MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL - It is a Silly Place

In Episode 38 of Secret Level, we journey into one of the greatest and most funny comedies of all time, the 1975 film, Monty Python and The Holy Grail. No matter how many times we’ve watched this movie over the years, it never gets old! The movie always makes up bust out in laughter and it’s one that we’ve been very excited to talk about! So, we did some digging and discovered a ton of fascinating details about the making of the film and some behind-the-scenes stories that have been shared by members of the cast and crew, who apparently had such a terrible time making it! But, regardless, what they made is a hilarious classic, and we have a blast sharing this information we found and offering silly commentary in the process. And, of course, we quote the movie a lot! Enjoy!

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Transcript

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and that was the last time that she'll ever get on a plane. I don't even know. It was the weirdest thing. I mean, good for her for making it though. Right? It's not a question of where he grips it. It's a simple question of rate ratios. A five ounce bird cannot carry a one pound coconut. It's absolutely true. I mean, that's always gonna be the question for fans of this movie. Listen, in order to maintain airb velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings 43 times every second. Am I right? Am I right, alright, so we're gonna jump right into this because we have got a lot to talk about. So here we go. Are you ready? Yes, I'm ready. Excellent. Hello, I am Joey Parr, editor in chief of geek tire.com and host of secret level. Joining me today, as always is the very muddy, very filthy, very medieval William Fisher. Yes, I am the muddiest. You are filthy. Absolutely a mess. Not a filthy jerk. And in this week's episode we are going to discuss the amazingly funny, this movie just no matter what, no matter how many times I've seen this movie, it just makes me laugh my ass off. Every single time. Every time, every time. Every time. Yeah. And the best part about it is, is that no matter how many times I've seen this movie, there's always a something that I catch that I haven't caught before. I've seen it hundreds of times. Hundreds. Hundreds. Like this movie, I watched this relentlessly when I was growing up. I watched it relentlessly in my teens. I watched it relentlessly in my twenties, thirties, and now I'm in my forties and, and this might be the first time I've watched it in my forties. No way. Yeah. So it was kind of like revisiting cuz I got to the point where I remember I watched, by the way, by the way, we should probably tell'em what movie we're talking about. Absolutely. Monty Python and the Holy quail C Grail, quail Yeah. Um, probably, dude, this is my first foray into adult comedy, like, and really understanding it. Yes. I was in seventh grade, I remember the first time I watched it, I went over to my buddy's house and he was like, you're about to watch the best movie ever made. And he was not wrong. This is easily one of the best movies ever made. Yeah. So when I was in junior high, that's when I was introduced to this movie as well. And I loved it so much that when I was in drama class at the time and they had everyone wanna choose a skit to do, me and my partner were like, Hey, let's do the opening scene of Monty Python and the Holy Grail And so we acted the whole thing. We did, we memorized everything. It was great. Oh, the whole swallow scene? The whole, the whole swallow scene. Fantastic. It was amazing. And after we did it, everyone was like, just do the whole movie man. That would've gotten difficult. Just a bit. Just a bit. Yeah. It's a really extensive movie. I've never looked at it from like this perspective before to try to find, you know, little Easter eggs and cuz I'm usually just laughing too hard to figure it out. But this movie has a lot. Yeah. And these actors went through a lot to make this movie so much. And, and so there are a ton of notes here. Just a ton to go through. We're gonna try and get through all of them. Uh, the movie was directed by Terry Gilliam, it's Star John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Paan, Graham Chapman. They all came outta college, did start this whole crazy thing called Monty Python's Flying Circus, which I didn't, know about until like years later after being exposed to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And so I went back and watched all those, watched Life of Brian, what everything, anything and everything they did. This movie was like the gateway drug to Monty Python. Absolutely. And the thing is, is I don't know about you guys, but it never gets old to me. Like, no, never. I get one always funny, always. I, I put this thing on again recently in preparation for this podcast and it just, I was just rolling and laughing and just. Ball watching this movie. It is just so fun and so silly. It's like that's, it's my kind of humor. absolutely is 100% my kind of humor. But before we go on real quick, just gonna do a little update on what's been happening in our lives, I guess, Billy editing. Oh. Um, you know, this week has been kind of full of doing things with my kids. I found out my daughter is going to the state finals for the Special Olympics here in Arizona. Um, nice. For basketball. So I was like, and she didn't tell me, her teachers told me. They're like, yeah, she's known for like two weeks. I was like, what? So that, that, that's pretty much been my week. We've been doing sports stuff with her and, yeah, it's been pretty exciting. Um, haven't really gotten into too much content. I'm, oh, I'm lying every night I watch Yellowstone. We're finally gonna finish it up. We're gonna catch up as of tonight, Um, yeah. It's got so many ups and downs, man. You, it's one of those shows that you feel exhausted once you're done with a couple of episodes. Yeah. You're just like, that was a lot because how much can Casey's family go through? That poor guy. He's probably the best character in the whole thing. And he just, man just gets beaten down every episode. It's true. What about you, Joe? What are you up to? It snowed in California. It sure did. So that was weird. Like just up by my house was just pouring snow. It was kind of funny. My wife and I were driving on the freeway when we hit the snow and we started seeing all these cars pulling over to the side of the road, and I'm like, no one knows how to drive. They're all freaking out because, and so they're all pulling over to the side of the road, but then mm-hmm. I'm like, there are so many cars pulling over the side of the road. It just wasn't like one or two. It was like the whole people just like, there was just this pocket where people just started pulling over all the way down and they just wanted to get out and like play in the snow on the side of the freeway. Heck yeah. It was the weirdest thing. It's the weirdest damn thing, you know? But that's, that's cool though. I mean, it rarely happens in California, so for the people who never get to see it, that was probably like the coolest day of the year. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. And it wasn't just snow. I mean, it was like, it wasn't like little itty bitty things of snow. It like, there was like huge freaking flakes just like falling from the sky, just. And I'm like, man, I don't think there's any snowplows that get this stuff off the ground here, They're not prepared. They're not prepared for this weather. It's so funny. So that was fun. I also, last week I watched a movie. Mm-hmm. did, will be eventually coming out. It's about to hit the film festival circuit. Okay. It's called Tokyo Cowboy. It is. Oh, you got to see it. It is a movie that, I helped with, And I kind of, uh, I got an executive producer credit, so freaking sweet. Pretty excited about that. So yeah, I have no idea when it's going to come out. I just know that it, it is going to, hit the festival circuit here soon and then make the rounds and then we'll see what happens. But it's a really good movie. I, I really, I loved it. So everyone involved is very proud of it. So, uh, I'm excited to see what happens with that. Who knows. We'll find out. So you, you and I have been talking about this for a while, and you finally got to see it. Uh, what were your feelings on it where you're like, yes, I'm so excited for people to see this. What can we expect? What's, what are we. It's kind of like, it's like a drama slash comedy, deadpan type comedy. Mm-hmm. uh, but it's tells this, uh, sweet story of this, businessman from Japan who, they just bought this giant corporation and they own this and they own this cattle farm in, uh, Wyoming. And so