"So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for Death awaits you all, with nasty, big, pointy teeth." -- Cleese, as Tim the Enchanter
John Cleese, in his memoir "So, Anyway...", relates a story told him by a friend, a story that Cleese finds hilarious, involving the accidental and unintentional torture of a wounded bunny. (It's on pg. 103 of the paperback edition, and I agree with Cleese-- it's hilarious.) This-- is the rabbit's revenge!
Just a housekeeping reminder, this blog is an examination and celebration of the comedy of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the BBC television show. Having done all the episodes and most of the albums (see below,) we're now taking a look at THE movie, the one that everyone (in the States) knows and loves, and seeing how the group's sketch comedy roots impact on the material, for good and for ill. Sketch comedy clearly inspires most of what Monty Python creates, but when making a movie with sincere cinematic ambition, sketch comedy chops can limit you, lead you down the road to an episodic structure that fails to build adequately. This possibility becomes more probable when the lads are writing by committee (as Python tended to write,) and there's no lead writer or unifying vision with veto/editorial power. Can the creators overcome their own instincts and build comedic narrative tension into a climax?
The results seem mixed. The film begins with a series of inspired comedy bits, but none of them seem to carry forward. The "plot" beats-- the gathering of the team, the divine gift of the Quest, and the knights and their individual attempts to find the Grail-- all of them bring us back to the end of the second act. with no consequences or results. The team is still together, still looking, just as they were at the end of Act 1, and it's tempting to think that we're just spinning our wheels.
But consider a few things. One of them-- these guys are much smarter than we are. They were as aware of their sketch comedy limits as any pompous blogger, and chose a classic narrative that accommodated, even enabled, their instincts. The King Arthur story, like a lot of early British mythology, is episodic in nature. This structure allows them to insert their sketches, while letting the momentum of the narrative carry them forward, like jazz musicians riffing on "A Tisket, A Tasket" ad nauseum, only funnier (and shorter.) Another of them-- They have created a kind of build with the frequent use of callbacks, such as beating cats like rugs, the coconuts, and the return of characters to comment on the movie. It may not build tension all that much, but it does reward the audience for paying attention to the earlier scenes, and keep them engaged in future scenes, on the look for more of the callbacks (and there will be more!)
However! (Remember, I said the results were mixed?) There is some solid evidence that the lads are trying to meet the challenge of extended cinematic narrative. As we get more into the film, we start to see multi-scene sequences, some mediocre (The Knights of Ni-- sorry, I just don't find this bit funny.) and some inspired (The Quest of Sir Launcelot-- exquisite!) We also see, in these extended sequences, indications that the entire troupe is contributing bits to the overall sequence, creating a more unified vision. Finally, in the famous "Scene 24", we find a scene where there is no joke. Gilliam, as a cackling cataracted lunatic, tells Arthur and Bedevere to seek an Enchanter who will lead them to the Grail, whereupon he disappears. The only purpose of this scene is to create an expectation of getting closer to the Grail, the goal. This is narrative structure.
It pays off in the last scene we examined, wherein the reunited knights meet Tim, the Enchanter, who tells them (in between intimidating displays of pyrotechnics) that the Grail awaits in a cave, but before they reach the cave, they will face certain death. And it will pay off further as we continue.
And, hey, if you all don't already own this movie, buy it here! Be honest with your media needs-- you know you want to watch it over and over again. (Plus, it's on Netflix right now, so what's your excuse?)
We begin with a very Bergman-esque shot-- skull profile, close in the foreground, and the knights in the background seem to trot out of its nose, led by Tim. The "horses" aka the guys banging the coconuts, get spooked, so the knights have to dismount. Great dedication and fealty to the coconut gag here. Tim guides them to a craggy ridge, beyond which lies a smokey clearing and a cave-- "The Cave of Caerbonnog!" Bones litter the clearing, and Arthur, terrified, is about to brave it, when a cheesy orchestral bang alerts us that it's too late. Out from the cave lurches-- the cutest little white bunny you ever saw!
