Blog Post 2
Before this assignment I had never seen Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail but had heard that it was a funny movie that was considered by many to be a classic. Sadly I think that growing up in my technologically advanced generation with great special effects and a love for complex plot development, caused me to not feel the same way. I suppose I was expecting this movie to be somewhat similar to all the readings we have done in class where noble nights searched for the grail while riding gallantly on horseback. I was even more surprised to find out that the grail was really not the central focus of this movie. Rather, I found the grail’s purpose to simply be a tool used by the director of the movie to force King Arthur and his knights to go on many silly, (and to be quite frank) pointless quests. I think that since the grail was used in this way, it is very simple to see why many of the quests in this movie do not directly pertain to the grail itself. The object of the movie was never to watch a brave knight find the grail, but simply to enjoy laughing and satirizing the ridiculous predicaments the knights found themselves going through. Therefore it makes sense that many of the knight’s quests would not really have much to do with the grail itself
The multimodal use of visual and oral communications added to the movie’s absurdity by turning every serious situation about searching for the grail into something ridiculous. One example of a visual mode in the movie is the replacing of actual horses with men galloping behind the knights banging coconut halves together. This sets the tone for the movie and erases any preconceived notions the viewer might about brave knights on trusty steeds going on actual serious quests. The movie also uses oral communication in the movie to continue its farcical nature. The knights and King Arthur are constantly meeting people in different situations that challenge them with ridiculous conversations. One example is the opening scene in which King Arthur and his coconut-clapping squire engage in a conversation with two soldiers on the top of a
