Monty Python 5 Reasons Why Holy Grail Is Their Best Film (& 5 Why Life Of Brian is A Close Second)

Monty Python: 5 Reasons Why Holy Grail Is Their Best Film (& 5 Why Life Of Brian is A Close Second)

The Monty Python troupe has treated fans to four theatrically released feature films. Fans now must decide if Holy Grail or Life of Brian is the best.

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Throughout the years, the Monty Python troupe has treated fans to four theatrically released feature films: And Now for Something Complete Different, an ironically titled compendium of reshot sketches from Monty Python’s Flying Circus intended to introduce the Pythons to a U.S. audience; Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a pitch-perfect lampoon of Arthurian legend; Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a super-controversial satire of organized religion; and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, a collection of loosely connected (and deliciously dark) original sketches.

The general consensus among Python fans is that the troupe’s second and third movies are their finest.

10 Holy Grail Is The Best: The Comedy Has Layers

Most comedies that hit theaters today are just brightly lit, lightly edited improv. All the humor comes from dialogue and situations, which only takes advantage of a fraction of the potential of the cinematic form (not to sound too pretentious). In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the comedy has layers.

There is humor in the dialogue and situations, but the Pythons never missed an opportunity to pack in yet another joke, whether it’s in the framing or the cuts or the musical choices or the structure of the story itself. The movie follows the Arthurian legend, but it also uses anachronisms, animation, and meta-ness to exist in a reality of its own.

9 Life Of Brian Is A Close Second: The Main Characters Are Well-Rounded

Whereas Holy Grail’s King Arthur is more or less a foil for the absurd characters around him, Life of Brian’s Brian Cohen is a fleshed-out, well-rounded character with a clear personality and relatable motivations.

The same goes for his mother, Mandy, played by Terry Jones, who is developed more and more in each of her scenes and is responsible for a lot of the movie’s most memorable lines, including “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”

8 Holy Grail Is The Best: There’s No Dead Weight

As close as Life of Brian is to being perfect, it does have a couple of gags that don’t quite land on the millionth viewing and some scenes that drag out their jokes for slightly too long.

Now, absolute perfection might be asking a lot from a single movie, especially compared to just how bad some comedies can be (like a Date Movie or a Dirty Grandpa), but Holy Grail is perfect. It doesn’t spare a second, with laugh-out-loud gags and impressive visuals filling every frame.

7 Life Of Brian Is A Close Second: It Has The Pythons’ Most Challenging Satire

Although a couple of medieval buffs expecting to see a straight historical drama about King Arthur were confused and disappointed by Monty Python and the Holy Grail, no one was outraged by its satirical take on the familiar legends.

Life of Brian, on the other hand, provoked all kinds of protests and boycotts and widespread uproar by poking holes in religious beliefs that millions of people across the world hold dear.

6 Holy Grail Is The Best: It Calls Attention To Its Own Low Budget

Most low-budget movies do everything in their power to convince audiences that the filmmakers had a big budget. But Terrys Jones and Gilliam went the other way when they directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail and used the low budget for comedic effect.

This is established in the movie’s opening moments, as viewers fade in on a breathtaking, cinematic view of the foggy English countryside, with the sounds of horses galloping in the distance, and then King Arthur rides into the frame on an imaginary horse, with his squire Patsy clacking coconut shells behind him. Holy Grail had a seldom-seen (at least at the time) self-aware edge.

5 Life Of Brian Is A Close Second: It’s Shot Like A Real Biblical Epic

Whereas Holy Grail found humor in not looking like an authentic medieval drama, Life of Brian found humor in juxtaposing absurdist Python gags against the visual stylings of a real Biblical epic.

The production reused sets from Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. It offered an unwavering commitment to a completely different kind of self-awareness.

4 Holy Grail Is The Best: Even The Opening Titles Contain Jokes

There isn’t a second wasted in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Every scene is set up with an underlying joke, whether it’s a commentary on the historical context or simply an absurdist sketch premise, and every line in those scenes is a joke.

Some scenes are juxtaposed against each other to create even more jokes. The whole structure of the movie is a joke. Even the opening titles contain jokes. Holy Grail is jokes galore, as all great comedies should be.

3 Life Of Brian Is A Close Second: It’s Pure Python

What both Holy Grail and Life of Brian have in common is that their comic sensibility is pure Python. Gags like “What have the Romans ever done for us?” and the People’s Front of Judea have the unique blend of intellectualism and absurdism that only the Pythons can pull off.

2 Holy Grail Is The Best: The Anticlimactic Ending Gives The Whole Movie A Punchline

Most movies want to hide their relationship with the audience, but the Pythons addressed it directly in Holy Grail. Audiences going into a movie about King Arthur’s search for the Holy Grail that contains “Holy Grail” in the title will expect Arthur to find the Grail at the end.

But Monty Python and the Holy Grail ends with a beautiful anti-climax, as contemporary police officers interrupt a burgeoning battle scene to arrest everyone in the scene and shut off the cameras.

1 Life Of Brian Is A Close Second: It Has The Perfect Ending

While the anticlimactic ending of Holy Grail was a hilariously meta conclusion to the loosely strung-together story, Life of Brian’s ending is simply perfect. It may be the greatest ending in the history of film comedy. Brian is hoisted up on a crucifix, ready to be crucified.

After multiple chances for freedom pass him by as all the film’s story threads reach miserable conclusions, Brian accepts his grim fate. Then, he and the other prisoners in line for execution start singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/monty-python-best-film-holy-grail-vs-life-brian-comparison/

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