The lads have built up tension before in this film, but usually the reveal is some large knight, with three heads or a flair for the monosyllabic. This time, they went the other way. Not content to play the gag, the boys now comment on it. Once it becomes clear that, when Tim spoke of Death with sharp pointy teeth, he was speaking of this cute bunny, the knights get pissed off. "You silly sod! You got us all worked up!" Tim protests that that's no ordinary rabbit, but "the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent y'ever laid eyes on!" And he is proven correct, when a redshirt knight goes to chop its head off, and the rabbit turns the tables, in a hysterical practical effect only Gilliam could have pulled off. The rabbit zip lines towards the anonymous knight's neck, just beneath the helmet. A quick cut to close up of the white bunny at the knight's neck, bulging with viscera and blood, and we're back to a long shot. The knight has been decapitated, and his corpse falls to the ground. "Jesus Christ!" screams Arthur, and Tim exults in his vindication-- "I warned you, didn't I?"
Thus begins one of the greatest and most memorable bits in the film, the Killer Rabbit bit. It's hard to guess who wrote it. It's silly enough for Palin to have created it, it's cruel enough for Chapman/Cleese (plus they have a thing for animals, those two,) and it's cinematic enough for Jones/Gilliam to have come up with it. More than any other piece in the movie, this one feels like a team effort from concept to execution. It's a truly wonderful bit, and if you haven't seen it, I envy you your first experience of it, and stop reading this tiresome piece and watch it!
The Knights charge the bunny, outnumbering it 10-1, but it doesn't matter. The rabbit zips around from neck to neck, its white fur dripping with blood and gore. Idle's cowardly Sir Robin barely holds it at bay with his shield, Galahad can't get a bead on it, and finally Arthur sounds the retreat; "Run Away!" as Tim cackles at their comeuppance.
The Knights regroup, trying to figure out a way round this fluffy killing machine. We get the first beat of a new running gag as they try and count their dead-- three, but Arthur calls it five. "Three, sir," Galahad corrects him. "Three," Arthur agrees. Sir Robin suggests running away some more, ("Oh, shut up! And go and change your armor.") But bloodthirsty Launcelot suggests the Holy Hand Grenade!
In a new bit that feels like equal parts Idle and Palin, as well as performed by Idle and Palin, Brother Maynard (Idle) brings down a chest from the overlooking ridge, and inside is what looks like a thurible, or censer, a round ball with a cross on its peak. For instruction, Maynard orders his foppish minion, Palin, to consult the book of Armaments. (blissful sigh). Palin, in a high-pitched Knights of Ni voice, reads a funny biblical passage-- "Oh, Lord, blesseth thou this, thy Holy Hand Grenade, that with it, thou might blow thine enemies to bits, in thine mercy"-- that comes with instructions to pull the pin, count to three, and "lobbeth". Counting to three turns out to be an issue with Arthur's 3/5 dyslexia, but they manage to get the grenade thrown, and the rabbit blown to bits.
But there are consequences to explosive tactics, or blowback, as we call it here. The Detectives investigating the homicide of the Historian hear the grenade go off. They are on the case and making progress, having caught up to the abandoned shrubbery garden Arthur gave to the Knights of Ni. (I imagine the word "Ni" can't stand up to the Po-po, and they scampered.) Hearing the explosion, they run towards its source. The clock is ticking!
The Cave of Caerbonnig secured, the Knights make their way into the deep, dark, dank cave. Lots of production value and cinematic ambition here, thank you,Terries. Finally they get to a wall with an inscription carved into it. Brother Maynard is called in to read it, since the language is Arimathean. The inscription says that the Grail is in the Castle "Arrrrrgh". There is a lot of discussion about what this means-- did he die while writing it, was he dictating, is there a Castle Arrrrrrgh, etc.
