Notes from the Cutting Room Floor - Holy Grail Part B

I’m Danny Boyd, this is Holy Grail part B, and these are the Notes from the Cutting Room Floor: the bits from the script that didn’t make the final cut:

// The film was also largely shot a lot like TV, which is, or at least was, done to be fast and economical. A lot of wider shots with fewer inserts and closeups. A lot of long takes. Part of that was money, part too was just the Terrys being first time filmmakers with a lot of stage and TV sketch work under their belts.

// But what surprised me most was where their money actually came from.

// The film was financed almost entirely by UK record labels and independently by various rock groups. About £30,000 from Zeppelin, £20,000 from Pink Floyd, and £6,000 from Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, all of whom were huge fans of the Pythons.

// There’s something remarkably charming about the film’s look. A homemade look without looking cheap. Creativity that pushes financial restraints to its limits.

// Really though, it’s brilliant. As co-director Terry Gilliam has said, if you maintain a low standard of production from the start, you can get away with anything. That’s the secret. That’s what allows you to solve problems in the plot like this – when the animator dies.

// This may be one of the greatest cases of thriving art on an inadequate budget there ever was, and a shining reinforcement of the notion that necessity truly is the mother of all invention.

To add to your watch list:

• And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)

• Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)

• Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983)

Now, here’s an original source quote that didn’t make the cut.

• The Holy grail was the most miserable time. I mean, it was fucking awful. We’re up in Scotland, the day before we went filming the Scottish National Commission of something decided we were not allowed to use their castles. Any of them. So we were stuck with one castle called Doune castle. Which we shot from every single bloody angle—which was in private hands. And now it’s a tourist trap. You can go there and go into every scene from the Holy Grail. They’ve got it all set up, which I’m very happy for. - Eric Idle