Most weekends, I search the newspaper to see if any classic movies are playing. And yesterday, I went to see a movie for its 50th anniversary. I never really “got it” seeing it on the small screen, and since others seemed to laud it, thought I would see it on the big screen.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The movie started with a “thank you” from 4 of the main characters. I do remember that 2 of them were John Cleese and Michael Palin. They all seemed genuinely surprised and flattered that the movie has become a cult classic, and remembered fondly for its 50th anniversary.
It was made with such a low budget (estimated $500,000) that they couldn’t even afford horses for their quest. I thought, being comedians, that they were kidding. But no, they really couldn’t afford horses so they decided in their travels during their quest across the countryside they would “skip”, to emulate a horse while the squires behind them were using coconuts to simulate the hoof beats.
They were so destitute in production costs that Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd donated some money.
One critic attributed the film’s popularity to the fact that the actors didn’t take themselves too seriously and it seems that they were having fun.
Although Michael Palin said that they cut the opening scene – showing him eating mud. They tried to make it more appealing by putting chocolate in it – but the final straw for him has having to do it in 8 takes. He said that was one of the few times on set that he lost his temper. Can you blame him?
As far as the razer thin budget and the film’s popularity it reminds me of another film – American Graffiti – made 2 years earlier for $700,000. Universal studios didn’t know what to do with it, and it “sat in the can” for awhile. One critic said that it was a trail blazing movie in that there was no central character to follow, but 4.
It is now on the AFI top 100.
Which goes back to what legendary screenwriter William Goldman said about Hollywood: “Nobody knows anything”.
One critic called this the best comedy ever – my favorite has been Blazing Saddles.
Both movies have one thing in common – an irreverence for everything with no topic untouchable.
You still may have a chance to see this on the big screen, through May 7, 2025. It’s at selected theaters and hosted by Fathom Events. Check your local listings.
I will say on the big screen I got a new admiration for Monty Python – and without spoiling anything for the 3 of you who have not seen it, “expect the unexpected”.
And tonight, I got to see another classic. One local theater shows a lot of classics – I have seen everything from Metropolis (1927) to Clueless (1995).
OK, I wouldn’t consider Clueless to be a true classic – maybe it will be in another couple of decades – but it is funny. The world, Beverly Hills in this instance, is seen through the eyes of teenager Cher (Alicia Silverston) and it is hilarious.
Metropolis, one of the last of the silent movies, was groundbreaking with a plot that has been copied repeatedly. Startrek TOS copied it verbatim.
Breakfast at Tiffanys
Audrey Hepburn is one of the few actresses/actors I would have liked to have met. From what I have read of her; she was a kind and gentle soul. She grew up in Nazi-occupied Holland because her father, with much foresight, felt that the Nazis were going to invade Britain and they should move to Holland. Actually worked for a bit with the Dutch underground at age 16. What guard would suspect a 16-year-old girl on a bicycle? She used to hide messages in her shoe. Could have been executed if they had discovered this.
Unpretentious, she was on time on set and when not acting would frequently talk with the crew.
Her son Sean wrote a great book on her some years ago – knowing her as his mother and not an international star.
Some years ago, after seeing the movie, I wanted to read the novella by Truman Capote, upon which the movie is based.
The movie follows the book except for the very end. It shows you how a good screenwriter and director can change the inflection of a movie while telling the same story. The main character, Holly Golightly, was a prostitute but in the movie she is a “party girl”. The subject in the movie is a party girl who “gets $50 for the powder room”!
Until I read the novella all that went over me. Heck, for 30 years I thought Miss Kitty at the Long Branch was just a woman who owned the saloon and not a madam!
Henry Mancini wrote a wonderful soundtrack. A good soundtrack is as memorable as the movie, if the movie has good writing and acting. Here’s a bit of trivia: Before the movie release, some Paramount executives wanted to eliminate “Moon River” from the movie. To which Audrey Hepburn said “over my dead body!”
See William Goldman’s above comment.
A good soundtrack mirrors and complements the scene. Check out the piece during the big party!
The only bad part in the movie was Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of Holly’s Japanese landlord. It wasn’t so much a portrayal as a caricature. Mickey Rooney said later he didn’t like his portrayal and director Blake Edwards regretted it.
But the Japanese landlord was also true to the novella.
But other than that, a good movie which I actually prefer over the original novella.
The first time I saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail was when I was in grade school and it was on the local PBS station.
