Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam

Terrence Vance Gilliam (born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British writer, filmmaker, animator and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several well-regarded films including Brazil (1985), Twelve Monkeys (1995), and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).

He is the only "Python" not born in Britain, but gained British citizenship in 1968.

Gilliam was born in Medicine Lake, Minnesota. His father was a traveling salesman for Folgers before becoming a carpenter. Gilliam has two siblings: a sister two years younger, and a brother ten years younger.

The family moved to California because of his sister's bout of pneumonia, and Terry Gilliam enrolled into Birmingham High School. He became class president, senior Prom King, was voted "Most Likely to Succeed," and got straight A's. During high school, he discovered Mad magazine, which was then edited by Harvey Kurtzman; this later influenced his work.

When Gilliam graduated from high school, he attended Occidental College, at first studying physics, then switching to fine arts before finally majoring in political science. Gilliam contributed to the college magazine, Fang, becoming the editor during his junior year and turning it into a tribute to Kurtzman, to whom he later sent copies. While in college, Gilliam was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. After finishing college, Gilliam worked briefly for an advertising agency before Kurtzman offered him a job at Help! magazine.

Gilliam has been married to the British make-up and costume designer Maggie Weston (who worked on Flying Circus, many of the Python movies and Gilliam's movies up to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) since 1973. The two have had three children, Amy (b. 1978), Holly (b. 1980), and Harry (b. 1988), who have also appeared in several of Gilliam's films.

In 1968, Gilliam obtained British citizenship and held a dual American and British citizenship for 38 years. In January 2006, he renounced his American citizenship. In an interview with Tagesspiegel he described the action as a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush, but in an earlier interview with The Onion AV Club he also indicated that it was related to concerns about future tax liability for his wife and children. As a result of renouncing his citizenship, Gilliam is only permitted to spend 30 days per year in the United States, fewer than ordinary British citizens. Gilliam also maintains a residence in Italy near the Umbria-Tuscany border. He has been instrumental in establishing the annual Umbria Film Festival, held in the nearby hill town of Montone.

Terry Gilliam started his career as an animator and strip cartoonist; one of his early photographic strips for Help! featured future Python cast-member John Cleese. Moving to England, he animated features for Do Not Adjust Your Set, which also featured future Pythons Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.

Gilliam was a part of Monty Python's Flying Circus since its offset, at first credited as an animator (his name was listed separately after the other five in the closing credits), later as a full member. His cartoons linked the show's sketches together, and defined the group's visual language in other media (such as LP and book covers, and the title sequences of their films).

More frequently, he played parts that no one else wanted to play (generally because they required a lot of make-up or uncomfortable costumes, such as a recurring knight in armour who would end sketches by walking on and hitting one of the other characters over the head with a plucked chicken) and took a number of small roles in the films, including Patsy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the jailer in Life of Brian.

Gilliam's surreal animations for Monty Python have a distinctive style. He mixed his own art, characterized by soft gradients and odd, bulbous shapes, with backgrounds and moving cutouts from antique photographs, mostly from the Victorian era.

Gilliam went on to become a motion picture writer and director.

His films are usually highly imaginative fantasies. Most of Gilliam's movies include plot-lines that seem to occur partly or completely in the characters' imaginations, raising questions about the definition of identity and sanity. He often shows his opposition to bureaucracy and authoritarian regimes. He also distinguishes "higher" and "lower" layers of society, with a disturbing and ironic style. His movies usually feature a fight or struggle against a great power which may be an emotional situation, a human-made idol, or even the person himself, and the situations do not always end happily. There is often a dark, paranoid atmosphere and unusual characters who formerly were normal members of society. His scripts feature black comedy and often end with a dark tragicomic twist.

His films have a distinctive look, often recognizable from just a short clip; Roger Ebert has said "his world is always hallucinatory in its richness of detail." There is often a baroqueness about the movies, with, for instance, high-tech computer monitors equipped with low-tech magnifying lenses in Brazil, and in The Fisher King a red knight covered with flapping bits of cloth. He also is given to incongruous juxtapositions of beauty and ugliness, or antique and modern. Most of his movies are shot almost entirely with extremely wide lenses of 28 mm focal length or less, and extremely deep focus.

Gilliam has made a few extremely expensive movies beset with production problems. After the lengthy quarreling with Universal Studios over Brazil, Gilliam's next picture, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen cost around US$46 million, and then earned only about US$8 million in US ticket sales, as it saw no wide domestic release due to financial issues at Columbia Pictures, which was in the process of being sold at the time.

In the mid-1990s, Gilliam and Charles McKeown developed a script for Time Bandits 2; the project never came to be, as several of the original actors had died. He also attempted to direct a version of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, which collapsed due to disagreements over its budget and choice of lead actor.

