Monty Python and the Holy Grail

There is ostensible dramatic coherence in the quest for the Grail by Graham Chapman’s long-suffering King of the Britons.

It is quite the brightest home-grown comedy in ages.

There are uninspired lapses... and there are rich and hilarious moments of the absurd. A review cannot help turning into a catalogue of the hits rather than the misses.

Historical burlesque is really far too obvious and too familiar for the usually unpredictable Monty Python team of writers and actors, and they get terribly bogged down in Arthurian England, circa AD 932.

One can at least see the beginnings of something that could grow into a more coherently incoherent whole. The basic order out of which the most laughable anarchy flows could eventually be achieved if the team sticks together.

For my money, I wasn't particularly knocked out by Monty Python and the Holy Grail. For me, it contained about 10 very funny moments and 70 minutes of silence... I guess I prefer Monty Python in chunks, in its original, television revue format.

The cast's comedic versatility shines as each Monty Python member takes on multiple roles, making the film a hilarious and unforgettable classic.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail may still only be for the most dedicated to the group's unique sense of humor, but has aged like fine wine.

Did the Pythons go on to make better films, as a group or individually? Maybe. But Holy Grail is peerless as a sustained goof, enlarging the sensibility of their TV skits to an epic canvas it simultaneously ridicules.

The effortfully inane action, verbal tomfoolery and in-house TV jokes dangle limply from the cinema screen, waiting for a breeze which the directors, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, never manage to whistle up.