he wants to go to Wyoming to try and, build it up to start making money because it's losing money. Mm-hmm. he gets to Wyoming and starts to kinda learn the ways of the cowboy, right. And it's kind of like he's the fish out of water type story where he comes into this strange land, not knowing any of the customs or anything, and then learning,, what life is like along the way and learn some life lessons and things that can help, you know, things that will make his life better. Stuff like that. So it's, it's a, it's a really good story, very charming, very sweet. And, I think people will dig it. It's not like totally geeky movie, but it's, it's, it's a really well made film and a great story. Uh, kind of really proud to be a part of it, so. Well that's awesome. And. When it comes out, everybody makes sure you go watch it. And cheer for Joey when his name pops up on the screen. everyone. All right. Well that's exciting dude. I can't wait to see it. Here we go. Are you ready? Buckle up everybody. Buckle up because buckle up. This is going to be insane. All right. I don't even know where to begin. I know, right? Let's start off with reading the synopsis. Are you ready? Here we go. A comedic standup of the grim circumstances of the medieval ages is told to the story of King Arthur and framed by a modern day murder investigation. When the mythical king of the Britains leads the knights on a quest for the Holy Grail. They face a wide array of horrors, including a persistent black knight, a three-headed giant, a cadre of shrubbery challenge nights, a perilous castle, anthrax, a kilo rabbit, a house of virgins, and a handful of rude Frenchmen. I think it's funny that this synopsis that I found I like it how it's described as how it's framed by a modern day murder. Murder, mis murder investigation. Oh man. Yeah. I, I watched it with Miles and he's seen it before, but this is the first time he goes, wait, that guy just got killed. I was like, yeah, he did And then all we're watching. He goes, what happened to the guy that got his and then the go back and the cops are there. It was hilarious. He's like, why are they doing this? Yeah, it was crazy funny. Cause it's funny. So the movie starts off with, Arthur riding up on this castle and they had this wonderful conversation about swallows and coconuts. Why'd you get the coconuts? We found them. Found them in Mercier, but coconuts are tropical and it, it just starts off perfect. I mean, my favorite part about that whole situation is, is that they were actually supposed to have horses in this scene. But they couldn't afford horses. It's true. So they got the coconuts because that's, and then built this amazingly funny joke around it. Oh my gosh. Anybody that should be like the litmus test for when you're in a group of people that you don't know, start talking about, coconut laden swallows and see who, who chimes in then, you know, they're all right. If they don't, if they don't chime in, then you don't want to be their friend. Yeah. I mean, wants the cutoff. You know, you're not gonna get along with these people. No, no. They, yeah. This is what you should do when you're dating. Ooh, man, why didn't I think of that? Right. Life would've been more interesting with, with dating Oh man. I mean, you, you would've gone through, you know, the whole getting to know you process a lot faster cuz of, or Yep. Or I wouldn't have never gone out on a date you know, we're just gonna think positive about this, that it would've been the most amazing thing, you know? Cuz now we're past that, but yeah, I'm excited. Um, yeah, and it is true. A five ounce bird cannot carry a one pound coconut. Absolutely not. Uh, no. Swallow weighs five ounces. Wow. And, the barn swallow, which is. what most English people mean when they say swallow weighs only 20 grams. Holy crap. Yes. That poor guy's not gonna do that. Yep. Man. That's awesome. See, the, my favorite part about this movie, and if you've seen it, you understand this, uh, Graham Chapman plays it straight the whole time. Oh, I know. Like everybody else gives great performances. They all break at some point. He never breaks once. He is King Arthur and he is going to die on that hill. None of this is funny. It's all serious. He's, it is so good. So good. But what mo, we're still on the subject of swallows though. Yes. After that scene, uh, a few scenes later, there's, we can see a peasant who is testing the theory of, of a swallow, swallow, trying to carry a coconut, which is just great. Just absolutely brilliant. And just everything about this movie just makes me happy. Yeah. It's well-rounded. It's the, just the scene that you see somebody trying it means that the word, either the word got around that we're trying to figure out how these coconuts are getting all over the place, or he's the one sending the coconuts out for, uh, for people to find It's f. Yeah. When this movie first came together, so Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, as Gilliam said, they were both ambitious little shits in the group who wanted to be the film directors at all costs. And so they sat out and to make this movie, and he said, all right, if we make this film, let's all be involved in the thing. We don't wanna have any outsiders. They just want to keep it in the group. And so they sat down and started writing out sketches. They didn't know what exactly the film was going to be about at the time, they just started like writing sketches. And, Jones notes that it was Michael Powell who came up with the idea of King Arthur and Patsy using coconuts for horse crops, which served as the starting point for the film. I mean, the best part is, is that it just starts off with a joke. Like, I mean, if please, if you get a chance, if you are watching the movie, go through the credits like every, the credits are ama, the credits are hilarious. I have never my gosh seen anything those, the first opening of just the credits is amazing. It is so funny and there are so many jokes in there. When I first watched it as a kid, I was like, ah, this is ridiculous. Like, like I didn't read them. It wasn't until later where I'm like, I caught something in the credit. So I was like, well wait a second. That's what's that is saying there is incredibly silly and makes no absolutely no sense. And then you stop and start reading them all and you're like, oh my gosh, everything about the opening credits is a joke and it's awesome. Oh, and that's the thing too, is that when, I tried to explain to my kids, cuz they start asking me about the llamas, like where are the llamas in the film? And I was like, it's a joke. And they're, uh, this time they're actually, reading what was on the bottom, the, uh, the translations on the bottom and how that person's been sacked and this person's been sacked. And they're like, that's hilarious. I was like, I know. I mean, just the whole movie. And it goes from that to the crazy. To you see, king Arthur riding through the fog with Patsy Clopping, a coconut, but you don't even know until they cross over that hill. You just Exactly. You think it's a, you, you're like, you think a horse is gonna come over this sink, and then you've just got King Arthur galloping on his feet. Oh man. So every instance Amazing. This movie. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. It just take some time. Go through it. I love that there's a special thanks to Richard Nixon in the opening scenes while they're talking about moose. It's fantastic. Oh man. So the first scene that was shot in the movie was The Bridge of Death and this was his first shot. And the camera broke. Oh. First on their first shot. Jones. Says that when they were set to shoot the first take, the camera sheered its gears. Holy crap. And when they started shooting. Yeah. And so they began shooting mute shots since the camera that died was the only one with sync sound, the bridge that had been built was so rickety. Mm-hmm. that no one wanted to cross it. of course. And I remember watching this this time around, I'm like, oh yeah, they really made that bridge. Like I never thought about it before, but yet it looks like a rickety old bridge. And Gillum remembers walking across it a few times and being terrified. And Graham Chapman, who is a mountain climber in, in real life, was equally as terrified to cross the bridge And on top of that, while they're shooting this scene, Gillam has admitted that he was drunk the day they filmed the shot of Arthur and Beered crossing the bridge. Well, he had to calm his nerves down. You know, first shooting of the movie, man, they, he was a little nervous and they Oh, that's funny. Yeah, exactly. And they shot the film, like a television episode. They wanted to, You have that same kind of speedy schedule to work with. So it's ex, it's