gem from the early 2000s. From the creators of southpark. Using puppets!
A great reaction and will definately look out for more from you. They couldn't afford horses hence the coconuts. The best of the 3 films imo is Life of Brian, but this one is a close second. The Meaning of Life is more hit and miss as it is basically a compilation of their series sketches but still watchable and has some of their most memorable sketches in it. Life of Brian is about a man who is mistaken for Jesus or a Jesus type of person and was quite controversial when it was made but is funny. A interesting fact if you do Life of Brian, George Harrison of The Beatles gave them the money to film it as no studios would give them the money and George said he wanted to see it after seeing the script. So he gave them the money.
The Meaning of Life is just plain insane! Be prepared if you decide to watch it- it’s full of graphic violence, gore, sex, nudity, copious vomit, and other sundry obscenties. It’s funny, but it’s definitely not a comfortable watch. They pushed things as far as they could in that one. The wonderful songs almost make up for it, though. I made the huge mistake of introducing a girl I was friends with to Monty Python by showing her that movie. Needless to say, it was just too much for her and didn’t exactly make her want to check out more of their stuff.
Fun fact. The Game of Thrones writers were python fans. They worked out a language for High Valerian. When Dynis Tygarian was insulted from the castle they said "I fart in your general direction, your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries"
If you'd like to stray a little bit from the pure Python (cause it can be a bit much at times), may I suggest a film: A Fish Called Wanda. It has John Cleese in it (the Frenchman from this film). It also has Michael Palin (on of the other Monty Python comedy troop members). Alternatively, of the Python movies, Life of Brian is probably their best.
Monty Python is the Gold Standard of surreal comedy. I'm a 35 year fan going back to my high school years 😁. If memory serves. This is beaten only by AIRPLANE! as the funniest movie of all time according to the AFI
If you look closely at the Witch Trial scene, you'll see John Cleese and Eric Idle barely hold in their laughter while delivering their lines. The woman playing the witch was John Cleese's wife at the time. The entire movie budget was 200,000 Pounds and the investors were famous bands like Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones. That low budget is why they didn't use horses, the extras were all local volunteers and even students from the University they graduated from. Every castle scene was filmed inside 1 privately owned castle in Scotland, since they were banned by the government from filming in any other castle. Graham Chapman was piss drunk during the entire filming of the movie, but you can't really tell due to him being a very good actor.
I know you skipped over it, but the killer rabbit is one of my favorite bits. Fun fact: the rabbit was actually a pet that they borrowed. The dye they used as blood was unable to be washed out, leaving the owner distraught when the rabbit was returned to him. Thankfully the dye was harmless, and the rabbit had that dye for the rest of its life.
"As the horrendous black beast lunged forward, escape for Arthur, and his knights seemed hopeless, when suddenly, the animator suffered a fatal heart attack. The cartoon peril was no more..." SAVED BY THE FOURTH WALL!!!
The original name of the TV program was going to be "Owl Stretching Time". But "Monty Python's Flying Circus" won out, and 50 years later, they still have fans of all ages. They started on British Television in 1970, began syndication in the United States around 1973, and became a global phenomenon with the introduction of "The Holy Grail" movie. Trying to describe them is an exercise in futility; there just isn't a description that fits. Insanity, silliness, disconnected from reality, surreal, are all words that don't quite manage to do it.
Also note that Terry Jones (R.I.P. : -( ), who played several parts & co-directed the film with Gilliam, was also a medieval historian who wrote a scholarly commentary on The Canterbury Tales. Hence there are some nuggets of authentic (if exaggerated) bits of history in there.
The thing about the fighting not being like in movies is true. The big things are that techniques for medieval hand to hand were much more driven by being practicality (so the spinning and such wasn’t a thing historically) and that people didn’t actually use swords all that often. Swords are worse weapons than lances in most situations so swords were strictly a backup weapon in case something happened to the actually good weapon (kinda like how modern soldiers carry handguns so they can swap to that instead of reloading)
Monty Python is great. In 2013, they lost a Lawsuit over some Royalties, and decided to hold a concert to Raise the funds for it. It sold out in 43 seconds. "Monty Python Live (Mostly): One Down, Five to Go" Was eventually filmed and you can probably find it if you look.
Well done.. U randomly popped up in my recommendations & I love monty python so I watched a bit & subscribed at 8min. Your cool, natural & funny. I look forward to future content 😊
The joke of the Tale of Sir Galahad is that Galahad was notable in Arthurian Legend for being chaste (in fact he was the knight who actually recovered the Grail in the Legend). So of COURSE they dump him in a scene with a bunch of horny sequestered women. They REALLY did a great job of researching the mythology. For example, Lancelot actually was known for going berserk in battle (this ultimately led to the death of one of Gawain's relatives, and even the downfall of Camelot itself).
The Holy grail was shot in Scotland, at Doune castle, Glen Coe and Caste Stalker, North of Oban. There is a brief documentary where Terry Jones and Michael Palin revisits these locations.
I haven't seen this in about 30 but still remember most the fight and "It's just a flesh wound." Mr Creasote saying "I con't eat another cracker" and "Run away". Oh yeah "I fart in your general direction" and "It's just a little rabbit"
The actress who played the witch was Connie Booth who, at the time, was married to John Cleese in real life. After this movie they went on to do "Fawlty Towers" together. It's a British sitcom.