In 1999, Gilliam attempted to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, budgeted at US$32.1 million, among the highest-budgeted films to use only European financing; but in the first week of shooting, the actor playing Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) suffered a herniated disc, and a flood severely damaged the set. The film was canceled, resulting in an insurance claim worth US$15 million. Despite the cancellation, the story behind the whole production was filmed by a second crew hired by Gilliam to document the process. This production story was made into the documentary Lost in La Mancha. In recent years, both Gilliam and the film's co-lead, Johnny Depp, have expressed interest in reviving the project. However, the insurance company involved in the failed first attempt withheld the rights to the screenplay for several years. The production was finally restarted in 2008.

Gilliam has attempted twice to adapt Alan Moore's Watchmen comics into a film. Both attempts (in 1989 and 1996, respectively) were unsuccessful. Most recently, unforeseeable problems again befell a Gilliam project when actor Heath Ledger died in New York City during the filming of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Gilliam has encountered some successes though. His first successful feature, Time Bandits (1981), earned more than eight times its original budget even just in the US, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) was nominated for four Academy Awards (and won, among other European prizes, three BAFTA Awards), The Fisher King (1991) (his first film to not feature a member from Python) was nominated for five, and Twelve Monkeys went on to take over US$168 million worldwide whilst The Brothers Grimm, despite a mixed critical reception, grossed over US$105 million worldwide. However, according to Box Office Mojo, his films have grossed an average of $26,009,723.

Gilliam has shown a propensity to work with particular actors in numerous productions. These include all of his fellow Monty Python alumni (Chapman, Cleese, Idle, Jones, and Palin), as well as Jeff Bridges, Johnny Depp, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Jeter, Simon Jones, Heath Ledger, Charles McKeown, Derrick O'Connor, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Jack Purvis, Peter Vaughan, Jim Broadbent, and Robin Williams.

Despite the rumors, Gilliam has stated that he will never direct any Potter film.

In 2002, Gilliam directed a series of television advertisements called The Secret Tournament. The advertisements were part of Nike's World Cup campaign and featured a secret three-on-three tournament between the world's best players inside a huge tanker ship, with the Elvis Presley song A Little Less Conversation playing during the advertisements. The advertisements were hugely popular and critically acclaimed.

In 2006, Gilliam directed the stage show Slava's Diabolo created and staged by Russian clown artist Slava Polunin. The show combines Polunin's clown style, characterized by deep non-verbal expression and interaction with the audience, with Gilliam's rich visuals and surrealistic imagery. The show premiered at the Noga hall of the Gesher theater in Jaffa, Israel.

Gilliam has several projects in various states of development, including an adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's comic fantasy novel Good Omens. Other projects Gilliam has been trying to get off the ground since the 1990s are an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities (starring Mel Gibson), an adaptation of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (which has been adapted into movies several times before), and a script entitled The Defective Detective that Gilliam has co-authored with Richard LaGravenese (who wrote Gilliam's The Fisher King before).

After regaining the rights to the screenplay of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote Gilliam restarted pre-production in 2008, with Johnny Depp still attached to the project. The film will be reshot completely, and Rochefort's role will be recast. Michael Palin reportedly entered talks with Gilliam to step in for Rochefort and play Don Quixote. Main production start is planned for 2009.

On 23 January 2007, Gilliam announced that he had been working on a new project with writing partner Charles McKeown. One day later, the fansite Dreams reported that the new project was entitled The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. On 3 October 2007, Dreams confirmed that Gilliam's next project will be Imaginarium, slated to star Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits, and scheduled for release in 2009. Production began in December 2007 in London.

On 22 January 2008, production of the film was disrupted following the death of Heath Ledger in New York City. Variety reports that Ledger's involvement had been a "key factor" in the film's financing. Although production was suspended indefinitely by 24 January, Gilliam has now completed principal photography, the major task now being the completion of the visual effects. The director has stated his intention to dedicate the film to Ledger. In February 2008 actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell reportedly signed on to continue Ledger's role, transforming into multiple incarnations of his character in the "magical" world of the film.

On January 24th, 2009, it was announced that Gilliam would direct a project entitled Zero Theorem, produced by Richard D. Zanuck, and set to star Billy Bob Thornton. With a screenplay by Pat Rushin, the film is about a reclusive computer genius who is working on a project which deals with the absurdity of the meaning of life. Filming is set to start on May 1, 2009.

To the top

The Fisher King (film)

The Fisher King is a comedy-drama film made in 1991, written by Richard LaGravenese and directed by Terry Gilliam. It stars Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer and Michael Jeter. The film is about a radio shock-jock who tries to find redemption by helping a homeless man whose life he inadvertently shattered.

Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), a cynical, arrogant shock jock talk radio host, becomes suicidally despondent after his insensitive on-air comments inadvertently prompt a depressed caller to commit multiple murders at a popular Manhattan bar. Three years later, while heavily intoxicated and depressed, he attempts suicide. Before he can do so, he is mistaken for a homeless person and is attacked and nearly set on fire by ruffians. He is rescued by Parry (Robin Williams), a deluded homeless man who is on a mission to find the Holy Grail, and tries to convince Jack to help him. Jack is initially reluctant, but comes to feel responsible for Parry when he learns that the man's condition is a result of witnessing his wife's horrific murder at the hands of Jack's psychotic caller. Parry is also continually haunted by a hallucinatory Red Knight, who terrifies him whenever he shows any confidence.

Jack learns that Parry had slipped into a catatonic state following his wife's death and had remained there for a few years. When he emerged he seemed obsessed with the tale of the legend of the Fisher King, a form of which Parry recounts to Jack. The legend varies, but all iterations possess three elements: the Fisher King was charged by God with guarding the Holy Grail, but later incurred some form of incapacitating physical punishment for his sin of pride, and had to wait for someone to deliver him from his suffering. A simpleminded knight named Percival, who was also referred to in the movie as "The Fool", healed the wounds with kindness to the king, asking him why he suffers and giving him a cup of water to drink. The king realizes the cup is the grail and is baffled that the boy found it, as demonstrated in the closing exchange: "I've sent my brightest and bravest men to search for this. How did you find it?" The Fool laughed and said "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty." Echoes of the legend recur throughout the film, but in a continually shifting manner, so that it sometimes appears that Lucas is Percival to Parry's Fisher King, sometimes vice versa, and sometimes that one or the other is re-enacting part of the story with another character (most obviously in Parry's self-assigned quest to obtain the Grail from the man he believes is its guardian).

Jack seeks to redeem himself and help Parry find the Grail and find love again. Jack sets Parry up with a woman Parry has been smitten with from afar, Lydia, a shy woman who works as an accountant for a Manhattan publishing house. Jack successfully introduces them to each other and sets up an equally successful dinner date (Jack and his strong-willed girlfriend, Anne, join them). Following dinner, Parry declares his love for Lydia but is once again haunted by the Red Knight. Parry tries to escape his hallucinatory tormentor but is attacked by the very thugs from whom he had earlier rescued Jack. The beating is not fatal but causes Parry to become catatonic again.

Jack promises to find the Grail for Parry. He infiltrates the Upper East Side castle of a famous architect and retrieves the "Grail" a simple trophy. When he brings it to Parry, the catatonia is broken and Parry regains consciousness. While he and Jack lead the patients of the mental ward in a rousing rendition of "How About You?", Parry is reunited with Lydia and Jack (who had earlier broken up with Anne for dubious reasons) reunites with his love as well.

A central theme of the film, playing on the grail motif, is grace and forgiveness. Jack's signature line in his potential sitcom is "forgive me," which he is constantly repeating but can't get right. Parry is seeking the Holy Grail, which held the wine of the Last Supper and, at the crucifixion, its theological equivalent, the blood of Christ - the very source of grace and forgiveness. The Red Knight figment that Parry sees around New York seems to represent Parry's fears from both his former life as a medieval history professor, his time in the mental institution and his current life as a homeless dreamer on the street, all of which send him into a catatonic state. (The Red Knight could also represent the image of Parry's wife dying in front of him. She was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun while facing him, causing her brain matter to spray all over him.) In Wolfram Von Eschenbach's epic Parsival, the Red Knight was killed by Parsival (Parry) who then took his armor for himself. When Parsival introduces himself to King Arthur's court, Arthur names Parsival the new Red Knight.

According to Gilliam's episode of The Directors (which is available on the 2-Disc DVD for Gilliam's film Time Bandits), he wanted to do the film because he was tired of doing big budget special effects films, such as his previous film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which went over budget and cost over $45 million, nearly twice as much as King's budget of $24 million. This was the first film Terry Gilliam directed in which he was not involved in writing the screenplay, as well as Gilliam's first film not to feature any other members of Monty Python. However, it is Gilliam's second film involving the Holy Grail, the first being Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Also, according to the Directors episode, Gilliam came up with the scene where Robin Williams and Amanda Plummer meet during a huge waltz in the middle of Grand Central Station, because he felt the scene LaGravenese had written (which had a large group of people in a crowded subway listen to a homeless black woman sing with a beautiful voice) wasn't working. He was at first hesitant about this because his original intentions were to just shoot the script and that the waltz would make it "a Terry Gilliam film." The scene was shot in one night with some professional extras and others just passengers getting off the train.

The film cost $24 million to make. Box Office revenue was approximately $42 million.

Mercedes Ruehl won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role, and Robin Williams was nominated for Best Actor. Other awards were Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (P. Michael Johnston), Best Music, Original Score (George Fenton) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Richard LaGravenese).