But all of this is just misdirection; the real clue stands behind them, a many-eyed horned dragon. We've seen this beast before, in the animated seasonal montage from the last sequence, and this time he's come to dinner! He gobbles up Brother Maynard in short order, and chases after the rest of the knights as we morph into a Gilliamination. The chase goes backwards and forwards, but seems to spell doom for Arthur and the Knights, who have spent their Holy Hand Grenade on a cute bunny. As the dragon closes in, however, in a very self-aware cheat, Palin's voice over takes us to Gilliam at a drawing desk. Gilliam draws, grimaces, and falls backwards, dead as Palin recounts that the animator died, and the threat disappeared. The quest for the Grail could continue.
Not sure how I feel about his resolution-- it doesn't feel earned, but neither does the threat. And it's undeniably funny. It casts the creators as sadists just looking to make things difficult for our Hero, and in essence, that's what writers are. Just as the bunny gets its revenge at the start, so the fictional characters tormented by us often tend to survive us.
Meanwhile, back at the cave mouth, the murder investigation is picking up pace. The detectives, having found the source the of the noise that alerted them in the first place, sift through the carnage and bones. This tends to implicate the blameless knights, doesn't it?
Friday, November 30, 2018
The Most Holy Grail Part 3 - Bad Guys?
"Oh, dear - is he all right?" -- Palin and Cleese as Aggrieved Father and Mortified Launcelot
We're about halfway into the first real Monty Python movie, and so far, we've seen the lads struggling a bit to rise to the occasion. After years of chomping at the bit to make movies, they have a movie to make, and the effort required to escape the gravity of their sketch comedy roots is proving to be daunting. They started strong, with silly credits and a series of stand-alone bits that are deservedly classics of the genre. But these were essentially sketches, often with very static blocking, despite the magnificent production design that surrounded them. As the film pushes on, we see a more serious effort to realize the promise of the medium. We get a musical number, albeit more a sketch than a story beat. We also find some attempts to create deeper narratives, requiring, say, movement, multiple scenes, and sustained tension. Some have worked (the French Soldiers, Galahad's Quest), and some have not (the Knights of Ni-- sorry.) When the content lags a bit, they create forward momentum and engagement with call backs to prior scenes, animation, and breaking the fourth wall, as well as a story thread that takes us out of the Medieval era and into present time-- the death of the Historian.
But the lads have some gas in the tank, some junk in the trunk, some blood in the grail, if you will. They are figuring this thing out, and in this section we'll see them come to realize that silly and structure are not mutually exclusive, but can, in fact, really work well together.
Arthur has rounded up his knights-- Bedevere, Galahad, Lancelot and Robin. He has been given the Quest by God, and after a disaster at a French castle, he has decided to split everyone up and let them search individually. We've had Robin's quest, Galahad's Quest, and Arthur actually has a clue as to how to get to the grail, but he has to get through the shrub-luvin' Knights of Ni first. Now... it's Lancelot's turn.
Ooops. |
When he gets outside, the sun and the clouds are doing jumping exercises, ("Heyyyyy-YUP!") landing hard on the barren green globe. It's not just his world that's shaking-- it's THE world. He tells them to clear off, and they abashedly obey, the clouds running off right, and the sun shuffling back beyond the horizon, creating an exquisite sunset. This doesn't appease the scribener. "Bloody weather," he mutters in the dark of night.This is yet another stand alone bit, but it's nice to see Gilliam do his thing for the movie in more than just a supportive role. We return to the next draft of the title page, finished by the scribener without incident; The Tale of Sir Launcelot.
That's more like it! |
With most of the quests, we start with the knight in question; Robin's quest started with Robin and his minstrels, Galahad started with Galahad struggling through the storm... you get the idea. But Lancelot breaks that pattern, and to excellent effect.
It begins with Jones and Palin, the set up. Jones, the effeminate and extremely pale son of a land-coveting Lord, is about to be married off to Princess Lucky, who famously owns "huuuuge tracts of land". He feels melancholy about the whole arrangement,and is about to look out of the high tower window and sing-- but the pragmatic and unsentimental Father, who spends a lot of the scene shouting and pacing, won't have it."You're not going to do a song while I'm here!" With that, he calls the Guards to keep him a prisoner in the tower.
