Monty Python and the Holy Grail

"And now! At Last! Another film completely different from some of the other films which aren't quite the same as this one is."

1975 1h 31m EN

🙌

7.8

BANGER

🔥

92%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

8.2

IMDB

★7.8TMDB · 6,652🍅92%Rotten Tomatoes●91Metacritic★8.2IMDB · 599,882

AdventureComedyFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place".

“And now! At Last! Another film completely different from some of the other films which aren't quite the same as this one is.”

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Cast

Graham Chapman
King Arthur / Voice of God / Middle Head / Hiccoughing Guard
John Cleese
Second Swallow-Savvy Guard / The Black Knight / Peasant 3 / Sir Launcelot the Brave / Taunting French Guard / Tim the Enchanter
Eric Idle
Dead Collector / Peasant 1 / Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Launcelot / First Swamp Castle Guard / Concorde / Roger the Shrubber / Brother Maynard
Terry Gilliam
Patsy / Green Knight / Old Man from Scene 24 (Bridgekeeper) / Sir Bors / Animator / Gorilla Hand
Terry Jones
Dennis's Mother / Sir Bedevere / Left Head / Prince Herbert / Voice of Cartoon Scribe
Michael Palin
First Swallow-Savvy Guard / Dennis / Peasant 2 / Right Head / Sir Galahad the Pure / Narrator / King of Swamp Castle / Brother Maynard's Brother / Leader of The Knights Who Say NI!
Connie Booth
The Witch
Carol Cleveland
Zoot / Dingo

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Terry Jones
Writers: Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Michael Palin
Languages: French, Latin, English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.4M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $6M — a 14.4× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

51 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: French, Latin, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Terry Jones, shot by Terry Bedford. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor John Hackney shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Graham Chapman and John Cleese and Eric Idle carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "And now! At Last! Another film completely different from some of the other films which aren't quite the same as this one is.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Terry Jones directs. Terry Bedford behind the camera. John Hackney cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in French, Latin, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.4M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $6M — a 14.4× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
351 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: French, Latin, English.
5Directed by Terry Jones, shot by Terry Bedford. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Editor John Hackney shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Graham Chapman and John Cleese and Eric Idle carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "And now! At Last! Another film completely different from some of the other films which aren't quite the same as this one is.".
9IMDB entry: tt0071853 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 21 themes, including "holy grail", "swordplay", "england", "monk".

The technical file

Cinematography: Terry Bedford
Editing: John Hackney
Production design: Roy Forge Smith
Costume design: Hazel Pethig
Makeup / hair: Pam Luke
Runtime: 91 min · 1h 31m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.78:1 (16:9)
Status: Released
Budget: $400,000
Box office: $5,763,644
Return: 1441% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 91/100
IMDB rating: 8.2/10 · 599,882 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

2 wins & 2 nominations total

Also by

Terry Jones

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Filipe Manuel Neto2023-02-10
★ 10/10
One of the pinnacles of British humor. This was my first contact with Monty Python, which I already knew famously, and I loved the movie. It is quite simply one of the high points of British humor. The film is easy enough to understand, parodying the Arthurian legends surrounding the quest for the Grail, but the story is just a pretext for successive jokes, each one better than the last. I don't know the group of comedians very well, but I do know a number of great British comedy actors here, starting with John Clease, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Eric Idle. They are very good individually, but priceless together. The film has several moments worth mentioning, starting perhaps with the witch trial, and then moving on to the fight with the black knight or the knights who say Ni. It's not a very long film, but it's really worth seeing every comic situation. The dialogues are full of hilarious moments. The ending, however, is a little less strong than expected, which does not take away from the film any of its merit. Technically, it's not a remarkable film. There is no concern here with historical accuracy or rigorous recreation of the Middle Ages, nor does the film ask for it. We have stage costumes and props, obviously fake but functional, and interesting sets, in castles and in some reasonably well chosen places. There are some special effects and visuals, but they aren't notable. Be that as it may, it's a comedy that remains fresh despite the decades that have passed since its debut.
drystyx2023-04-03
★ 10/10
Seriously, you could die laughing from this film. I remember the first time I watched this film, back in antenna days on the educational UHF station that was all fuzz, and even then I thought I would die laughing. The story of King Arthur always did beg for such a satire. The bits are almost all memorable. I durst not mention even one, because I would be tempted to mention a hundred more scenes and a thousand more lines. This is very slapstick. I never thought I would laugh at cruelty, but when it is obviously so overdone that it can't be taken seriously, like a man having his arms and legs cut off and still thinking he's invincible, especially when the delivery is so perfect, I can't stop laughing. There are some people who don't like this film, but those people are wipers of other people's bottoms.
CinemaSerf2024-03-06
★ 6/10
Fortunately for me this was a rather short visit to the surreal land of Monty Python, and though it does have it's moments, I was really quite unimpressed by their Arthurian antics. We start with Graham Chapman's King Arthur gadding about England tying to recruit some suitably worthy individuals to sit at his round table. Task complete, he gets a sign from God that they must undertake the most holy of quests - and find the Cup of Christ. It now falls to the other three - Cleese, Idle and Gilliam - to dress up in suits of armour and seek the grail amongst the innuendo-ridden kingdom. Along the way they encounter the Black Knight, a castle full of sex-starved maidens, some monks - indeed just about everyone you might expect from mediaeval society before a really annoying denouement with the "Knights of Ni" - all they want is a little garden, or two... All but fifty years on, it's probably not really fair to look at this with 2024 eyes, but this was my first time of seeing it and I was really left thinking - why didn't the police get involved earlier? It's not that the jokes don't work, well not all of them, anyway - it's that they so labour the punchline. It's as if someone took a thirty minute sketch show and decided to pad it out for an extra hour. Less could certainly have been more. There are a few fun cameos - Carol Cleveland's "Zoot" and Connie Booth's witch stand out, but otherwise I felt a bit like I was the victim of some very dated hype. I didn't hate it, but really - what was all the fuss about?