Mercedes Ruehl also won the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Award for Best Supporting Actress, the American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

Robin Williams won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture in a Comedy/Musical.

Terry Gilliam won the People's Choice Award from the Toronto International Film Festival and the Silver Lion in the Venice Film Festival (the latter tied with Zhang Yimou and Philippe Garrel).

Jane Jenkings and Janet Hirshenson won an Artios Award from the Casting Society of America for Best Casting in a Feature Film (Comedy).

To the top

Heath Ledger

Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979–22 January 2008) was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his movie career. His work includes nineteen films, most notably 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), Monster's Ball (2001), A Knight's Tale (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and The Dark Knight (2008). In addition to his acting, he produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.

For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger won the 2005 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the 2006 "Best Actor" award from the Australian Film Institute and was nominated for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor as well as the 2006 Best Actor award from the BAFTA. Posthumously he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the ensemble cast, the director, and the casting director for the film, I'm Not There which was inspired by the life and songs of American singer-songwriter, Bob Dylan. In the film, Ledger portrayed a fictional actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of the iconic Dylan. He was nominated and won awards for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards, for which he became the first actor to win an award posthumously, and the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor and the 2009 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a motion picture.

He died at the age of 28, from an accidental "toxic combination of prescription drugs." A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his penultimate performance, as the Joker in The Dark Knight. At the time of his death, on 22 January 2008, he had completed about half of his work performing the role of Tony in Terry Gilliam's forthcoming film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Heath Ledger was born on 4 April 1979, in Perth, Western Australia, the son of Sally Ledger Bell (née Ramshaw), a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, a racing-car driver and mining engineer, whose family established and owned the Ledger Engineering Foundry. The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust is named after his great-grandfather. Ledger attended Mary's Mount Primary School, in Gooseberry Hill, and later Guildford Grammar School, where he had his first acting experiences, starring in a school production as Peter Pan at age 10. His parents separated when he was 10 and divorced when he was 11. Ledger's older sister, Kate, an actress and later a publicist, with whom he was very close, inspired his acting on stage, and his love of Gene Kelly inspired his successful choreography leading to Guildford Grammar's 60-member team's "first all-boy victory" at the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge. Heath's and Kate's other siblings include two half-sisters, Ashleigh Bell (b. 1989), his mother's daughter with her second husband and his stepfather Roger Bell, and Olivia Ledger (b. 1997), his father's daughter with second wife and his stepmother Emma Brown.

Ledger was an avid chess player, winning Western Australia's junior chess championship at the age of 10. As an adult, he often played with other chess enthusiasts at Washington Square Park. Allan Scott's film adaptation of the chess-related 1983 novel The Queen's Gambit, by Walter Tevis, which at the time of his death he was planning both to perform in and to direct, would have been Ledger's first feature film as a director.

Among his most-notable romantic relationships, Ledger dated actress Heather Graham for several months in 2000 to 2001, and he had a serious on-and-off-again long-term relationship with actress Naomi Watts, whom he met during the filming of Ned Kelly and with whom he lived at times from 2002 to 2004. In the summer of 2004, he met and began dating actress Michelle Williams on the set of Brokeback Mountain, and their daughter, Matilda Rose, was born on 28 October 2005 in New York City. Matilda Rose's godparents are Ledger's Brokeback co-star Jake Gyllenhaal and Williams' Dawson's Creek castmate Busy Philipps. Problems with paparazzi in Australia prompted Ledger to sell his residence in Bronte, New South Wales and move to the United States, where he shared an apartment with Williams, in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, from 2005 to 2007. In September 2007, Williams' father, Larry Williams, confirmed to Sydney's Daily Telegraph that Ledger and Williams had ended their relationship. After his break up with Williams, in late 2007 and early 2008, the tabloid press and other public media linked Ledger romantically with supermodels Helena Christensen and Gemma Ward and with former child star, actress Mary-Kate Olsen.

After sitting for early graduation exams at 16, Ledger left school to pursue an acting career. With Trevor DiCarlo, his best friend since he was 3, Ledger drove across Australia from Perth to Sydney, returning to Perth to take a small role in Clowning Around (1992), the first part of a two-part television series, and to work on the TV series Sweat (1996), in which he played a gay cyclist. From 1993 to 1997, Ledger also had parts in the Perth television series Ship to Shore (1993); in the short-lived Fox Broadcasting Company fantasy-drama Roar (1997); in Home and Away (1997), one of Australia's most successful television shows; and in the Australian movie Blackrock (1997), his feature film debut. In 1999, he starred in the teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You and in the acclaimed Australian crime movie Two Hands, directed by Gregor Jordan.