explained that, the scenes were shots, uh, that where the camera sat back at a good distance from the focal point of the shot, that all the players are included in the shot all at once. Gillian also mentioned a rule in comedy where if you can see all the faces at the same time, it's funnier. This rule is used quite often throughout the Holy Grail. I never even thought about that, but yeah, there's a lot of group shots in this movie. Tons, tons of group shots. I love it. And it does because, um, usually in those group shots, there's one of them losing it. Yeah. One of them is just cracking up Oh, throughout it. Yeah. It's, it's pretty fun. I think there's, we'll get to a couple of those. Oh yeah. As we, uh, as we go on, of the six. Members of the Monty Python Group. Graham Chapman played the least number of roles in this movie, four as he must be present as King Arthur all the time. Yeah, he is the majority of the shots. Yeah, exactly. Majority of the scenes, the film was funded by a group of musicians, like popular musicians. Mm-hmm. So you had the likes of, well, it's explained that, uh, pink Floyd, led Zeppelin, Genesis, Elton John, they all put money into the movie funds earned by Pink Floyd's album. The Dark Side of the Moon went towards funding this movie, the band were such fans of the Flying Circus that they would stop recording sessions just to watch Flying Circus when it was on. That's sweet. I mean, we have them to think for it then. Exactly. And one of the reasons why they did this is in the 1960s and seventies in England, there were outrageous tax laws and Gillum recalls. Some richer groups were playing, were were paying up to 90% taxes. Holy crap. Yes. So that's a lot of. Big musicians and stars that were looking for ways to make tax losses. So much of that money that's went into Holy Grail, that's why they were okay with like, funding it. They needed to throw their money into something rather than pay the government 90% of what they own. So, Well I'm thankful for it cause it gave us this, Gillian mentioned at one point that George Harrison of The Beatles always argued that we were the spirit of the Beatles. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. And, uh, flying Circus began the year The Beatles broke up. Oh, well, we lose something good and gained something good. I guess that's the way it goes. It's how, it's how it is. During one of the first screenings of this movie in front of a live audience, co-writer and co-director Terry Jones noticed that when music was playing during the jokes mm-hmm. there was a marked reduction of laughter from the audience. So he went back and edited the music out whenever a punchline was delivered at the screenings. After he did that, he noticed a dramatic increase in audience's, positive reactions to the jokes. So from that point on, whenever he directed a movie, he remembered to stop the music for the funny parts of the film. Good for him. Because he wanted people to laugh. Oh, and they did. They still do. They still do. Sorry. You're right. One of my, I, so it's like I'm a, like I say, one of my favorite scenes. But here's the problem. Like every freaking scene in this movie is my favorite scene. Every scene, that's all we get. It's our favorite scenes. So, so maybe just, I'll get that out of the way. Now every scene is my favorite scene. So in the witch hunt scene, this is a moment where Eric idle breaks down, where he breaks character. This scene is hilarious. And so it's not, it's not too hard to think that someone on the set is gonna start busting up laughing, but to keep himself from showing it, he bears his teeth and he ends up biting down on the blade of a soth that he's holding. And this is, obviously, this isn't scripted, and this was to keep him from laughing full on full force, Uhhuh So he didn't spoil the take and you, it's just this is clearest day is what he's doing here, for sure. and it's just so funny how, how it looks on screen because Billy was telling me earlier what it looked like. Yeah. When, uh, when I first saw the scene. It's, it genuinely looks like they're thinking of, you know, cuz uh, Terry Jones's character, sir Beavis, asking them questions on why they think she's a witch. And it looks like they're all three genuinely trying to think of something. But now I find out they're all three trying really hard not to laugh during that scene. So when he's saying three, he's saying idol being one of them. Then you have, uh, paan who can be seen, uh, laughing at the same time he is laughing. Mm-hmm. and then John. Is seeing quickly turning his head to one side just before the cut shot. But it's not quick enough to hide that he has broken character in, has this huge shit eating grin on his face. This huge absolutely laugh. And it's, and it's just, it's so funny. It, it, it is. And like I went back and watched it with that in mind and it's, when it's John Cleese's, she turned me into a newt is what? That just breaks them all. What she turned me into a newt a new, I got better I just love their line delivery. It's so funny. I can't even do it justice. But I, I would quote this movie all the time and we're gonna quote this movie all through the stupid podcast because it's just what you do. It is. And yeah, we were talking before we started recording what our favorite quotes were. It's all of them. Every single quote is great. Yes. It's it's the movie. Okay. So we won't give you a quote at the end. We're just gonna keep quoting it as we go along. maybe, maybe we'll give you a quote at the end. I don't know. I don't know if we haven't exhausted them all at the time. Ex Exactly. That's, that's the key, right? Yep. remember when the French soldier. Our hurling livestock at the knights of the round table. oh my gosh, dude, just the cow coming over the wall is fantastic. Well, that tactic of Pelting Arthur in his knights with livestock echoes a relatively modern legend of a medieval siege of the fortified Southern French town of Is that right, Carl Casone? I'm gonna saying that like Italian, not French Um, I'm just gonna go with it. Okay. Here we go. Yep. Uh, said to have been near starvation, the townspeople used the last of their food to pelt the besieging army to convince them suffering likewise, that the town was well stocked with food, and that the siege was hopeless, the tactic was successful and the siege was lifted. Oh, this is something I never heard before. Right. But this is a great little story. Yeah. I'm, I mean, if they're so well supplied that they can throw their food at you. Yeah. Leave'em alone. some believe the enchanted. Is Tim, because John Cleese forgot the character's original name and ad lib the line. Uh, there are some who call me Tim. Uh, Tim, just tell questioning he's questioning himself when he says it. So, yeah, I always thought it was, he forgot what the actual name was in there. We get Tim. I hope that it's true. Cleese has disputed this before, but I hope that, that dispute is not real because I just like the thought of him coming up with Tim on the spot. Right. But some believe it, others don't. You decide what you wanna believe. I mean, I'm just gonna go with, it was a, it was a last minute decision and probably one of the best of the movie. Well, the whole movie's the best. So Cleese in the role as Tim, the en chanter actually stood on the pinnacle scene at the beginning of his scene. On one side was a drop. that he said could have killed him and on the other was a drop he said could have maimed him. To make matters worse, the wind kept threatening to push him over either side. So between takes, he would crouch down to avoid being pushed over by the wind So he could have lost John Cleese in that scene. Yeah, he remembers it being very frightening for him, but he did it anyway because he knew what kind of budget and timelines that they were working with so well. The wind could have blown him off the side of a cliff. Cleese risked his life to play Tim the en chanter. Good for him. Dude. Just reading through all of these notes and stuff like that, it inspires me. You and I have always wanted to make a movie. These guys just bit the bullet and went for it. We should do that. Because there's a chance for it to be just as successful. Haha. Haha. we interrupt this program to annoy you and make things genuinely more irritating. Woohoo. Graham Chapman, who played King Arthur was the only member of the cast to wear real chain male armor and weighed about 25 pounds. The rest of the cast were knitted wool painted to look like metal. Fantastic. The weather conditions in Scotland and England being what they normally are, the actors spent most of the shooting days being very cold and wet. To make matters worse, the hotel they were staying in only had a limited number of baths and hot water. At