I had thought at first it was just simply another snooty movie from England that PBS liked to show. Then I noticed they were pretending to ride horses while banging coconuts.
Along with Cookie Monster and How Now Brown and the Moo Wave that was PBS’s Golden Era
As far as the razer thin budget and the film’s popularity it reminds me of another film – American Graffiti – made 2 years earlier for $700,000.
One year I bought an “all you want to see” ticket for a film festival. None of the films were Hollywood production, so all were low budget. I saw at least 20 films. I was impressed with the quality of the films. You don’t need a lot of money to make a good movie. You need a good script and a good eye.
One critic called this (Monty Python) the best comedy ever – my favorite has been Blazing Saddles.
Satire works best on something you love. Blazing Saddles was funny, but as I never liked the Cowboys and Indians genre, so I didn’t go gaga over that movie. I didn’t like the Cowboys and Indians genre because it didn’t fit my experience with Cowboys and Indians. Paternal cousins had horses. My mother was from rural Oklahoma, so I knew a lot of people who wore cowboy boots–as I did for several childhood years. My uncle farmed, in addition to a day job. He ran cattle on his land, so you could have called him a cowboy of sorts. My aunt was mixed race, so from my experience, the Cowboys and Indians got along just fine. All the shootouts in the Cowboys and Indians genre–rural Oklahoma was quite peaceful.
“… my favorite has been Blazing Saddles.”
I watched Blazing Saddles (again) on a long Emirates airline flight. The surprising thing was the movie was preceded by a Caution to viewers, presumably because of the supposed racist theme and the use of the “naughty word”. In reality, it was one of the best & funniest satires of racism that has ever been put on film!
@Mike – during the intro of the movie, one of the hosts (Palin) was saying that they didn’t have money to rent horses. I thought it was a joke, until I confirmed it. Anyway he said that had they had horses, there probably wouldn’t have been a 50th anniversary.
It reminds me of during the making of Jaws, the mechanical shark broke and Spielberg had to use his imagination. Like an Alfred Hitchcock movie you now see the scene from the Shark’s eyes, and of course that is what made it such a powerful movie.
@Gringo – most of the movies I see are small independents, shown at a local theater. And there are some big name stars you will see in them occasionally.
Belfast is a memorable one, about growing up in 70s Belfast – and a movie about the woman who really discovered Richard’s bones under the parking lot (and the University of Leicester wanted to wrest that from her with ads saying “We found him!”
That Goldman book is a classic and one of the things he said that surprised me is that for big name movies (the ones you see at the cinema plex) – the costs of marketing are frequently more than the movie production costs.
@Gavin – the funny thing for me is that on the original poster for Breakfast at Tiffanys – it is recommended for “mature” audiences. How far we have sunk where I heard the other day the average child by age 12 has been exposed to the worst porn on the internet.
I have the DvD of Blazing Saddles and the making of it was as interesting as the movie. Mel Brooks fought a lot of studio execs just to make it. And Gig Young was supposed to have the part of the “Waco Kid”. Only Gig, a long time alcoholic, was so sick on the first day of shooting Brooks thought he was going to die, and he called his friend Gene Wilder asking him if he could come out from CT the next day.
Can you imagine anyone else as the Waco Kid?
John Wayne was asked to have a part and he replied that he couldn’t because of his screen image, “but he would be the first in line to see it!”
I’ll bet there are more lines quoted from that movie than any other movie.
Bill- Along the lines of they didn’t have the budget for horses, I believe that the reason for the “transporter” in Start Trek TOS was that they didn’t have the budget to show shuttle landings so it was more cost effective to use other means for “transportation”
Contrast and compare the visual effect of the transporter vs, the scene in Return of the Jedi with the arrival of Darth Vader’s shuttle craft
one interesting detail I saw in recently watching blazing saddle, was a ‘break the fourth wall’ where the stage was revealed,
many of the elements of holy grail have become memes like the ‘black knight’ protestations
Mike – I guess a lot of the best memorable things in movies came from a few budgetary restraints or accidents where the creativity of the mind takes precedence over mechanical conveyances
I read that was Star Trek the original series-which Lucille Ball and her Desilu Studios saved from oblivion it was very limited as to budget so they had to rely on writing which makes it so memorable
Miguel – Brooks spoofed several well-known movies in that classic like Destry rides again.
I think the best humor is when the principles don’t take themselves too seriously or appear that way
I’m still amazed that Gene Wilder came in after an overnight flight and like a trooper memorizes the lines.