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Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The film Monty Python and the Holy Grail is (mostly) a parody of Arthurian legend produced in 1975 by Monty Python. Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones shared directing credit with 40 specially trained Ecuadorian Mountain llamas, 6 Venezualan Red Llamas, 148 Mexican Whooping Llamas, 14 North Chilean Guanacos (closely related to the llama), Reg Llama of Brixton, and 76000 Battery Llamas from "Llama Fresh Farms Ltd" near Paraguay.

The film commences with a spoof British Board of Film Censors certification for Dentist on the Job a film "[..]Passed as more suitable for Exhibition to Adult Audiences". Indeed the film then continues in grainy black and white with the trailers for that particular film (an early version of a Carry On film). The actual credits for the film have (spurious) Swedish subtitles and many references to moose.

The story loosely follows the adventures of King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his knights of the Round Table across England in their search for the Holy Grail. On the way, the brave knights and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-so-Brave (a complete bloody coward) (Eric Idle) encounter a blood-thirsty rabbit (which they deal with using the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch), the Knights who say Ni (later known as the Knights who say "Ekky-ekky-ekky-ekky-z'Bang zoom-Boing z'nourrrwringmm"), the perils of Castle Anthrax, and the Black Knight. There are other misadventures involving socialist peasants, an alleged witch (Connie Booth), an enchanter called "Tim", the Bridge of Death and Frenchmen (led by John Cleese) who revel in taunting the travellers, without much success (or, indeed, understanding). Sir Robin's minstrels (their leader played by Neil Innes) sing of how brave he would hypothetically be in the face of horrific and graphically-described tortures, and then sing about how bravely he flees at the first sign of danger. Much to Sir Robin's relief, he and the other knights are later forced to eat the minstrels.

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

The film ends abruptly when a modern policeman arrives to arrest King Arthur. The Grail is never found.



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