Category: Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Dir. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones. EMI Films. 1975.
In the opening scene of Monty Python and the Holy Grail [1], a grassy hill is shown with the sound of horse’s hooves—only for a skipping King Arthur, and coconut-clomping servant to appear, sans horse. This sets the scene for the finest ever cinematic use of imaginary horses.
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Dir. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones. EMI Films. 1975.
This iconic scene fully exemplifies the film’s absurdist representation of the violence of the crusades, particularly the disproportionate violence of the Western invaders. It explores this using the similarly lopsided power-dynamic of the animal-human relationship, the surreal treatment of which exposes the arbitrary hegemony, and divine mission of the white Christian crusaders as a lie.…