Monty Python and the Holy Grail

From Bergman subtitles in the interrupted credits to exit music over the black screen, the pure, deconstructive essence of Monty Python. The main joke is on Olivier's Henry V, impoverished jesters in majestic real landscapes—noble trumpets announce King Arthur (Graham Chapman) riding an invisible stallion while his squire (Terry Gilliam) makes clippity-cloppety noises with coconuts. The mark of the monarch ("He hasn't got shit all over him"), serfs in the mud beg to differ, "I didn't vote for you." Bresson's Lancelot du Lac for the splattered armor of the Black Knight, off with his limbs until he's willing to admit a draw. Sir Bedevere (Terry Jones) is a man of science, sagely placing witch and duck on the same scale, Sir Robin (Eric Idle) is associated with a different fowl, having vanquished the vicious Chicken of Bristol. A long piss on mythology, a sword to the face of history. Temptation of Sir Galahad the Chaste (Michael Palin) at Castle Anthrax, where maidens await the punishment of spanking and oral sex, cf. Pasolini's Il Decameron. "Do you think this scene should have been cut?" The prince in the swamp tower fancies himself an operetta lead, Sir Lancelot (John Cleese) to the rescue, slicing and dicing through the wedding guests. "You see, when I'm in this idiom, I sometimes get a bit carried away." The Knights Who Say "Ni!," the Black Beast of Arrrggghhh, the bloodthirsty bunny conquered by the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Gilliam's animations serve the divine quest admirably, Master Hugo by way of Walerian Borowczyk. Intermission over the Gorge of Eternal Peril, raid on out-rageous Gallic taunters. "No chance, English bed-wetting types!" A handheld camera halts things on the battlefield, and soon enough there's Boorman with Excalibur. With Connie Booth, Carol Cleveland, John Young, Neil Innes, and Bee Duffell.