Monty Python

Lore & Background

In AD 932, King Arthur and his squire Patsy travel Britain searching for men to join the Knights of the Round Table, banging coconut shells together as Arthur mimes riding a horse. Along the way, Arthur debates whether coconuts could be found in a temperate climate, passes through a town infected with a plague, recounts receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake to two anarcho-syndicalist peasants, and defeats the Black Knight. At an impromptu witch trial, he recruits Sir Bedevere the Wise, later joined by Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot, and the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film. Arthur leads the knights to Camelot, but changes his mind after the knights in the castle perform a musical number, deeming it 'a silly place'. God then appears and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail. Arthur and his knights arrive at a castle occupied by French soldiers, who claim to have the Grail and taunt the Britons, driving them back with a barrage of barnyard animals. Bedevere concocts a plan to sneak in using a Trojan Rabbit, but forgets to tell the others to hide inside it; the Knights are forced to flee when it is flung back at them. Arthur decides the knights should go their separate ways to search for the Grail. Meanwhile, a modern-day historian filming a documentary on the Arthurian legends is killed by an unknown knight on horseback, triggering a police investigation.

Reader's Guide

Arthur and Bedevere are given directions by an old soothsayer and attempt to satisfy the strange requests of the dreaded Knights Who Say 'Ni!'. Robin avoids a fight with a Three-Headed Knight by running away while the heads are arguing amongst themselves. Galahad is led by a grail-shaped beacon to Castle Anthrax, which is occupied exclusively by nubile young women, all of whom attempt to woo him, but is 'rescued' against his will by Lancelot. Lancelot receives an arrow-shot note from the nearby Swamp Castle; believing the author is a lady being forced to marry against her will, he storms the castle and slaughters several wedding party members, only to discover the author is an effeminate prince. Arthur and his knights regroup and are joined by Brother Maynard, his monk brethren, and three new knights: Bors, Gawain and Ector. They meet Tim the Enchanter, a pyromancer who directs them to a cave where the location of the Grail is said to be written. The entrance to the cave is guarded by the Rabbit of Caerbannog; underestimating it, the knights attack, but the Rabbit easily kills Bors, Gawain and Ector. Arthur uses the 'Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch', provided by Brother Maynard, to destroy the creature. Inside the cave, they find an inscription from Joseph of Arimathea, directing them to 'the Castle of Arrrghhh'. They are interrupted by an attack from the animated 'Legendary Black Beast of Arrrghhh', which devours Brother Maynard and pursues the others; Arthur and the knights escape after the film's animator unexpectedly suffers a fatal heart attack, erasing the Black Beast. The knights approach the Bridge of Death, where the bridgekeeper demands they each answer three questions in order to pass or else be cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. Lancelot easily answers simple questions and crosses. An overly cocky Robin is defeated by an unexpectedly difficult question, and an indecisive Galahad fails an easy one; both are magically flung into the gorge. When Arthur asks for clarification on a question regarding the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, the bridgekeeper cannot answer and is himself thrown into the gorge. Arthur and Bedevere cannot find Lancelot, unaware that he has been arrested by police investigating the historian's death. They find Castle Arrrghhh occupied by the French soldiers from earlier in the film. After being repelled by showers of manure, they summon an army of knights and prepare to assault the castle. As the army charges, the police arrive, arrest Arthur and Bedevere on suspicion of the murder of the historian, and break the camera, abruptly ending the film.

Did You Know?

• The film was conceived during the hiatus between the third and fourth series of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
• The entire original budget of £175,350 (about $410,000 in 1974) was provided by eight investors, including Led Zeppelin (£31,500), Pink Floyd (£21,000), and Ian Anderson (£6,300).
• The film was mostly shot on location in Scotland, particularly around Doune Castle, Glen Coe, and the privately owned Castle Stalker.
• The scene in which the knights fight the Rabbit of Caerbannog was filmed at Tomnadashan mine; a real white rabbit was used, switched with puppets for its killings.
• In the US, the film was selected in 2011 as the second-best comedy of all time in the ABC special Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time behind Airplane!.