Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Guild Cinema
Friday & Saturday, October 4-5 – 10:30 pm only
Directed by Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones – 1975 – 92m – An Alibi Midnight Movie Madness presentation! Seats $8.00/$6.00 students. Door Prizes courtesy of Bubonicon 52!
IN CELEBRATION OF THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST AIRED MONTY PYTHON TV APPEARANCE ON THEIR FLYING CIRCUS SERIES!
From its opening multi-language titles (that sure looks like Swedish) to the closing arrest of the entire Dark Ages cast by modern-day bobbies, Monty Python and the Holy Grail helped to define “irreverence” and became an instant cult classic. This time the Pythonites savage the legend of King Arthur, juxtaposing some excellently selected exterior locations with an unending stream of anachronistic one-liners, non sequiturs, and slapstick set pieces. The Knights of the Round Table set off in search of the Holy Grail on foot, as their lackeys make clippety-clop sounds with coconut shells. A plague-ridden community, ringing with the cry of “bring out your dead,” offers its hale and hearty citizens to the body piles. A wedding of convenience is attacked by Arthur’s minions while the pasty-faced groom continually attempts to burst into song. The good guys are nearly thwarted by the dreaded, tree-shaped “Knights Who Say Ni!” A feisty enemy warrior, bloodily shorn of his arms and legs in the thick of battle, threatens to bite off his opponent’s kneecap. A French military officer shouts such taunts as “I fart in your general direction” and “I wave my private parts at your aunties.” Rabbits are a particular obsession of the writers this time around, ranging from the huge Trojan Rabbit to the “killer bunny” that decapitates one of the knights. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin collaborated on the script and assumed most of the onscreen roles, while Gilliam and Jones served as co-directors.
“The material is superb, Neil Innes’ music is tremendous and Gilliam’s animations are timelessly brilliant.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
“So unnecessarily gorgeous, there are moments where it feels like Tarkovsky with drag and farting.” – Tom Huddleston, Time Out
“Grail is as funny as a movie can get, but it is also a tough-minded picture — as outraged about the human propensity for violence as it is outrageous in its attack on that propensity.” – Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine
Website: GuildCinema.com