From 2000 to 2005, he starred in supporting roles as Gabriel Martin, the eldest son of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), in The Patriot (2000), and as Sonny Grotowski, the son of Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), in Monster's Ball (2000); and in leading or title roles in A Knight's Tale (2001), The Four Feathers (2002), The Order (2003), Ned Kelly (2003), Casanova (2005), The Brothers Grimm (2005), and Lords of Dogtown (2005). In 2001, he won a ShoWest Award as "Male Star of Tomorrow".

After Brokeback Mountain, Ledger costarred with fellow Australian Abbie Cornish in the 2006 Australian film Candy, an adaptation of the 1998 novel Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction, as young heroin addicts in love attempting to break free of their addiction, whose mentor is played by renowned Australian actor Geoffrey Rush; for his performance as sometime poet Dan, Ledger was nominated for three "Best Actor" awards, including one of the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards 2006, which both Cornish and Rush won in their categories. A couple of weeks after the release of Candy, Ledger was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

As one of six actors embodying different aspects of the life of Bob Dylan in the 2007 film I'm Not There, directed by Todd Haynes, Ledger "won praise for his portrayal of 'Robbie ,' a moody, counter-culture actor who represents the romanticist side of Dylan, but says accolades are never his motivation." Posthumously, on 23 February 2008, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the film's ensemble cast, its director, and its casting director.

In his penultimate film performance, Ledger plays the Joker in The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan, the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins, first released, in Australia, on 16 July 2008, nearly six months after his death. While still working on the film, in London, Ledger told Sarah Lyall, in their interview published in the New York Times on 4 November 2007, that he viewed The Dark Knight's Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." To prepare for the role, Ledger told Empire, "I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices — it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath — someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts"; after reiterating his view of the character as "just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown," he added that Nolan had given him "free rein" to create the role, which he found "fun, because there are no real boundaries to what the Joker would say or do. Nothing intimidates him, and everything is a big joke." For his work in The Dark Knight, Ledger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, his family accepting it on his behalf, as well as numerous other posthumous awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, which Christopher Nolan accepted for him.

At the time of his death, on 22 January 2008, Ledger had completed about half of the work for his final film performance as Tony in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Ledger had aspirations to become a film director and had made some music videos, which director Todd Haynes praised highly in his tribute to Ledger upon accepting the ISP Robert Altman Award, which Ledger posthumously shared, on 23 February 2008.

In 2006 Ledger directed music videos for the title track on Australian hip-hop artist N'fa's CD debut solo album Cause an Effect and for the single "Seduction Is Evil (She's Hot)".

Later that year, Ledger inaugurated a new record label, Masses Music, with singer Ben Harper and also directed a music video for Harper's song "Morning Yearning".

At a news conference at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, Ledger spoke of his desire to make a documentary film about the British singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who died in 1974, at the age of 26, from an overdose of an antidepressant. Ledger created and acted in a music video set to Drake's recording of the singer's 1974 song about depression "Black Eyed Dog"–a title "inspired by Winston Churchill’s descriptive term for depression" (black dog); it was shown publicly only twice, first at the Bumbershoot Festival, in Seattle, Washington, held from 1 September to 3 September 2007; and secondly as part of "A Place To Be: A Celebration of Nick Drake", with its screening of Their Place: Reflections On Nick Drake, "a series of short filmed homages to Nick Drake" (including Ledger's), sponsored by American Cinematheque, at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, in Hollywood, on 5 October 2007. After Ledger's death, his music video for "Black Eyed Dog" was shown on the Internet and excerpted in news clips distributed via YouTube.

He was working with Scottish screenwriter and producer Allan Scott on an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis, for which he was planning both to act and to direct, which would have been his first feature film as a director.

At about 2:45 p.m. (EST), on 22 January 2008, Ledger was found unconscious in his bed by his housekeeper, Teresa Solomon, and his masseuse, Diana Wolozin, in his fourth-floor loft apartment at 421 Broome Street in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan.

According to the police, Wolozin, who had arrived early for a 3:00 p.m. appointment with Ledger, called Ledger's friend, actress Mary-Kate Olsen, for help. Olsen, who was in California, directed a New York City private security guard to go to the scene. At 3:26 p.m., " than 15 minutes after Wolozin first saw him in bed and only a few moments" after first calling Olsen and then calling her a second time to express her fears that Ledger was dead, Wolozin telephoned 9-1-1 "to say that Mr. Ledger was not breathing." At the urging of the 9-1-1 operator, Wolozin administered CPR, which was unsuccessful in reviving him.

Emergency medical technicians (EMT) arrived seven minutes later, at 3:33 p.m. ("at almost exactly the same moment as a private security guard summoned by Ms. Olsen"), but were also unable to revive him. At 3:36 p.m., Ledger was pronounced dead and his body removed from the apartment.