More typical damsel in distress |
Now we get what feels like an Idle scene, with Idle and Chapman as the hapless and clueless Guards charged with keeping Jones in the tower. Palin has a simple set of instructions for the Guards, but they just don't get it. Idle doesn't get it, anyway. Chapman just hiccups off to the side. (Is this casting because he had a drinking problem?) Here's an illustrative exchange...
"Just keep him in here."
"Until you, or anyone else..."
"No. Not anyone else. Just me."
It's maddening, sustained frustration, it goes on forever, and it's hilarious, as Idle plays every misunderstanding that could possibly occur-- and some that couldn't. But finally, the Father leaves, stopping yet another song before he goes,urging Chapman's hiccuping guard to drink some water.
But the instructions, as specific and maddening as they were, said nothing about stopping the Prince from asking for help, and the clever Prince tries to nonchalantly shoot a message attached to an arrow out of the high tower window. He fails, of course, his oh-so-casual shooting being not only not nonchalant, but hopelessly, tragically chalant. But the Guards don't care-- they're following the instructions to the letter, and no farther. Palin said nothing about stopping Herbert from sending out an arrow for help.
Now that the set up has been accomplished, we cut to Lancelot training his page to leap over brooks. His page, named Concorde (Dennis Moore, anyone?) is played by Idle-- man that guy gets around! Just as he's about to ford a stream, ThhhhhhWACK! An arrow sticks out of his chest. "Message for you, sir" he says as he collapses. A great bit of underplaying by Idle, counter-balanced by Cleese's over the top Lancelot. "Brave, brave Concorde-- you shall not have died in vain!" And in a call back to "Bring out your dead!", Idle stirs. "I'm not quite dead, sir...Really, I feel fine,sir."
Now we cut to the castle, as the porcine bride gets all trussed up, and the wedding guests mingle and murmur. At the castle entrance, two Guards (always two, aren't there?) stand, bored. One chomps an apple. But something catches their eye-- off in the distance, across a green field, a figure races for them. Ominous drums beat.
Back with the Guards, bemused silence. They take another look.
Across the field, the figure races for them, ominous drums pounding-- but he's no closer than last time! The Guards look again--and he's still about a hundred yards away, no closer for all of his running. Another look-- no closer! Then suddenly, he's upon them, killing one Guard before the other can even protest.
Here he comes... |
Cleese is now on the scene. With a demented,toothy smile, he swings, stabs, disarms, beheads and eviscerates the wedding party, fighting his way into the castle courtyard and pushing up the stairs. The lads don't sugarcoat it-- there's blood, painful groans, weeping and death rattles beneath Cleese's triumphant "Hah!"s and "Ho-ho!"s-- but that somehow makes it all the funnier.
We see stunts, blood,and dead bodies collapsing to the ground. None of his combatants are armed or equal to his ferocity. he takes out the dancers as the minstrels play. Then he takes out the minstrels. he chops and bludgeons his way into the bridal chamber, where Princess Lucky and her handmaidens giggle and fuss, but the party is over. Lancelot stabs, slices, hews, kicks the bride in the chest, and rushes up anlother flight of stairs, taking a moment to hack at a small vase of flowers on the wall.
Oooops. |
But Palin cuts it off, screaming "Stop it!" to the off screen orchestra. And in a quick sketch insertion, a furious Palin calls the mortified Cleese on the tapestry for killing all of his wedding guests. Cleese can only apologize, "Well, I really didn't mean to." It's a classic and o-so-British bit, a school boy being yelled at by the headmaster, only for mass murder. Meanwhile, in the background, Prince Alice/Herbert has tied bed linens together to escape from the tall tower, and urges Lancelot to join in his escape.
That thing in the window is the Prince falling to his death. |
Of course, "downstairs" means back into the carnage. In the bridal chamber, moans and cries fill the air as keening mourners crouch over the dead and the bridesmaids see to the bride, spitting blood all over her gown. At the sight of Lancelot, things get... awkward. "There he is!" they shout, and they rush the stairs. "Oh, bloody hell..." mutters Palin-- he knows where this is going. Cleese goes all demented again, and kills another bunch of people, before Palin calms him back down. "Sorry," Cleese sighs, "See, I just get carried away... Sorry, everyone."
