12 Best King Arthur Movies Ranked: Worst To Best
3. Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)
Every filmmaker who has set out to make an Arthurian film since 1975 has this movie on their mind. In fact, every filmmaker who has set out to make any film set in the Middle Ages, is conscious of the fine line between gritty realism and Pythonesque absurdity. It's a difficult, and often fatal, line to walk.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail looks like a realist depiction of a vanished Britain. It's filled with fog-draped woods, overcast skies, foreboding hillsides, and barren wastelands. Filthy peasants scrounge through overcrowded towns. Bodies dangle from makeshift stakes. Danger seems to lie around every corner and lurk behind every tree. Knights roam the land, pretending to ride horses while their squires clap coconuts together.
Terry Gilliam drove everyone crazy but his decision to shoot the movie like a Pasolini film is a huge part of what makes Holy Grail work so well. Coupled with the music, which is darkly romantic, and Graham Chapman's stone-faced performance as Arthur, the result is magical. Generations of fans have tortured their friends and families with endless recitations of every scene, but even that cannot fully dilute the joy of watching this sublimely stupid film for the first time.