As the news of Ledger's death became public, throughout the night of 22 January 2008, and the next day, media crews, mourners, fans, and other onlookers began gathering outside his apartment building, with some leaving flowers or other memorial tributes.

On 23 January 2008, at 10:50 a.m., Australian time, Ledger's parents and sister appeared outside his mother's house in Applecross, a riverside suburb of Perth, and read a short statement to the media expressing their grief and desire for privacy. Within the next few days, memorial tributes were communicated by family members, Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, Deputy Premier of Western Australia Eric Ripper, Warner Bros. (distributor of The Dark Knight), and thousands of Ledger's fans around the world.

On 1 February 2008, in her first public statement after Ledger's death, Michelle Williams expressed her heartbreak and described Ledger's spirit as surviving in their daughter.

After attending private memorial ceremonies in Los Angeles, Ledger's family members returned with his body to Perth.

On 9 February 2008, a memorial service attended by several hundred invited guests was held at Penrhos College, garnering considerable press attention; afterward Ledger's body was cremated at Fremantle Cemetery, followed by a private service attended by only 10 closest family members, with his ashes to be interred later in a family plot at Karrakatta Cemetery, next to two of his grandparents. Later that night, his family and friends gathered for a wake on Cottesloe Beach.

After two weeks of intense media speculation about possible causes of Ledger's death, on 6 February 2008, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York released its conclusions, based on an initial autopsy of 23 January 2008, and a subsequent complete toxicological analysis. The report concludes, in part, "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine." It states definitively: "We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications." The medications found in the toxicological analysis are commonly prescribed in the United States for insomnia, anxiety, depression, pain, and/or cold symptoms. Although the Associated Press and other media reported that "police estimate Ledger's time of death between 1 p.m. and 2:45 p.m." (on 22 January 2008), the Medical Examiner's Office announced that it would not be publicly disclosing the official estimated time of death. The official announcement of the cause and manner of Ledger's death heightened concerns about the growing problems of prescription drug abuse or misuse and Combined Drug Intoxication (CDI).

After a flurry of further media speculation, on 6 August 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan closed its investigation into Ledger's death without filing any charges and rendering moot its subpoena of Olsen. With the clearing of the two doctors and Olsen, and the closing of the investigation because the prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office "don't believe there's a viable target," it is still not known how Ledger obtained the oxycodone and hydrocodone in the lethal drug combination that killed him.

After Ledger's death, in response to some press reports about his will, filed in New York City on 28 February 2008, and his daughter's access to his financial legacy, his father, Kim Ledger, said that he considered the financial well-being of his granddaughter Matilda Rose the Ledger family's "absolute priority" and her mother, Michelle Williams, "an integral part of our family," adding "They will be taken care of and that's how Heath would want it to be." Some of Ledger's relatives may be challenging the legal status of his will signed in 2003, prior to his involvement with Williams and the birth of their daughter and not updated to include them, which divides half of his estate between his parents and half among his siblings; they claim that there is a second, unsigned will, which leaves most of that estate to Matilda Rose. Williams' father, Larry Williams, has also joined the controversy about Ledger's will as it was filed in New York City soon after his death.

On 31 March 2008, stimulating another controversy pertaining to Ledger's estate, Gemma Jones and Janet Fife-Yeomans published an "Exclusive" report, in The Daily Telegraph, citing Ledger's uncle Haydn Ledger and other family members, who "believe the late actor may have fathered a secret love child" when he was 17, and stating that "If it is confirmed that Ledger is the girl's biological father, it could split his multi-million dollar estate between ... Matilda Rose ... and his secret love child." A few days later, reports citing telephone interviews with Ledger's uncles Haydn and Mike Ledger and the family of the other little girl, published in OK! and Us Weekly, "denied" those "claims", with Ledger's uncles and the little girl's mother and stepfather describing them as unfounded "rumors" distorted and exaggerated by the media.

Ledger's death affected the marketing campaign for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008) and also both the production and marketing of Terry Gilliam's forthcoming film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, with both directors intending to celebrate and pay tribute to his work in these films. Although Gilliam temporarily suspended production on the latter film, he expressed determination to "salvage" it, perhaps using computer-generated imagery (CGI), and plans to dedicate it to Ledger. In February 2008, as a "memorial tribute to the man many have called one of the best actors of his generation," Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell signed on to take over Ledger's role, becoming multiple incarnations of his character, Tony, transformed in this "magical re-telling of the Faust story," and the three actors have donated their fees for the film to Ledger's and Williams' daughter.

Speaking of editing The Dark Knight, on which Ledger had completed his work in October 2007, Nolan recalled, "It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day. ... But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish." All of Ledger's scenes appear as he completed them in the filming; in editing the film, Nolan added no "digital effects" to alter Ledger's actual performance posthumously. Nolan dedicated the film in part to Ledger's memory, as well as to the memory of technician Conway Wickliffe, who was killed during a car accident while preparing one of the film's stunts.

