One of the most repeated rhetorical questions this week has been, "When is it okay to laugh again?"
For the sake of argument, let's say today. The occasion: The re-release of a revamped Monty Python & The Holy Grail (at the Paramount and Eglinton Theatres).
Why this movie? Because it is transcendently silly, and not 'about' anything. It has none of the stuff that has people second-guessing themselves about the appropriateness of entertainment -- no shots of the New York skyline, no jokes about terrorists or anti-American politics, an occasional flying cow but no planes.
In retrospect, given the milieu, we can be glad there's no reference to the Crusades. As it is, the movie most of the Pythons consider to be their best (John Cleese votes for Life Of Brian), is a superb work of insanely silly escapism, so far out of orbit that it relates not a whit to any aspect of real life.
All the bits fans have quoted over the years are here, of course: the Knights Who Say Ni; the Bridge Of Death (and the fatal semantic distinction between European and African swallows); Brave Sir Robin (Eric Idle) and his hectoring, sarcastic minstrel; the unspeakably rude Frenchman (Cleese); plus 23 extra seconds with the Virgins of Castle Anthrax (the entirety of the "restored missing footage").
My one worry, 26 years after the fact, was whether knowing the jokes so well would ruin the film. And though several viewings later, it's not the wall-to-wall screamfest it was when I saw it as a surprised teenager, I'm amazed at the things that still made me laugh on sight.
Among them: The monks who intone "Pie Iesu Domine. Dona eis Requiem" and clonk themselves in the foreheads, the sight of Arthur's goofy-faced toady (Terry Gilliam, who co-directed with Terry Jones) whacking his coconuts together in lieu of the clop-clop of an actual horse, the aforementioned flying cow (launched by the aforementioned Frenchmen), the killer rabbit, and the Swedish subtitles to start the movie.
For what it's worth, the "plot" involves King Arthur (the late Graham Chapman) and his quest for knights to sit with him at the Round Table, later amended after a visit from a cut-out animated God who orders them to find the Grail. Among the knights: Sir Bedevere (Jones), Sir Lancelot (Cleese), Sir Galahad (Michael Palin).
Of course, it unravels that the entire proceedings are the work of demented madmen, but we could have told them that.
The world won't end if you miss this limited-release screening. After all, the Pythons came up with the theatrical version as a tack-on in advance of the highly-anticipated Special Edition DVD release on Oct. 23.
But scanning the movie listings, a reheated Monty Python classic is definitely a better bet than anything new they're bothering to release right now.
(This film is rated AA)
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