the end of each location shooting there was a dash to see who could get back to the hotel first so that they could get the hot water. Man, the Monty Python troop all seemed to agree that they did not enjoy much of the filming experience for this movie. John Cleese said in a television interview that it was the most miserable filming experience he ever endured. Most of the production was shot on location in Scotland, and Clease joked That he only saw warm dry weather for two weeks every September. That's rough, man. Super rough. I, no, he just said that every scene's a favorite scene. Mm-hmm. But some scenes are more favorite than others. Yes. Like the killer Rabbit scene is such a wonderful, wonderful scene. Yo, it is a real white rabbit was used to shoot this fantastic bloody scene, and they dyed the rabbit with what was assumed to be washable red coloring liquid so that they could get the blood on the rabbit Right, right, right. When filming wrapped the rabbit's owner was dismayed to learn that the dye could not be rinsed off. Gillian describes in an audio commentary that the owner of the rabbit was present and shooting was abruptly halted. While the cast desperately attempted to clean the rabbit before the owner found out an unsuccessful attempt. He also said that he thought that they had been more experienced in filmmaking. The crew would have just purchased a rabbit instead. Otherwise, the rabbit was unharmed. And the rabbit bite effects were done through special puppetry, that was created by Gillum and, uh, special effects technician, John Hor. Oh man. That rabbit scene though is so funny cuz it's like, I still remember the first time watching the scene play out. And the buildup of tension is like coming from Tim, cuz, cuz Tim was telling them it's a creature so vile and, and when the creature finally comes out, he's like, I don't see anything. Where is it? And he's like, look. And they look and just the reaction of relief on everybody's faces. I almost sold my almo. I was so scared. Oh man. Oh, and thus it's just the rabbit. It is the rabbit. It's Just the nasty big punty teeth. just this look. He's trying to convince him with his fingers and nobody wants to believe him. And then you've got that night that just like with all the confidence in the world, oh, I've got this. And he walks out there to the field and the rabbit flies across the screen. it takes his hand off. And the reaction, Jesus crossed Oh my gosh. This is so funny, man. Yeah, it's one of the best scenes and we keep saying that, but it's so true. I mean, it's just a collection of the best scenes and then they, then they just rush in there to attack the thing. And it's just one after another, just flying across scene. Oh man. Tearing people's throats out. It is so bloody and violent and awesome in every way. It just See, I warned you. Oh my gosh. Oh, bring out the Holy hun Grenade It's the only way they could take it out. Oh man, I warned you, but you didn't listen to me. Oh, no. You knew, didn't you? Oh, just a harmless little bunny, isn't it? Oh man. Fantastic. And then we get the holy hand grenade of Antioch That's, see, seems like that. I don't know how they kept it straight when he's giving the instructions of counting to three for that. 1, 2, 5, 3, sir. Three. Three. Oh, man. Yeah. I still quote these things on a regular basis. I know. It's so funny. Ah, every day I think I pull out a quote from this movie. Absolutely. Yeah. Gillum also, like he talked about the rabbit, how like, they were like trying to get the woman's attention away, the woman who owned the rabbit. So they were trying to like, get her attention away from them. Throwing the red dye all over the rabbit. say, Hey, look over there. All right. Get it on. Get it. It's so funny, and, and Gillian knows, he said the bunny was happy. good. he says, he's quoted said, why don't we get, why don't we go to the store and buy a rabbit rather than getting a lady who's got a rabbit? Maybe we are trying to be professional, getting a professional rabbit, like, like that. It was trained by a professional so that we could count on it to do what it did. And of course, it doesn't work like that. of course, not But that's why they opted to go with a professional rabbit when they could have easily bought one on their own right, and then gave it to some child after it was done. Who wanted a bloody rabbit? When the movie was first screened at the Cans Film Festival, the audience laughed at the opening credits. However, the projector stopped. and the audience just roared with laughter. Like it was real. They thought it was a part of the movie So while they're watching the movie, all of a sudden the projector just goes off and everyone's thinking it's part of it. They're thinking it's great. So they're all roaring and laughter because the projector just stopped. Uh, in reality there was a bomb scare And so of course. So the firemen ended up coming in and, and ha made everyone evacuate the building. Of course they did. God, the image of God that they use in the movie. Mm-hmm. you know God, right? uh, stop groveling. Stop groveling. Uh, that is a photograph of the famous 19th century English cricketer, WG Grace. I do not follow cricket. I have never followed cricket. I know nothing about cricket. But for those who are well versed in the sport of cricket, then I'm sure you'll find that interesting. you may have already known I don't know. But that's who that was. That's who played God kind of, kind of That's the photo they used. And you know, I know we say that like every scene's our favorite scene, but again, some scenes are just funnier than others. The Black Knight scene, the Black Knight, the Black Knight always triumphs. How about you? Oh, man. Okay. All right. Let's get into the Black Knight scene. The Black Knight that was, John Cleese and Terry Gillian performed all of their stunts during the dual between the Black Knight and the Green Night Night. And they both had to learn to manage big, heavy swords and do acrobats so that they could pull it off. You don't recognize them because they're both wearing full armor with helmets. Uh, but that was them. They did not use stuntmen for that. They avoided the use of stuntman, uh, because as they said in the commentary for the film, they had a lot of fun, acting out the dual. Yeah, it was just a good time. Well, I mean, it looked like a lot of fun and it was hilarious, but, but hmm. When Arthur comes in, You are indeed brave tonight. we would like to have you join our court at Camelot Non Shall pass. What non shall pass. I'll have your leg. and then Arthur. Right. Arthur cuts off the first leg and apparently at this point, they brought in a real one-legged actor who was a local silversmith. Okay. That came in and Gillum reveals that a marionette was used to film the shot of the second leg being cut off. And he also jokes that using the one-legged silversmith for the shot of the night with no legs saved work since they only had to dig a hole for one leg any way you can save money. I guess that's awesome. But Cleese has said that it was him standing in the hole. So that could have been just a funny thing that Gillian is just messing around with. Gotcha. and that's a brutal fight scene though, like, like even between the Green Knight and the, and the Black Knight. When when he throws that sword, like right between the slates, just right through his face, he just pulls it out. I was like, oh man, that's nasty. Oh, that's so funny. Uh, they, they explained, uh, Gillian says that the trickiest part of shooting that scene was having the actors being able to see through the tiny slits in those big helmets. Right? Jones said that the Black Knight scene was filmed near the end of production when the film had all but run out of Money and it took nearly a week to shoot. Jones also notes that the Black Knight scene was not written with the Black Knight standing silent. For the first part, it was only during editing when they felt the scene didn't work and needed something else. And they decided to include the three or four shots of Clease as the Black Knight standing and not responding to Arthur's quarries. Also for the scene, they didn't intentionally intend to use Cleese's voice for the Black Knight, but no one they brought into dub over the scene worked and they just ended up using Cleese's original recorded voice for the final film, which is fine. Like, right, why would you wanna like take that away? Anyway, that adds to the whole funniness of the movie that, Hey, it's that guy again. But he's a Black Knight now. Yeah. I mean, and it, the way he responds is completely in character with the, the mood of the film, the energy that's going on. So yeah, it was perfect. Here's an interesting bitt. About this movie. Okay. The Monty