Michael Palin on the re-release of `The Holy Grail'
by Dean Johnson
Thursday, June 14, 2001
Michael Palin will never forget the experience.
``I was filming with the BBC a few years ago on this tiny island in the Bering Strait,'' said Palin, a founding member of the famed British comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus.
``It was about 30 miles west of Alaska, right on the international date line. It was a big rock, basically, where about 150 Inuits live off of whaling. We were allowed to film there for one day and at the end of it were going to use their whale skin canoes to go back to the mainland.
``A little group of Inuits came down to see us off, and I thought we were going to see some sort of farewell ceremony. Instead, the spokesman said, `Aren't you the guy from the movie `Monty Python and the Holy Grail'?
``They had seen the movie the week before,'' added a still-amazed Palin.
That's when Palin says he really began to realize that the 90-minute comedy about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table he made in 1975 with the rest of the Pythons - John Cleese, the late Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam - had become a certified cult classic.
Even among the Inuit.
On Friday, audiences in Boston and selected cities across the country will be treated to the first re-release of ``Monty Python and the Holy Grail,'' in stereo sound and with a whopping 24 seconds of new material. The theatrical release is part of a promotion for the fall release of a DVD version.
In a phone interview from London, Palin said that when the group worked on ``Holy Grail'' more than a quarter-century ago, they hardly knew they were making a special film.
``We were actually pretty nervous making it. It was a different medium than television, where we had done all our work, and there was so little evidence then of a comedy troupe making that transition.
``We were just trying to get the thing made on a tiny budget in a pretty uncomfortable location, mostly Scotland, and we were working with a script that was being tweaked and altered as we went along. There was constant pressure to shoot fast and not worry about the way it looked.''
The movie's ending - an entire medieval army is arrested by modern-day British policemen - was whipped up out of desperation, Palin said, ``because none of us knew how to end the movie.
``I remember trying to do the scene with the Knights that say `Ni,' '' he added. ``It was enormously difficult trying to make the knight 9 feet tall. I was on a stepladder and wearing this huge helmet and it was in the middle of a forest with flies and midges torturing us and I remember thinking, `I've lost the humor in all this. It's no longer funny.' ''
Made on a paltry budget of less than $500,000, the movie depended heavily on investors from the rock world, especially members of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Palin said the initial screenings weren't good.
``They were actually pretty depressing. The investors were clearly as unsure about what the reaction to the film would be as we were.''
They needn't have worried. Audiences still react to the film with wild enthusiasm. It continues to be a hit on American college campuses. The most fanatical Python fans are found in America, Sweden and Russia.
Members of America's comedy new wave, like David Cross, have cited Monty Python as a major influence. However, Palin said, ``I'm never quite sure how that influence manifests itself on people. I think the best comedy comes from within you. I don't ever see any obvious parodying of Python. Maybe that all comes from the feeling of doing something in the style of what we did.''
The original version of ``Holy Grail'' had two song-and-dance numbers in it. Does Mel Brooks' astounding success with his musical version of ``The Producers'' have the Pythons thinking similar thoughts?
``I hadn't considered that,'' Palin said. ``Python could, I suppose, make a musical. It's just the idea of other people doing Python material would be something we'd have to deal with.
``We've gone from being sincere protectionists and not allowing anyone to touch any material to now allowing special evenings of things. You never know, maybe we'll all agree to put some kind of clone package out there.''
Palin said DVD packages for ``Life of Brian'' and ``The Meaning of Life'' might follow, and a definitive group biography also is being considered - ``whenever we get together, which is not that often.''
``The problem is usually the availability of everyone and the fact we've all moved on and don't really have that much time to spend on reviving Python,'' Palin said. ``Still, I love the fact that Python is alive and is like a great vampire and won't die. You never know what may be in the future. We never close the book.''