Talk:Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Funding by Elton John disputed

Eric Idle is quite sure that Elton John didn't help to fund the film. https://twitter.com/EricIdle/status/1372555186485391366 -- 忍者猫 (talk) 15:22, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

I somewhat agree - on Elton John's article, this interview with Terry Gilliam is referenced: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/mar/09/features.phelimoneill It implies that Elton John was contacted for funding, but states nothing about whether this contact resulted in any actual money being exchanged. When this is cleared up, the corresponding correction should also be made at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John#cite_note-235 . RudolfSchreier (talk) 11:48, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

According to Mark Forstater, producer of the film, in his book "The 7th Python - A Twat's Tale", page 55, the funding for the film was provided by: Michael White, Mark Forstater, Led Zeppelin, Island Records, Pink Floyd, Gladiola Films, Anthony Stratton Smith, Charisma Records, Chrysalis Records, and Ian Anderson. Elton John may have been signed to one of the three record labels noted, making him an investor-by-association, but, in Mark Forstater's book he is not noted directly. 99.196.176.254 (talk) 23:14, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

'Reception' section so US-centred

This film was made, acted, financed and produced by Brits and filmed in Scotland. So why is the 'Reception' section dominated by US sources - six of them - and just one British. Do only American critics' views matter? Is this cultural hegemony, or just simply annoying? If we want to have a more balanced section, would someone like to research original reviews that weren't only from Chicago, New York or Los Angeles? This is particularly irritating given that when originally shown in the US the film was bowdlerised for being a little too earthy for easily-shocked American folks. I realise this sounds trivial in itself, but sometimes the English Language version of Wikipedia feels like the Voice of America. There are about 2 Billion English speakers globally, but only 15% of them live in the US, yet Wiki's homepage is dominated by baseball players, (American) Football players (sports that virtually know one else bothers with) and so on. There is a wider world out there and Wikipedia- English doesn't reflect it.BobBadg (talk) 20:02, 2 December 2021 (UTC)

WP:SOFIXIT? DonIago (talk) 20:50, 2 December 2021 (UTC)

Poor sourcing

• Special:Diff/1064964245

Despite the unbelievers, this article has mentioned the credits for over 19 years. However, rather than sourcing this to an article by one Cindy Davis, on a webblog where M. Davis just does clickbaity "20 Facts About …" articles and is not actually identifiable and whose expertise is unknown, you can do so much better here.

There's a professor of Media Arts from Brigham Young University, a identifiable credentialled expert writing in xyr field of expertise, who actually explains each individual credit, item by item (e.g. "Hengt Douglas-Home" being a reference to Alec Douglas-Home), at Larsen 2015. Far from following up on the bad idea earlier on this talk page of building this article with random pop culture references, you can in fact have expert-sourced content on the cultural references that this movie makes.

And the reason not to source articles to such shallow clickbait space fillers is made amply evident by Hoffman 2015, p. 136. Use the experts, a professor of English in this second case, and you'll discover "facts about" the movie that, contra to M. Davis, you actually did not know, and truly are not in this article, such as that the credits were at the end of the movie in the original theatrical releases, contradicting what this article currently says about why they were written (which isn't even supported by the Davis source). Even the less detailed Butler & Klepuszewski 2014, p. 57 (lecturer in English and Ph.D. in literary studies) mentions Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film, who is thus far not appearing in this article too.

If you don't source to shallow clickbait weblogs of unidentifiable authorship, you can do so much better.

• Larsen, Darl (2015). "Title and Credit Sequence". A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail: All the References from African Swallows to Zoot. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 1–26. ISBN 9781442245549.
• Hoffman, Donald L. (2015). "Not Dead Yet: Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the Twenty-first Century". In Harty, Kevin J. (ed.). Cinema Arthuriana: Twenty Essays, rev. ed. McFarland. pp. 136–148. ISBN 9781476608440.
• Butler, Stephen; Klepuszewski, Wojciech (2014). "Monty Python and the Flying Feast of Fools". In Dobrogoszcz, Tomasz (ed.). Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition: Cultural Contexts in Monty Python. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 53–60. ISBN 9781442237377.

Uncle G (talk) 22:52, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Bits & Pieces - Trivia?

"Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film" was "portrayed" by Michael Palin's son, Tom Palin. (Being a cut and paste of his baby photo.). This is documented in several Python books. ("The Pythons on The Pythons" for example.)

The film was first run on U.S. television on HBO or Showtime in 1976 - I forget which, THEN it was shown once on U.S. network television (C.B.S.?), then left to P.B.S. 99.196.176.254 (talk) 22:57, 7 May 2025 (UTC)