Coconuts in Camelot: Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the Arthurian Literature Course

Florilegium ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-148
Author(s):  
Christine M. Neufeld
Keyword(s):  
Holy Grail ◽  
Arthurian Literature ◽  
Monty Python

Parody and the Role of Song in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

2021 ◽  
pp. 125-155
Author(s):  
Megan Woller
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Holy Grail ◽  
Arthurian Legend ◽  
Valuable Addition ◽  
Sketch Comedy ◽  
Monty Python

This chapter deals with the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As Monty Python’s first full-length film, Holy Grail combines the sketch comedy style of the troupe with a loose interpretation of Arthurian legend. Although chock-full of anachronisms and outright mockery, Monty Python’s version of Arthurian legend nonetheless represents a valuable addition to the retellings of the story in the twentieth century. While the literature on the Holy Grail offers a foundation for considering the film as an adaptation of Arthurian legend, little work has been done on the film’s music and how it enhances the story. This chapter will emphasize the role of the music, especially the songs written by Neil Innes, arguing that they not only provide atmosphere but augment the narrative (such as it is). In this way, this chapter will also lay the groundwork for examining Holy Grail as the basis for Eric Idle’s later musical, Spamalot.

The Animation of Marginal Decorations in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Arthuriana ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Martine Meuwese
Keyword(s):  
Holy Grail ◽  
Monty Python

scholarly journals The Irish in Mercia: A Cultural Context for the Earliest Anglo-Saxon Prayer Books

2012 ◽  
pp. 52-56
Author(s):  
Kirsty March
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
King Arthur ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Holy Grail ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Terry Gilliam ◽  
Prayer Books ◽  
Monty Python

1st soldier: You’re using coconuts! King Arthur: What? 1st soldier: You’ve got two empty halves of coconut and you’re bangin’ ‘em together. King Arthur: So? We have ridden since the snows of winter covered this land, through the kingdom of Mercia, through . . . 1st soldier: Where’d you get the coconuts? King Arthur: We found them. 1st soldier: Found them? In Mercia?! The coconut’s tropical! (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975, directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones) Mercia is a county in the English midlands, and its foundation dates to the sixth century. In studies of the Anglo-Saxon period, Mercia is overshadowed by its neighbour Northumbria as famous works of art such as, the Cuthbert Cross and Lindisfarne Gospel Book were manufactured in Northumbria. However, Mercia produced manuscripts which are thought to be the earliest surviving European devotional prayer books. My research focuses on these Mercian manuscripts ...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Gilliam ◽  
Terry Jones ◽  
Ernest Mathijs
Keyword(s):  
Holy Grail ◽  
Monty Python

GOT GRAIL? MONTY PYTHON AND THE BROADWAY STAGE

2007 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie A. Finke ◽  
Susan Aronstein
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
King Arthur ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Holy Grail ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Broadway Musical ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Ticket Prices ◽  
Monty Python

Money matters. In Act 2 of Spamalot, Eric Idle's Broadway musical based on the 1975 cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the show's star, Tim Curry, as King Arthur, comments that the characters are running around in a “dark and very expensive forest.” The joke, it turns out, is entirely on us. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was an inexpensive independent film, costing $250,000 to make, a bargain compared to the same year's The Rocky Horror Picture Show ($1,200,000) and Python's own 1979 Life of Brian ($4,000,000). From its release, Holy Grail ran continuously in many theatres, and large numbers of people could afford the price of a ticket; it still circulates widely in relatively inexpensive DVD and VHS editions. Fast-forward thirty years to March of 2005. Production costs for Spamalot, Eric Idle's Broadway musical “lovingly ripped off” from the film, top $14 million (not atypical start-up costs these days on Broadway). Playing in a single theatre that seats only about 1,600, the show commands ticket prices that begin around $100 and can cost $350 and up. According to the Wall Street Journal, Spamalot is setting the pace for the spiraling costs of Broadway entertainment. Many fewer people will see the musical than the film, and those who can will tend to be more affluent; Spamalot's target audience is Holy Grail's first audience “all grown up,” prosperous, middle-aged Monty Python fans (like the authors of this article). In their youth, Holy Grail denied this audience the pleasures of narrative cinema. It made fun of film, relentlessly disturbing the seamless illusion of reality that is the cornerstone of Hollywood cinema, refusing narrative coherence and narrative closure. A parody of the clichés of mass culture, it exposed the political conservatism of the various forms of nostalgia for a medieval past that never was, a past in which strange women lying around in ponds distributing swords could be a basis for a political system. Spamalot, on the other hand, adapts its cinematic original, repackaging the youthful rebellion of the 1975 film and offering the pleasures of nostalgia remarkably free from political consequences.

Monty Python and the Probability of Winning the Holy Grail

CHANCE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-38
Author(s):  
Ernie Walker
Keyword(s):  
Holy Grail ◽  
Monty Python

scholarly journals Reflexões sobre Cinema e História: representações da lenda do rei Arthur em Monty Python And The Holy Grail

Anagrama ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Janoni Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Holy Grail ◽  
Monty Python

Este trabalho é baseado em uma leitura sobre o filme Monty Python and The Holy Grail e as possibilidades de diálogos entre narrativas historiográficas e fílmicas, assim como, o uso deste tipo de mídia como fonte documental e recurso didático

Notions of Place, Legend, and Broadway in Monty Python’s Spamalot

2021 ◽  
pp. 156-188
Author(s):  
Megan Woller
Keyword(s):  
Original Film ◽  
Musical Theater ◽  
Theater History ◽  
Holy Grail ◽  
Arthurian Legend ◽  
Broadway Musical ◽  
The World ◽  
Monty Python

This chapter shifts to the Broadway musical Monty Python’s Spamalot (2005). As an adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot adds numerous songs written by Eric Idle and John du Prez. These songs not only send up Arthurian legend but common musical theater tropes, augmenting the “meta” tone of the show for fans of musical theater history as well as Monty Python. Furthermore, the musical incarnation increases many of the roles from the original film and includes new characters, extending the connections to the world of Arthurian legend. The musical’s expanded pantheon of references and musical theater send-ups highlight the interpretive layering in a meaningful way. The author’s analysis triangulates the legend with Holy Grail and Spamalot, arguing that while Monty Python may play fast and loose with ideas of fidelity, their versions of Arthurian legend remain true to the malleable spirit of the tale.

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