Python crew generally considers this to be one of their lesser favorite movies that they made despite his popularity. Like this movie is hugely popular, but it was not their favorite. Clease thinks that life of Brian is their best work life of Brian is funny. But I think maybe it was because of so much shit in this movie. Like they had to be covered in, how do you know he is a king then? Doesn't go shit all over him. like, literally. I think it was just so hard to film that maybe that is, uh, kind of skewing their outlook on it a little bit. For sure. And that's, and that's what apparently they've said over the years that it has to do with their bad memories of filming the movie. But it is, I, in my opinion, it is their best 100%. Oh, absolutely. I mean there, I mean songs like every sperm is sacred out of, you know, tho those are funny moments, but I feel like I laugh the whole way through in the Holy grail. Yeah. Well, how'd you become king? I didn't vote for you. You don't vote for kings. You become king. Then. the Lady of the Lake I love that story the lady of the lake, her arm clad and the purest shimmering Simon held a loft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I author was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king. And then, Comeback is amazing. listen. Strange women lying in bonds. Distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme Executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. Be quiet. You can't expect to wiel. Supreme powered just cuz some watery taught through a sword at you. Love it. I love it. They're, they're collecting muck, just stacks of it. Seriously. Oh man. But that just seems like the whole movie. There's somebody just doused in mud at every point of the movie. Yeah. So Michael Powell is said to be the most restrained of the pythons. The most cool-headed the calm one. Right. And at one point during this scene of what I just quoted, he was asked to do a seventh take where he is crawling through the mud. Mm-hmm. and. Is in his own words. He said he had a quote, a jolly good blowup. Cleese and Chap were so astonished that he had blown up, that he got angry, that they gave him a round of applause, And the take was never used in the final cut of the film. no, I mean, I'm sure these guys, like I was saying, man, every, in, every scene there's at least somebody that's just covered in mud. It's gotta get annoying after a while. Oh, seriously? No joke. Pa and well, on Paan, he played the most characters in the movie. Okay. So you had Chapman who only played a, you know, I think it was four and mostly Arthur. You had Paan who played, played 12 characters in the movie. Holy crap. Yeah, he is. Yeah. In a lot of scenes. Yep. And sir, not appearing in this film, was played by Palin's infant son William. Mm, sir. Not appearing in this film. I really want a t-shirt with that on it though. See how many people. And just on a random side note, as part of their stained glass and interior decoration, several medieval cathedrals included illustrations of virtues and vices. The Vice of Cowardness was depicted as a night running away from a rabbit. Notre Dame in Paris is no fewer than three such medallions of the quote Killer rabbit Oh, that's fantastic. All right. We got a lot of stuff to keep going through, guys, so I'm just gonna like, seriously, there's so much stuff. So I'm gonna rocket through some of this stuff. We're gonna talk about things when it comes up, but, uh, buckle up. Here we go. All right. According to K this is like, this is like, there's so much to talk about, guys. Seriously. And we're about halfway done. Yeah, this is, we're at a halfway point, so here we go. According to Terry Jones, the scene with Lance Law and Concord required 20 takes. While the second take was perfect, the cameraman noticed that there was a lot of smoke in the background. One point and annoyed John Cleese said, well, was the smoke Funny enough? the theatrical release of the film contains 527 jokes, including 42 in the opening credits. Yes, so many in the opening credit sequence. An average of one joke every 10 and a half seconds, which explains why everyone is rolling in laughter as they've watched this movie. Dude, seriously, just, you'll never think about moose or llamas in the same way again. The gorilla hand turning the pages was co-writer and co-director Terry Gilliams, the hand turning the pages before that is the hand of Gilliam's wife Maggie Weston. Nice. So when talking about the casting of the movie and who would play, who Sir Michael Pollan explained Casting was largely determined mainly by who'd written what? Castle Anthrax was a gallahan thing and I'd written that with Terry. So I was cast this Gallahan terry Jones had written Beere. Lancelot was a mixture of stuff that we'd written, but John Cle seemed to fit that well. Eric Idle had written Brave Sir Robin, so he got the Sir Robin parts and the rest were subsidiary parts, For the Japanese release of the film, holy Grail was translated as Holy Sake Cup We should do a series on foreign names for movies. They always come out so weird. Gillian was originally supposed to play Sir Galen, whose role would have consisted of repeatedly breaking the fourth wall and pointing out how special effects and other aspects of the movie's production were achieved. His role ultimately ended up being turned into Patsy with his medium awareness jokes, uh, being summed up in the character's only speaking line when he sees Cam the Camelot castle and says, it's only a model. I love that part. It was pretty funny. there were several disagreements between directors Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. Gilliam was more focused on the technical aspects of the movie. While Jones was more focused on the comedy. After making this movie, it was agreed that Jones would direct the further Python movies. Okay. That just makes it easy. No, no continued arguments. Uh, Gilliam designed the boat that was used in the finale of the film when they first saw it. The cast of the film were super impressed by how cool it looked. It was a cool looking ship, right? It was. I wonder how much of their budget went into that. Yeah. Two weeks before location shooting was scheduled to begin, the Scottish department of the environment withdrew permission for arm Monty Python to shoot within their castles, saying that the script would be incompatible with the history and fabric of the castles. The interiors of Camelot and Swamp Castle and exteriors of Castle Anthrax and French Castle and the opening castle were were all shot at Dune. Dune Dune, castle Dune were all shot at Dune Castle. I like the way that sounds. with various rooms, redecorated, and reused. Many times recently rebuilt Castle Stalker was used for the castle. Ah, both of these were privately owned and could be used. The constitutional peasants castle and Camelot are each 10 foot high plywood models, hence Patsy's comment, which had a tendency to blow over in the middle of each take. Hence, the trailer shows another in joke with King Arthur Knighting, someone who just built a large castle. But when the plywood building falls over, Arthur stabs him according to Paan in an interview, he said, I remember one day when we'd been doing a lot of crouching with the castle in the background, and Terry Gilliam asked us to crouch once more because there was a lovely shaft of sunlight coming and catching John's helmet. John went absolutely berserk saying, you know, I'm not waiting for a shaft of light to strike my effing helmet. When we've been here for four hours, we've crouched and it's cold what are you waiting for? The moon and the stars to arrange themselves around my head. Terry. Gillian recalled when we did the scene where they were at the battlements and the cow was thrown over it, it was a matte shot, and the only way to do it was to dig a hole in the ground and have them all on their knees. John was going apeshit because he was uncomfortable. I finally said, F it, it's your sketch. You wrote it. I'm just trying to make it work. And this is a tricky shot here. So I said F you, and went off in a snit and laid down in the grass saying, I'm not going to direct this Oh, dang it. So, you know, sounds like, like they said, it wasn't a fun experience for'em to fill one of their worst filming experiences. So, uh, yeah. They butt heads these guys butt heads. It happens. You know, I mean, everybody's going to, there's always professional differences. Unusually for I Monty Python feature, all of the female roles, apart from Dennis apart from Dennis's mother know, played by Terry Jones, were played by women in Monty Python's flying circus life and Brian. And the meaning of life. almost all the female roles were played by men now I know we always say that every scene is a favorite scene, but some scenes are more favorite than others. Another one of those scenes is the Bring Out Your Dead scene. Bring out Shut Dead, ding That scene is so funny and dark. So dark. Super dark. I mean, they're piling on dead people into carts for crying out loud, right? And then they pull this guy out. He's not even, I'm not dead yet. I'm not dead. I feel happy. I feel happy. Thank you very much. Back on Thursday because See you on Thursday. