Holy Grail

Lore & Background

In AD 932, King Arthur and his squire Patsy travel Britain searching for men to join the Knights of the Round Table. Along the way, Arthur debates whether coconuts could be found in a temperate climate, passes through a town infected with a plague, recounts receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake to two anarcho-syndicalist peasants, and defeats the Black Knight. At an impromptu witch trial, he recruits Sir Bedevere the Wise, later joined by Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot, and the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film. Arthur leads the knights to Camelot, but changes his mind after the knights in the castle perform a musical number, deeming it 'a silly place'. God then appears and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail.

Reader's Guide

The film was mostly shot on location in Scotland, particularly around Doune Castle, Glen Coe, and the privately owned Castle Stalker. The many castles seen throughout the film were mainly either Doune Castle shot from different angles or hanging miniatures. The first exterior shot of a castle at the beginning of the film is Kidwelly Castle in South Wales, and the single exterior shot of the Swamp Castle during 'Tale of Sir Lancelot' is Bodiam Castle in East Sussex; all subsequent shots of the exterior and interior of those scenes were filmed at Doune Castle.

At the start of 'The Tale of Sir Robin', there is a slow camera zoom in on rocky scenery that is actually a still photograph of the gorge at Mount Buffalo National Park in Victoria, Australia. The scene in which the knights fight the Rabbit of Caerbannog was filmed at Tomnadashan mine. A real white rabbit was used, switched with puppets for its killings. The bite effects were done with special puppetry by both Gilliam and SFX technician John Horton.

The rabbit was covered with red liquid to simulate blood, though its owner did not want the animal dirty and was kept unaware.

Did You Know?

• The entire original budget of £175,350 (about $410,000 in 1974) was provided by eight investors including Led Zeppelin (£31,500), Pink Floyd (£21,000), and Ian Anderson (£6,300).
• The film grossed more than any other British film screened in the US in 1975.
• Thirty years later, Eric Idle used the film as the basis for the 2005 Tony Award–winning musical Spamalot.
• In the US, the film was selected in 2011 as the second-best comedy of all time in the ABC special Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time behind Airplane!.