Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Directed by: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones

Written by: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

To say that "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is a classic would be an understatement. The film is a cultural asteroid which destroyed the world of comedy that came before it and reshaped the landscape of cinematic humor forever. (Alright, maybe I exaggerate a bit. But only slightly, in this case.)

For weeks, I anticipated seeing this movie as part of the Classic Film Wednesday series at my local theater. I originally saw it when I was far to young to understand most of the cruder jokes, but could repeat many of the slapstick gags and scenes ad nauseam. It remained a staple of semi-annual viewing all the way through high school, but I hadn't seen it since I went to college and realize that just about everyone I knew had already seen it and could also repeat just about the entire movie. At that point, my special edition DVD (with all the deleted scenes and extras) became a bookshelf decoration and I moved on to experiencing different pop cultural mainstays.

All this to say - the time had come to re-see the film I had memorized by heart, rehearsed a million times, and filed away in the back of my brain.

The good news is that my memory is pretty darn good. I managed to remember just about every line in the film, perhaps fumbling a bit with a few of the words and phrasings.

It was nice to appreciate the film on the big screen for once, having seen it hundreds of times on my parents' postage-stamp television.

For the first time, I was able to appreciate some of the technical aspects of the film, such as the ability of the Monty Python actors to play multiple roles - sometimes even within the same scene. Some of the meta-film features made more sense than before, too. ("Look! It's the old man from Scene 24!") I won't even get into all dirty jokes which went over my head as a kid (and even a few that I missed as a teenager).

I was afraid that I wasn't going to enjoy this film, having never actually seen it in years. I was not disappointed, though.