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, so in this scene in the background, there are two nuns with gigantic mallets that can be seen, okay? Mm-hmm. the original script called for these nuns to be pounding on a man tied to a cart. Oh man. So there's a scene that was cut where these two nuns were like beating on a guy, in the background that was tied to a cart and the scene ended up being cut. And that is that scene with them walking away with those cha giant mallets were all that remains. Yeah, that strangely seems appropriate for this movie. Yes. Pollen was not happy with this part during the Bring out your dead scene. Okay. He's the man that is crawling across the bottom of the screen, with, with a yolk on his neck. Uhhuh, and says Pa will never forgive him or Jones for making him a mud eater in the scene. Naturally the shot where he actually eats the mud has been cut from the finished film. Gillum also goes on to say most of the mud in the scene was just pick shit and piss. According to him, most of the cast and crew spent a lot of time at this location getting tetanus shots oh my gosh. What? Uh, and the dude, if you ever watched that sing, that guy is just struggling with that yolk on him. Oh. That's crazy. I didn't know that was one of the cast members. That's ugh, Yeah. Seriously. So gross. Ugh. I quit Several scenes were actually filmed in highly public places with, gatherings of off-camera spectators watching the filming in lots of interviews. John k Cleese discussed Lance lot's running approach shot towards Swamp Castle, which was filmed in Ted's Heath, which was a park in London. Kle said that he. Had to stand on a park walkway awaiting a visual cue to begin running across the fields towards the camera. Totally alone and in full costume. He had, he had random conversations with several people walking by who understandably had no idea what a man in a medieval costume holding a broad sword was doing there, you know, but they seemed accepting of it, you know, if they're willing to have a conversation with them about it. Sure. That is a great scene though, where he just keeps running. It goes back, he hasn't even gone anywhere. It's just like the same running spot, dude, it's fantastic. Back forth, back forth, back forth. And all of a sudden he's right there, slashy people running through, killing everybody. So funny. I like the two guards. They're just sitting there watching him, like, and then finally when he slices one hey, and the other one's dead. The movie started shooting at the Bridge of Death and the last scene shot was Lancelot endlessly running towards the castle, and that was done as a last minute pickup reshoot. So that, but that was the last thing that they shot with the movie. There's one other thing about that scene that I'm gonna get to, I can't remember what it was right now, but it's in my notes. It's coming up, so when I get there, you'll, you'll hear what that was. Gillian remembers the film opening at Cinema one in New York City. Before Dawn, the second day that it had opened the line was around the block, this shocked Gillian and the casting crew who walked around the crowd all day and even went into the theater to watch the film with the audience. Gillian remembers two people in particular who attended one of those first screenings, who came up to the troop and told them how much that they loved the film. Those people were John Belushi and Gilda Radner, who were each That's cool. Each beginning their own careers, uh, on the S n L team. That's really cool. The movie made its American television debut on CBS b s on a late movie showing in February, 1977. Allegedly the Monty Python Group was unhappy to find out that the network had heavily edited the movie, uh, to cut out the profanity and the other graphic elements. As a result, the pythons managed to take back control of the American television rights and then ended up selling them to P b s and later for commercial syndication resulting in. Largely unedited television showings of the movie. So that's how they got around that. Oh, okay. According to the Monty Python Group, the one question that was asked the most on the promotional tour for the movie was what their next movie would be when asked the question, while screening this movie in Paris, Eric Idle jokingly answered by saying, Jesus Christ, lust for glory. However, the joke stuck and inspired Python's. Next movie Life of Brian. according to the DVD commentary track, the large princess that Prince Herbert is supposed to be married to, is named Princess Lucky, the giant h and l outside of Swamp Castle. Stand for Herbert and Lucky. Okay? The French TA's pronunciation of knights as can niggas, is not far from how the word would have sounded in the 10th century in Old and middle English. A K at the start of a word was never silent. The rhyme and meter of Jeffrey Chancellor's poetry in the 14th century is geared toward the same pronunciation. So it's not silent. This is a question, man. I always wanted to know why, what a conig was. So cut. fantastic. King Arthur refers to the shrubbery woman as an old crone. Old crone was the name given to old women who were usually kidnapped from a local English village by crusading knights to find and cook food and wash the knight's clothing while on a crusade. Oh wow. you're coming with us due to their usually advanced age and lack of food amongst other factors. Few old Crohn's survived the Crusades. So little history lesson there of what an old crone. That's horrible. What a life. If you're living in a medieval age as a young or as an old woman, and you're coming with us, I gotta hide. I gotta get outta this place. Oh man. The actress B Duffel who played the old CRO guide before the movie was released in theaters. Oh, I know. She never got to see it. And sad the chicken on. Brave sir. Robin Shield is facing to the right, which is the Bears left or sinister in Heraldry terminology. I don't even like that word, Billy's face is so funny right now. I don't like that word at all. As as Sir Robin is holding the shield in his left hand, this means that the chicken is effectively seen to be running away from battle. You know, because So Robin ran away, so Robin ran away. Away No, I haven't. I didn't. The original plan for the Chief Knight who says me was to have John Cleese supporting Sir Michael Paan on his shoulders. But in the end it ended up as just paan standing on a ladder. Oh, okay. I love that. Makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. Terry Jones doesn't think the Middle Ages were filled with dirty people with disgusting black teeth. just, you know, in case you wanted to know, just throw throwing it in there. He said, I think in the modern 20th century We like to believe that the Middle Ages was like that. So when we showed it, a lot of critics said, oh yes, really authentic looking Jones notes that Mary Rose, a ship that sank in 1545 that was brought up in recent years. Everyone on board the ship had perfect teeth. Jones notes. They didn't have modern dentistry, but they also didn't have a sugar industry. I got you. So, That's his thoughts on the matter. I gotcha. Let's not talk about the cat abuse. Additional cat abuse includes a cat being stepped on during the nights of came dancing Fantastic. Oh, that got me. Okay. the keeper of the bridge of death is cheating. the Syria had no capital in 9 32 A as it no longer existed. So there's that. Immediately after the second encounter with the Knights who say me. The original script had a lengthy sequence involving a character named King Bryant The Wild, who enjoyed getting people to come to his castle, having them sing in close harmony and then having them killed by his archers The Knights of the Round Table nearly end up meeting this fate themselves. But Sir Robin unwittingly saves the day when he shows up in the nick of time and the archers shoot his menstruals. Instead, king Brian would most likely have been played by Eric Idol, given that Sir Robin is absent for most of the sequence though there have been some reports that the role was written for the Python's friend stage and screen legend. Brian blessed that that sounds like a funny scene. That does sound like a funny scene. There's a lot going on in this movie, so I understand that something's had to get cut. Yes. The sun on King