Ledger received numerous awards for his Joker role in The Dark Knight. On 10 November 2008, he was nominated for two People's Choice Awards related to his work on the film, "Best Ensemble Cast" and "Best Onscreen Match-Up" (shared with Christian Bale), and Ledger won a award for "Match-Up" in the ceremony aired live on CBS in January, 2009.

On 11 December 2008, it was announced that Ledger has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight; he subsequently won the award at the 66th Golden Globe Awards ceremony telecast on NBC on 11 January 2009 with Dark Knight Director Christopher Nolan accepting on his behalf.

Film critics, co-stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Caine and many of Ledger's colleagues in the film community joined Bale in calling for and predicting a nomination for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in recognition of Ledger's achievement in The Dark Knight. Ledger's subsequent nomination was announced on 22 January 2009, the anniversary of his death; Ledger went on to win the award, becoming the second person to win a posthumous Academy Award for acting, after fellow Australian actor Peter Finch, who won for 1976's Network. The award was accepted by Ledger's family.

To the top

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 1988 film directed by Terry Gilliam, starring John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, and Robin Williams.

The film begins in an unnamed and war-torn European city in the late 18th century (dubbed "The Age of Reason" in an opening caption), where, amidst explosions and gunfire from a large Turkish army outside the city gates, a fanciful touring stage production of Baron Munchausen's life and adventures is taking place. Backstage, city official "The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson" (Jonathan Pryce) reinforces the city's commitment to reason (here meaning uniformity and unexceptionality) by ordering the execution of a soldier who had just accomplished a near-superhuman feat of bravery (Sting in a cameo), claiming that his bravery is demoralizing to other soldiers. Not far into the play, an elderly man claiming to be the real Baron interrupts the show, protesting its many inaccuracies. Over the complaints of the audience, the theater company and Jackson, the "real" Baron gains the house's attention and narrates through flashback an account of one of his adventures, of a life-or-death wager with the Grand Turk, where the younger Baron's life is saved only by his amazing luck plus the assistance of his remarkable associates: Berthold (Eric Idle), the world's fastest runner; Adolphus (Charles McKeown), a gunman with superhuman eyesight; Gustavus (Jack Purvis), who possesses extraordinary hearing, and sufficient lung power to knock down an army by exhaling; and Albrecht (Winston Dennis), a fantastically strong man.

When gunfire disrupts the elderly Baron's story, the importance of saving the city eclipses the show. The Baron wanders backstage intending to die, until the exuberantly enthusiastic questioning of Sally Salt (Sarah Polley), the young daughter of the theater company's leader, convinces him to remain living.

Insisting that he alone can save the city, the Baron escapes the city's walls in a hot air balloon constructed of women's underwear, accompanied by Sally as a stowaway. The balloon expedition proceeds to the Moon, where the Baron, rejuvenated by the adventure of escaping to the moon, finds his old associate Berthold, but angers the King of the Moon (Robin Williams), who resents the Baron for his romantic past with the Queen of the Moon (Valentina Cortese). A bungled escape from the Moon brings the trio back to (and beneath) the Earth, where the Roman God Vulcan (Oliver Reed) hosts his guests with courtesy and Albrecht is found. The Baron and Vulcan's wife, the Goddess Venus (Uma Thurman), attempt a romantic interlude by waltzing in air, but this cuts short the hospitality and Vulcan expels the now-foursome from his kingdom into the South Seas.

Swallowed by an enormous sea creature, the travelers locate Gustavus, Adolphus, and the Baron's trusty horse Bucephalus. The Baron (who again appears elderly after being "expelled from a state of bliss," in his words) struggles with the conflicting goals of heroism and a peaceful death, before deciding to escape by blowing "a modicum of snuff" out into the sea creature's cavernous interior, which causes the sea creature to "sneeze" the heroes out through its whale-like blowhole.

Back ashore, the Turkish army is located but the Baron's associates are now too elderly and tired to fight the Turk as in the old days. The Baron lectures them firmly but to no avail, and he storms off intending to surrender to the Turk and to Jackson; his cohorts rally to save both the Baron and the city.

An ambiguous finale reveals that the city has indeed been saved, even though the events of the battle apparently occurred in a story rather than the film's reality. The Baron rides off on Bucephalus. As the Baron and Bucephalus are bathed in the light of the sun parting through the clouds, they apparently disappear, and the credits roll over a triumphant blast of music.

Baron Munchausen is a character from The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen (or Baron Münchhausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels) by Rudolf Erich Raspe — a collection of tall stories published in 1785, based on the German adventurer Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen, but with many debts to earlier works. The tales were adapted and re-published in German by Gottfried August Bürger in 1786 as Wunderbare Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande, Feldzüge und lustige Abenteuer des Freyherrn von Münchhausen and became much more popular in this edition.

