I was 11 years old on a particular Saturday morning in Sherwood, Ark. My father was expecting a guest, so it was important for him to get me out of the house for the afternoon. He checked the theater listings and decided that Monty Python and the Holy Grail was the safest thing playing at the McCain Mall Cinema for a young boy to see.
To then, my only exposure to comedy was of my parents' and grandparents' vintage: slapstick, Don Rickles and all the other jesters who appeared on The Tonight Show and the Dean Martin celebrity roasts.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Cast: John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin
Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Rating: PG
Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes
Remembered by: Bryan Hendricks, Outdoors Editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
I greatly resented being kicked out of the house that day, and dreaded being forced to watch what would be some sort of dull, Arthurian morality play. Until that day I had never even heard of Monty Python.
Ohhhhh, my! My folks always seemed threatened by my dry, off-beat and sarcastic sense of humor, and my fascination with the bizarre and absurd mystified them. I sat in that theater transfixed. I didn't get the humor so much as I thought that Monty Python got ME! I felt validated, like I'd finally found my tribe.
It really was a life-changing experience because it told me it was OK for me to be me.
MovieStyle on 03/30/2018