Arthur's Tunic and Shield has a mustache. Have you never noticed that before? Absolutely. When talking about the film's opening in New York City, Gilliam talked about kind of the vibe of the audience at the time. Uh, they were very liberal minded, very anti-violence due to the Vietnam War, which is going on at the time. And gillum notes the discomfort from the crowd when the Black Knight's limbs are being sliced off. in England. Blood is called Kensington Gore, and it's the best blood in the world. He says, apparently the last leg getting chopped off finally won the New York crowd over. It's not those first three severed limbs that get you, it's that fourth one. That one really brings in the barrel. Laughs, Oh man. And it does. 100% does. Yeah. And the Black Knight's reaction to each one of them is perfect. Yes. In the Elaborately Illustrated pages that precede various scenes, lances lot is spelled two different ways. Lancelot. Lanala. Right. Lancelot Lancelot, which is spelled L A U N C E L O T, and Lancelot, L A N C E L O T. I'm not sure why. There's no dis reason why that they misspelled it. Probably just for fun, should probably just as a joke to see who could notice. Yeah. It makes sense that Lances lot rescues Gala Head from the Castle Anthrax since according to Arthurian legend Lance Lot is galla Head's father. Oh, there you go, The Army Arthur brings, you know, it's fun. It's so funny as I'm reading this, like I hear my voice turning into like that narrator character from the movie. Yeah. I was thinking that too. I was like, oh yeah. And I didn't mean it, but now it's like, now I'm kind of like, I feel like I'm embracing it as I go on anyway. Like you have to. Yeah. Here we go. The Army author brings in, at the end of the film, was made up of only about 200 crew members. Their family members pitched in to help by holding a banner as well. according to Sarah Gilliam, the subtitles when the film played in France, messed up several of the jokes in the witch scene. When someone suggests that a church could float on water. A church. A church, churches, very small rocks. Very small rocks, a duck So funny, the French subtitles changed church to cricket. They didn't quite understand the point of any of it. No, it's Gill They just don't get it. What is water? Great gravy. A church. A church. Oh man. I just love that she weighs as much as a duck. That's one heavy duck. So if she weighs the same as a duck, she's made a wood, wood and therefore a, oh my gosh. Okay. Gillian found difficulty in directly mainly because he primarily. Animations for the Monty Pythons Flying Circus. He never joined the other members when they were going through rehearsals. If he appeared on the show, he, as he notes, it was only on the day he was set to film. He admits he was more of an outsider to Monty Pythons process than Terry Jones was. And the problems with communication between Gillian and the rest of the members became frustrating for everyone. He said, I think they felt I was more interested in the look of it than performing and all those things, which wasn't true. It was only that that was the thing that had to be fought for because the others were not interested good at it or any of those things. In theory, they were, but in practice the armor was uncomfortable. The king of Swamp castle says that Surveillances slot killed all those guards. They cost 50 pounds each. Nice meaning that Sir Lance lot killed 300 pounds worth of guards, Oh, there you go. In the original script, half of the events took place in the Middle Ages while the other half took place in the modern day. At the end of the initial script, the Holy Grail is discovered at Herro. It was Terry Jones' idea to make the film be set entirely in medieval times. Sometimes I'm gonna do it, sometimes I'm not right? Depends how it comes out. All right, When William the Conqueror besiege exterior in 10 68, 1 of the besiege towns folk had, according to William of Miles, mez Brewer barred his posteriors and had broken wind in contempt of the Norman. I e. Farted in their general direction. I don't know how many times I've quoted that that I fart in your general direction, but now my kids say it cuz they've watched this with me. it. It's fantastic. Breaky news, everybody uh, possible tornado warnings in California. No way. Are you okay? Is it around your area? I don't know what the heck just happened. what is going on? Look it up. That is crazy. Okay, back to the show. The weather's getting crazy out here, everybody. I don't know what's going on. I don't know if we're gonna see any tornadoes, but that was, that was definitely a weird, uh, bit of news that just came my way. Uh, okay, here we go. Ah, Arthur's army at the end of the movie was made up entirely of 175 students from Scotland's University of Sterling. According to a casting call sent to the school by the production, each student was paid two pounds sterling and got free transportation food. And I quote, an abundance of crazy antics for a single day's work. Their scene was shot from various angles to make it seem as if there was double that number of people to make it larger, bigger, more crazy. And on a side note, there is a new age therapy that involves resonating the sinuses with strange sounds, including me, Guys, we getting, we're getting to the crazy land right now. I feel like we're, as I'm doing, as I'm going through this podcast, I feel like I'm going a little crazy. Like seriously, there's so much information. My brain is like melting. Well, I mean with that, we know that the Monty Python and Holy Grail movie is now saving lives. Yes. As you might imagine, there are a ton of scenes, gags and jokes that ended up being cut out of the movie that didn't make it into the final cut. The group went in with these ambitious notions, but they would almost always end up cutting back on the quantity of the jokes in any given scene. Gilliam says it was a frustration of trying to make a big feature and wanted to pack as much in it. Ah, makes sense. The Holy Hand grenade of Antioch is based upon the SO'S orb of 1662, which is part of the crown jewels of the United Kingdom. The orb was commissioned for coronation of Charles II in 1661 and was created by Royal Goldsmith, Robert Viner, or Viner. Which one? Viner. Robert Viner or Viner? I don't know. Whichever makes you happy. The orb is a hollow gold sphere with clusters of emeralds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, making bands around the sphere to form three halves. The halves symbolize the three known continents of the world at the time of commission. The cross perched on top is made of rose cut diamonds and is meant to symbolize the Christian world that it sits upon. The orb is held in the right hand of the sovereign during their coronation, but held in the left hand when leaving Westminster Abbey. Thank you for listening. Terry Gilliam, later, director, the Fisher King in 1991, which uses the quest for the Holy Grail as a metaphor. In this film, a character named Sir Robin is in search of said holy grail. In the other film, the Quest is played by Robin Williams. Absolutely. I never put two and two together on that one. They never, never saw the connection, but there it is. There it is. I just, I guess I just never realized that Terry Gilliam, directed the Fisher King. I love that movie. You didn't know that? No. Until like when, like right now till we saw these notes. Yeah. Wow. Like, it just never, I never put two and two together. Crazy. Okay. Yeah. There we are. Excellent. Excellent. Mark Zicon was a huge fan of Monty Python's flying Circus. And he showed up to the set one day and Gillian remembers him showing up in a taxi. They needed a double for Eric Idle at the time. Tycon was the right size, so they gave him the job. they learned shortly after Ty Kon would be willing to perform stunts, so he began doing things that no stunt man would do, Tycon is seen briefly in the Camelot music sequence as the prisoner hanging up on the wall. So a fan just showed up and ended up getting a job in the movie Nice. That's awesome. I like this character that's just clapping his hands while he is strung up. I, I just think that's kind of funny that a fan could show up. Least there was a, there was a time where fans could show up and actually have an opportunity to be in a movie with the people that they are fans of. Right. Uh, kind of Cool. All right. Some major scenes that were scripted but never filmed include an additional Knight Whoe scene. They intend to call themselves the Knights of Nicki. Nicki. Oh, okay. Yes. But then they have that line in the movie that goes, we are no longer the Knight Whoe. We are now known as the Night to Say Yes. Was that right? Did I get that right? That was as close as I could get, so, yeah. Okay. Sounds good. Good. Yeah. Another scene involved additional police detective scenes, uh, several scenes where Arthur and the Knights meet, king Brian the Wild, which you talked about earlier. Uh, after the Bridge Keeper, they come upon a boat keeper. He who would cross the sea of fate. Must answer these, these questions. 