#MONTY PYTHON RUNNER MOVIE#

The Holy Hand Grenade: an anachronistic gag? According to the opening credits, the movie's set in 932 AD, at which point hand grenades had already existed for the better part of two centuries, just in a different part of Europe (and of course the triggering pin hadn't been invented yet).

The 'Killer Rabbit' is inspired by real medieval religious art, which often illustrated the sin of cowardice by depicting a knight fleeing from a rabbit.In fact, a lot of historical monarchies were elective to some degree, so people did vote for kings (although Arthur and the peasant woman arguing about it fits that historical tension anyway). Anarcho-syndicalism is a real political philosophy, and though this particular variant only applies to capitalist society, the basic ideas had older precursors: actual ancient Germans lived in a society closely resembling anarchist ideals.There really were French-speaking people in England during most of the Middle Ages (after the Norman conquest), though not in King Arthur's time.A stone model of a castle, done in medieval times? There is one ◊ at the Ubeda Archeological Museum in Spain.That's also a real Latin chant, dated to at least the 13th century, albeit truncated down to just the last couple of lines. Those guys in the monks' robes who walk around chanting in Latin and hitting themselves in the face with boards? They were called flagellants, and compared to what some of the historical flagellant sects did to themselves, their behaviour is extremely mild.note There are some hints-though by no means conclusive evidence-that The Black Death of the 1340s spread that way during a siege of the Crimean city of Caffa (now Feodosia) when besiegers threw cadavers at the besieged Terry Jones, who happened to be a historian, pointed this out when he was refused permission to film at castles owned by the National Trust because the events in the film were 'inconsistent with the dignity of the castles' they asked to film at. Launching/dropping dead animals and other nasty things was a real tactic in siege warfare.The Running Gag of people getting shot, stabbed, or otherwise injured, and people mourning over them as if they are giving a Final Speech, only for them to protest that they are 'getting better'.However, both his 'caretaker' and the cart bearer eventually have had enough of his whining and kill him anyway. The 'plague victim' who protests that he is not dead.All Women Are Lustful: Castle Anthrax, where the many vile temptresses threaten to take Galahad's purity, despite the fact that he doesn't mind.All There in the Manual: Revealed in the bloopers on the movie, the old lady collecting dirt with Dennis is named 'Beatrice'.All for Nothing: In the end, Arthur never gets the Grail as he and Bedevere are arrested just as their army is about to storm the Castle AAAAAUUUUUURRRRGGGHHHHH.

#MONTY PYTHON RUNNER MOVIE#

As a result, the movie has a lot of fun parodying Arthurian Legend while still being one of its more accurate portrayals. Affectionate Parody: Terry Jones was an Arthurian scholar and knew a lot of the source material.Actually Quite Catchy: During the 'Knights of the Round Table' bit, a prisoner who's strung up in the dungeon claps along with the rhythm.AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: The Knights of the Round Table, whose shows are formidABLE, but many times are given rhymes that are quite unsingABLE.Absurdly Sharp Blade: King Arthur can cut through the Black Knight's armour and limbs with ease for the arms, in particular, his sword doesn't even seem to go through, and a strike on the shoulder is enough to make the limb fall off.The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, ultimately used to defeat the Killer Rabbit.After a long and roundabout search which leads them to the far corners of the Kingdom and past idiosyncratic knights, the world's oldest harem, and a very nasty rabbit, they discover the Grail is supposedly located in a very old castle, which has fallen into the hands of those heathen enemies- the French. Once he assembles his crew (off-screen, mostly), he has a vision of God (or a reasonable drawing of same by Terry Gilliam based on a famous cricket player ), informing him that to cement his name in immortality, he must seek the Holy Grail- the cup used at the Last Supper of Christ, and which caught his blood after the crucifixion. This 1975 effort was their second go-round (after 1971's And Now for Something Completely Different, which featured redone versions of several sketches from the first two seasons of Circus) and one of their most famous and oft-quoted.Ī complete skewering of the Arthurian Legend, it tells the story of King Arthur and his attempt to build a court at Camelot. After the success of Monty Python's Flying Circus in the UK and US, the six Ambassadors of Anarchy got the right to make films.

Monty python runner