The first feature film by the Monty Python team is a mock heroic tale set in medieval Britain with lots of silly things going on besides. In a series of sketches and animations, the Pythons recount scenes from the Grail legend in which the knights forsake their chorus line can-can dancing in Camelot for a higher aim. Typically, the Pythons set-up a 'historical' tale which is really a take on the modern world. Memorable scenes, like Graham Chapman's King Arthur battling with John Cleese's Black Knight until the latter is reduced limb by limb down to a speaking stump of a torso, capture both the hilarity and grotesque nature of brutality. In scene after scene King Arthur's men are led a merry chase through the countryside, encountering life on many different social levels. This screenplay edition contains just the script and is supplemented by stills from the film.
Publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 9780413741202
Number of pages: 112
Dimensions: 198 x 130 x 7 mm
'It's impossible to explain the plot, which will ensure that Camelot will never be the same again ... Something in such ferociously bad taste, carried through with such blatant indelicacy, made me, I confess, quite upset - with laughter ... It should be on the National Health' The Sunday Telegraph 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a marvellously particular kind of lunatic endeavour ... it manages to send up the legend of the Grail, courtly love, fidelity, bravery, costume movies, movie violence and ornithology' The New York Times 'Watch out for the knights that say 'Ni', the anarcho-syndicalist peasants, the killer rabbits and Gilliam's graphics' Time Out 'Sheer comic brilliance ... leave your sense of reason at home, wave a white flag and surrender to the inspired idiocy of the Monty Python team' The Daily Express*
I bought my copy of the screenplay in the Historic Scotland shop at Doune Castle, where Terry Jones gives a good audio commentary for visitors that includes details of some of the film’s shooting. The book is a little... More
A very good script from the Monty python team. I love the movie although I did find the end a bit daft. This is a nice book and if you like the movie you'll enjoy the script book.
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