28 uh, Arthur and the Knights end up finding the Holy Grail at London's famous Herod's department store. Of course. Where else would it be? Exactly. Terry Gilliam remembers not being able to figure out a way to get the knights away from the black beast of ah, Having the animator who was played by Gilliam suffer a fatal heart attack, was just as logical as anything else he could think of. I mean, it makes sense. I thought it, and just at that moment, the animator suffered a fatal heart attack and died It made sense for the movie. It totally did. The body count includes 54, including the black beast of a a rabbit and 33 other animals. Bring out your dead village and the village where the knights by a shrubbery appear to be the same village. This suggests that Arthur has been wandering in circles throughout the entire Quest I love that. Yeah, that's fantastic. The ending of the movie is actually kind of controversial. Like there are some people that do not like the ending of this movie, which I find is interesting cuz I think it's hilarious, but I get it. I get it. Anyway. This was not the ending that they were going to have in the first place. Okay. Uh, Gillian, who can't quite remember what was planned for the original ending? Uhhuh he does know that they chopped a lot of it out. Okay. He remembers The original ending was very dreamlike notes how similar the ending to Robert Bresson's Lance lot of the lake was to Holy Grails Lance. Lot of the Lake came out in September of 1974. Holy Grail came out in April. Gillian remembers seeing the Bresson film and the audience roaring with laughter during the dramatic action sequence. The projectionist who had not seen Holy Grail, couldn't figure out why the audience responded that way. So I guess like the endings were similar that's all I can put together on that one. Okay. Regardless, the movie's abrupt ending came about because they didn't have a budget for a large scale battle sequence. And so as they're like running up and doing this thing, the cop cars coming, they start arresting everybody. Everybody. Yeah. I love how like, and it's even like the, the shaky camera movement, right? So you got the cops coming in and everyone's very confused about what's going on. It's fan, it, it's a perfect ending to what is happening. Yeah. the movie contains no end credits. No, it does not. Does not. It sure doesn't. Yeah. The word that the knights of me can't say or can't stand to hear is it in case you didn't know? Yep. He said it again now I said it. though. Lance lot's charge through the castle is meant to be entirely chaotic. The moment where he kicks the bride in the chest can be seen in a flash when Princess Lucky's bridesmaids are preparing her for the wedding. That's the thing that I meant to talk about earlier that I couldn't find. So Lance Lock kicks Princess. Lucky, straight up in the chest. And when they show her the next time, she's just straight up, got blood draining out of her mouth. That's fine. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I just get carried away. This should be a happy occasion. Oh, man. I, I love what he He comes down apologizing, just like for every, he just killed like the wedding party, just brutally murder people, everybody. And he picked the bride in the chest, And then they come up and start attacking him again. He starts killing them all over again. stop. Stop. Oh, I'm sorry. I just get carried away. Oh man. You only killed the bride's father. And you know, I didn't mean to, didn't mean to you. Put your sword right to his head. and his, and his response to that is one of the funniest things ever. I can't even say His response, his response to that is Oh damn. Is he all right? man. Oh, okay. Okay. We gotta keep going. We're gonna get through this guys. We're gonna get through this. We've almost made it. I'm starting to get the giggles now. Now everything's starting to make me laugh. Okay, man. Okay. on the commentary, Terry Gillum explains how Monty Python can never get together again. He compares them to the Beatles and how if one member dies, the group is broken, and there's no way to completely get back together. And Graham Chapman died in 1989. Gillum says many of its members still work together on each other's projects, but the group itself is dead. It's sad, but it is sad. It is true. John Cleese was asked, uh, back in an interview in 2020 if he had a favorite scene from this movie. He said his favorite was the two guards who couldn't get the stay here and make sure he doesn't leave instructions. Right. Specifically, he said what made it work was that it was an uncomplicated shot using only two stationary cameras, one wide and one medium, and that the simplicity of only two angles allowed the absurdity of the scene to speak for itself. I love that scene. I die every time in that scene. It is great. It's so good. I know we say every scene is a great scene, but there are some scenes that stick out more. Than others. Okay. for the final time, Elvis Presley was a huge fan of Monty Python. Did you know that? I did not know that. Yeah. He was a big fan and he was especially th of this movie, which he watched apparently. I mean, this is what I've heard. This is what has been said from one of his former bodyguards that he watched this movie about 50 times. Okay. And that Elvis would dismiss shows that didn't go well. Uh, with it's only a flesh wound. It's only a flesh wound, which is a great way to look at life when you get knocked down. Right. It'll heal It's just a flesh wound. You can have an arm cutoff, you have a lay cutoff. It's just a flesh wound. It'll grow back I love it. Not really. It won't grow back, but it can heal. I thought it was gonna grow back. Yes. In an auction of movie costumes in March of 2007, the Helmet War by Sir Beere sold for$29,000, uh, which is more than 10 times the original estimate. That's crazy. But I would love to have it. And that's it, guys. That is it. I have no more notes to go through. No more. I've gotta say, this was our, this was fun to talk about. It's also exhausting cuz there's so much, there's so much to talk about in this movie. And the movie is so funny. And so it's like you wanna keep talking about it over and over and over again. And like, we just spent all this time on this movie and I'm worried that we didn't even get, like, crack the surface of the awesomeness that this movie actually conveys and brings into people's lives. It, it came pretty close to us just quoting the whole movie. I know. Seriously though. We ah, man. So with that being said, is there a quote that we haven't done or that we've done and you would love to say again, man, I, I You know, I think like, I don't know. I've been saying quotes through this whole thing. I can't really get my head into one right now. Do you got one for us? I've got a scene. Okay. Okay. It's something that we touched on earlier, but I feel needs some, um, more vocalization. All right, let's do it. Ready? Go for it. I'm ready then there. What behind the rabbit? It is the rabbit. You silly. Sad. What? You got us all worked. Well, that's no ordinary rabbit. Oh, that's the most foul, cruel and bad tempered run you've ever seen. You tit. I saw my arm. I was so scared. Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak. A mile wide. It's a killer. Get stuffed hill. He'll do you up. Oh yeah, you man, Scott get I'm warning than you. What's he gonna do? Nibble on my bum. He's got huge sharp and he can leave about, look at the bones. Go on boys. Chop his head off. Right. Silly little bleeder. One rabbit stew coming right up. And then, and then Boris loses his head. Nice. But yes, he, he's got huge sharp, you can leap about lose the bones. He'll nibble my bum Uh, love it. So, um, Yeah. Awesome. All right, buddy. Well, we did it. Yeah. Thank you everybody. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Thank you. I, if you made it to the end of this, you guys are like real hardcore troopers. We had a lot of fun talking about it though. Don't forget to like, subscribe, leave good reviews. Give us like five star greatness on wherever you listen to podcasts. Go visit Geek Tire for all your movie, video game, tv, s news and whatever, whatever you're doing. If you like geeky stuff and uh, entertainment movie stuff, go to geek tire.com. And other than that, good journey everybody. Good journey folks. Every time I try to talk to someone, it's, sorry, this, and forgive me that, and I'm not worthy. Stop groveling,