A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail

All the References from African Swallows to Zoot

Darl Larsen

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781442245549
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Monty Python's Flying Circus aired from 1969 until 1974, but the conclusion of the series did not mark the end of the troupe's creative output. Even before the final original episodes were recorded and broadcast, the six members began work on their first feature-length enterprise of new material. Rather than string together a series of silly skits, they conceived a full-length story line with references to the real and imagined worlds of the mythical King Arthur, the lives of medieval peasants, and the gloomy climate of 1970s Britain. Released in 1975, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was a modest success but has since been hailed as a modern classic.

In A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail:All the References from African Swallows to Zoot, Darl Larsen identifies and examines the cultural, historical, and topical allusions in the movie. In this entertaining resource, virtually every reference that appears in a scene—whether stated by a character, depicted in the mise-en-scène, or mentioned in the print companion—is identified and explained. Beyond the Arthurian legend, entries cover literary metaphors, symbols, names, peoples, and places—as well as the myriad social, cultural, and historical elements that populate the film.

This book employs the film as a window to both reveal and examine "Arthurian" life and literature, the historical Middle Ages, and a Great Britain of labor unrest, power shortages, and the common man. Introducing the reader to dozens of medievalist histories and authors and connecting the film concretely to the "modern" British Empire, A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail will appeal to fans of the troupe as well as medieval scholars and academics who can laugh at themselves and their work.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• Scene 1: Title and Credit Sequence
• Scene 2: Coconuts and Swallows
• Scene 3: Animation / Live Action Sequence
• Scene 4: “Bring Out Your Dead”
• Scene 5: Dennis the Peasant
• Scene 6: The Black Knight
• Scene 7: Flagellant Monks and “She’s a Witch!”
• Scene 8: Various Montage—Animation
• Scene 9: The Book of the Film
• Scene 10: Camelot (“It Is a Silly Place”)
• Scene 11: God Announces the Grail Quest
• Scene 12: Title Sequence Animation
• Scene 13: Taunting by Frenchmen
• Scene 14: The Wooden Rabbit
• Scene 15: A Very Famous Historian
• Scene 16: The Tale of Sir Robin
• Scene 17: The Tale of Sir Galahad and Springboard Novitiates
• Scene 18: Castle Anthrax
• Scene 19: Animation / Live Action Scene 24
• Scene 20: The Blind Soothsayer or “Scene 24”
• Scene 21: The Knights Who Say “Ni”
• Scene 22: Dead Historian and Police
• Scene 23: The Tale of Sir Launcelot—“Bloody Weather”
• Scene 24: The Tale of Sir Launcelot Scene
• Scene 25: Launcelot and Concorde
• Scene 26: Launcelot Storms Swamp Castle
• Scene 27: Toothless Old Crone and Roger the Shrubber
• Scene 28: Knights of Ni Get Their Shrubbery
• Scene 29: The Dead Historian Covered
• Scene 30: King Brian the Wild
• Scene 31: “Passing Seasons” Animation
• Scene 32: Tim the Enchanter
• Scene 33: Killer Rabbit, and Holy Hand Grenade
• Scene 34: The Cave of Caerbannog
• Scene 35: The Bridge of Death
• Scene 36: The Wonderful Barge and the Grail Castle
• Scene 37: Stop the Film
• Appendix A: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Book) Facing Pages
• Appendix B: Personal Correspondence
• Bibliography
• About the Author