"Let's not bicker and argue over who killed who." |
Check out Idle (to the Prince's left) with the Shakespeare bow. |
Wedding Pre-Launcelot |
Best... Quest... Ever! Once again, Cleese brings the hostility and the bloodshed, but in a cleverly constructed twist on the traditional "damsel in distress" trope. We get great character bits from Palin and Jones, and a couple of nice farcical turns from Idle. Gilliam and Jones create the backdrop of medieval mundanity against which this homicidal lunacy plays. A narrative with multiple characters playing across multiple scenes and locations give us a truly cinematic sense. The lads hit all the keys in this one, and it brings a spark of energy to a film that was starting to sag under its own episodic weight.To all surviving members of the Circus-- thank you for this sublime and inspired bit!
Wedding Post-Launcelot |
Next?
We're back to King Arthur, prancing along, and back to cats getting beaten like rugs. Arthur and Bedevere arrive in a small town and try to coerce an old lady to give them a shrubbery by saying "Ni" to her. While the bit is not particularly good, Chapman is brilliant in a very meta way. He seems embarrassed, like a performer delivering groaner lines. Once they get the old lady on the ropes (after some much needed coaching-- Jones has difficulty remembering the magic syllable,) they find themselves surrounded by townsfolk-- one of them, Idle, a shrubber. I mean, what are the odds?
Problem easily solved, Arthur and Bedevere return to the freakishly tall Knight of Ni and his minions, with the shrubbery laid out with a little picket fence. Only now, the Knights have a new word--a multi syllable word that the script spells out as "Neeeow... wum... ping!" but it's pronounced something more like "Eki-eki-eki-eki-ptang!Zoo-boing! Zeboweeeshum..." New word, new demands. Passing through the forest will now cost them another shrubbery ("only slightly higher, so we get a two level effect, with a little path running down the middle...") and they have to cut down a tree with a herring.
Arthur has had enough of this silliness. He refuses, insisting "It can't be done!" And in saying so, he stumbles on the nemesis of "Ni", the word that "Ni" Knights can't hear, say, or abide. (The word is "it".) Every time Arthur says the word "it", the knights howl in agony. Then, Sir Robin shows up, with his minstrels still singing of his cowardice. As Arthur and Robin catch up, Robin drops a lot of "I" bombs, each one further destroying the Knights of Ni. They ride off, leaving the howling Knights behind.
A quick dialogue-less shot of the Historian's murder, as cops cover the corpse, and the Historian's Wife points the Detective in the direction of the armored assassin.
Foreshadowing... |
The Knights, all reunited, walk through a craggy mountain range. Suddenly, in a reprise of the "Exploding Version of the Blue Danube" huge fireballs erupt around them. The Knights realize that the source of the pyrotechnics is a hooded, antlered figure on a far peak. A gesture of his hand, and another explosion, and another, and another. Until the figure gestures towards himself-- and he explodes.
If the bit had ended there, it would have been pretty funny, but another explosion erupts right in front of the Knights, and Cleese steps out. He is the hooded, antlered figure-- he is the Enchanter they have been looking for since scene 24, and his name is... Tim? In a thick and overacted brogue, Tim and the Knights exchange information, their conversation punctuated by occasional displays of pyrotechnics as unmotivated as they are impressive.
Intimidated, Arthur can barely ask for help from the Enchanter, but Tim promises to take them to a special cave where directions to the grail can be found. "But," he warns them, spitting profusely with true theatrical muscle, "the cave is guarded by a monster so foul and cruel that no man has fought with it and lived! Death awaits you all, with big nasty teeth!"
"What an eccentric performance," Arthur whispers to Galahad.
We'll leave it there for now, as we have officially arrived to our third act. The Knights have gone on their separate quests, have reunited, and are now within striking distance of their goal, but the stakes have risen-- just as they would in a regular movie.
Tune in next time to see what the lads have in store for their big finish!
Next Week; The Climax!
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