THERE is a saying among film buffs: If it’s not on big screen, it hasn’t been seen. We should, therefore, welcome the return to cinemas of what is being billed as the “48th & ½ Anniversary” showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Cert. 12A). Squeezing its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio into modern televisions’ 1.78:1 distorts the image, besides losing the wealth of detail that only a large cinema screen affords. Python fans will probably flock to it for more humorous reasons, but, as in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeoman of the Guard, they may “find a grain or two of truth among the chaff”.
The Grail legend has reverberated throughout the ages. In life, there are those who seek ways to restore and deepen an understanding of our existence, and there are those who have no interest in making such a journey. In the film, King Arthur believes that he is on a divine mission to discover that elusive mystery of life. The French occupants of a castle that his entourage encounters claim that they’ve already obtained it, even though they haven’t. Undeterred, Arthur continues his quest.
Throughout the film, there is much play (and hence comedy) made with not asking, let alone answering, the right questions — ones that would speed the Knights of the Round Table towards their goal. And it is not too difficult to perceive these scenes as a critique of guardians of the sacred flame, namely the Church. The Bridge-keeper at the Gorge of Eternal Peril insists on demanding answers to irrelevant questions (such as the weight of an unladen swallow) before allowing pilgrims to proceed. Petty religious disputes come in for some mockery. And God makes it clear that he hates being praised with depressingly miserable psalms.
Watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail on a screen of the correct dimensions provides, amid all the frolicking, a true sense of proportion between being serious and being solemn. It is, therefore, strange that the Perfect Fool (Parsifal) is absent from this particular version, one cutting through, sending up the strutting pomposity of blind guides in a society desperately in need of healing. Perhaps that is because the Python team is the collective embodiment of that character.
In cinemas from 21 February. holygrailincinemas.com