Great Scene: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”

The famous Black Night scene.

In a comedy, there’s nothing better than coming up with a great set piece, something the writers and actors can milk for all it’s worth — and then some. A classic example is the Black Knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). I suspect that countless males around the world know this scene by heart, including both of my sons who have been known to act it out line for line.

Here King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his loyal sidekick Patsy (Terry Gilliam) happen upon a bridge guarded by the cruel Black Knight (John Cleese).

Here is the scene in all its absurd glory:

Personal note: When my daughter Sophie was ten years old, she got pneumonia. Laid her out. At the very end of her recovery, I saw that Monty Python and the Holy Grail was playing for one night only at the Nuart Theater in Santa Monica. It was — and is — one of Sophie’s very favorite movies, and since she’d never seen it in on the big screen before, I asked if she’d like to go. She jumped at the chance.

Unfortunately, as we were driving across town, her stomach became upset, so she kept asking me to slow down. Eventually, I was crawling along at about 10 miles per hour with furious Angelino drivers honking at me and cursing me as they zipped by. I almost literally had to carry Sophie into the theater, walking the block and a half from where I found parking.

But you know what? It was worth it. Sophie loved seeing the movie in a theater. I probably spent more time looking at her than I did the screen, watching her lips recite line after line of dialogue she had memorized from her many viewings of the film on video tape.

To this day, she remembers that experience, a first moment of her recovery from pneumonia and a chance to see her revered Python troupe on a big screen.

This anecdote is a reminder of how important movies can be in our personal history, even ones as silly as Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

For more articles in the Great scene series, go here.