Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones’ film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” portrays King Arthur in search of the Holy Grail, along with his trusted knights. Set in medieval England, the film offers a satirical yet comedic view of the way of life for the two most influential forces of the time, the church and monarchy. The audience quickly sees the timeless illogicality of the film. There were no police, no grazing sheep, no textile work, no cathedrals, abbeys or shrines awaiting pilgrim, no town markets or fairs, no taxes, no dynastic struggles or endless wars, no invasions, no married couples or families, no gunpowder, no industry, no roads or waterways, no planted fields, no cities/towns and no nobles/ bishops. The film has a tenth century setting,
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In the medieval times a sword would have been around one and a half meters in length, weighing about three to four kilograms. The full suite of chain mail would add another twenty kilograms to the wearer. It is easy to draw from this that fights would have been an awkward and cumbersome affair. No longer would knights be able to move around casually. Black knights were knights that had no liege, or were too poor to afford armour, and therefore painted their armour black in order to prevent it from rusting. Although, the black knight in the film, has an accurate motive for fighting, his fictional ability to stop blood loss and bear pain, is inaccurate. It becomes clear that the Black knight is only looking for a reason to fight, as there is no purpose in him guarding the minor bridge. Even though the amount of bravery in him is clearly over the top, he accurately portrays that real knights were more like vicious, reserved soldiers than the fearless “knights in shining armour” of legend, consistently searching for excuses to fight in order to demonstrate their skills. In hopefulness of becoming lords themselves, knights helped their lords control land. The audience realises that the medieval times were brutal, disordered and full of
In the medieval times a sword would have been around one and a half meters in length, weighing about three to four kilograms. The full suite of chain mail would add another twenty kilograms to the wearer. It is easy to draw from this that fights would have been an awkward and cumbersome affair. No longer would knights be able to move around casually. Black knights were knights that had no liege, or were too poor to afford armour, and therefore painted their armour black in order to prevent it from rusting. Although, the black knight in the film, has an accurate motive for fighting, his fictional ability to stop blood loss and bear pain, is inaccurate. It becomes clear that the Black knight is only looking for a reason to fight, as there is no purpose in him guarding the minor bridge. Even though the amount of bravery in him is clearly over the top, he accurately portrays that real knights were more like vicious, reserved soldiers than the fearless “knights in shining armour” of legend, consistently searching for excuses to fight in order to demonstrate their skills. In hopefulness of becoming lords themselves, knights helped their lords control land. The audience realises that the medieval times were brutal, disordered and full of