It all started with a TV show called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, featuring five British comedians, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, and an american named Terry Gilliam. Six years later, and with a minimal budget, “Monty Python And The Holy Grail” was released, and it was written by the whole Python crew and codirected by Gilliam and Jones. From a technical point of view, the movie is easily flawed and impaired. I seriously doubt that anyone working on the project at the time believed it would spark such a cultural phenomenon. Afterall, the inspiration for that show of surrealistic humor wasn’t really a stroke of genius, but rather the need to get characters from one place to another with a budget so low that actual horses were out of the question (weird huh?). To be honest, I thought the film was a bit obnoxious at first; nothing made sense, and some of the jokes looked a bit dated. But it started to grow on me after the first 20 minutes, when I found myself laughing out loud at some of the silliest, yet smartest jokes I’ve ever seen (and I rarely do that). “Holy Grail” nails one hilarious joke after another, but only lacks a satisfying end. Still, you don’t walk away thinking it’s a bad ending, you start quoting the taunting frenchman instead, or the leader of the knights who keeps saying “Ni!”, or the black knight who loses both arms yet is convinced that “it’s just a flesh wound”. That’s what makes this movie a true classic, and if this is your cup of tea, then you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Rating: 3/4