The stories were also made into films in 1911 (Les Aventures du baron de Münchhausen), 1943 (Münchhausen, script by Erich Kästner) and 1961 (Baron Prášil). His most famous adventures feature in a 1979 movie Tot samyi Münchhausen by Russian director Mark Zakharov, which depicts Baron Münchhausen as a tragic character, struggling against the conformity and hypocrisy of the world around him. Gilliam's film has many visual similarities to the 1943 version and the production company was legally obliged to add a disclaimer to the film's posters and closing titles to the effect that Gilliam's Munchausen was an original movie unconnected to the earlier version.

Just coming out of a major battle with Hollywood studios over his prior film Brazil, Gilliam later said that the productions's greatest weakness from the start was having German producer Thomas Schühly on the bill. Schühly convinced Gilliam that Baron Munchausen could be made for 40% of the costs in Italy's Cinecittà compared to making it in London, but after arriving in Rome in September 1987, Gilliam's crew during all of the principal photography had to face the fact that Schühly, even though having brought in famed Frederico Fellini associates, cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno and production designer Dante Ferretti, hadn't properly organized material, money, and personnel, and thus the whole production seemed constantly undersupplied.

From October 1987, shooting was moved to Spain. Meanwhile, the film's insurance company Film Finances became increasingly concerned about the budget, and took hold of the film's finances, setting a deadline for all photography of November 7th; it was precisely on the afternoon of that day when Gilliam could finish shooting in Spain with a perfect shot of the Baron's hot air balloon floating across the city.

Back in Italy, Film Finances threatened to sue Gilliam for fraud (which the director found highly amusing, regarding the film's subject) as the film wasn't finished, and to replace him as director, allegedly approaching Michael Winner to do the job. However, they were in no position to do so, as the film's scheduled distributor Columbia Pictures had a contract on the film being directed by Terry Gilliam himself. On top of it all, it was then that unpaid bills amounting to 5 million dollars were found in Schühly's office.

Negotiations took place, after which shooting was resumed at Cinecittà on November 23rd, under the premise that several scenes had to be cut altogether or at least dramatically reduced. For instance, the scene on the moon originally was supposed to have thousands of extras and much more advanced sets. Gilliam decided to reduce the cast for the moon scene to Baron Munchausen, Sally, the King of the Moon, and his Queen, and for the Moon City simply cut out his original design drawings that were then moved back and forth and from side to side in front of the camera, with a bizarre yet effective surreal result. Sean Connery, who was to originally star as the King of the Moon, then decided to leave the boat altogether, and was replaced by Robin Williams who went uncredited as his agents feared it would put a mark on his career would the film turn out a flop.

When The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was finally completed, David Puttnam, who had originally gotten the film's distribution rights in the US for Columbia Pictures, had been replaced as CEO of Columbia; coupled with Gilliam's prior quarrels with major studios over Brazil, the film saw only very limited distribution in the US, underperforming at the box office by only making $8 million in the US compared to its costs of $46 million. However, it became a moderate commercial success in Europe, winning several BAFTA Awards and Italian Silver Ribbon Awards (see below), and sold well on home video.

In spite of its notorious reputation for going over budget, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen features a 85% positive review status, even 100% by professional film critics, on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic counts 69 favorable reviews out of 100 (out of 15 reviews on display, 11 give it a favorable 70-100% rating).

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and found that it was "told with a cheerfulness and a light touch that never betray the time and money it took to create them", appreciating "the sly wit and satire that sneaks in here and there from director Terry Gilliam and his collaborators, who were mostly forged in the mill of Monty Python". While considering the film's special effects as "astonishing", Ebert also contended "he movie is slow to get off the ground" and "sometimes the movie fails on the basic level of making itself clear. We're not always sure who is who, how they are related, or why we should care". But "allowing for the unsuccessful passages there is a lot here to treasure", and Ebert concluded overall, "this is a vast and commodious work", "he wit and the spectacle of 'Baron Munchausen' are considerable achievements". Additionally, Ebert considered John Neville's title role performance as appearing "sensible and matter-of-fact, as anyone would if they had spent a lifetime growing accustomed to the incredible".

Especially while it was going over budget in production, and also some when it was finally released, the film was considered one of the most famous fiascos in film history. Coming in over budget (originally $23.5 million, but estimatedly finishing at $46.63 million), and with a US domestic box office revenue of approximately $8 Million, it put a black mark on Gilliam's career from the studio's point of view. In an interview for The Directors - The Films of Terry Gilliam (included on the bonus DVD of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Time Bandits), Gilliam challenged the public figure of "40 million dollars", and alleged that while the film had indeed gone over budget, its final costs had been nowhere near that high a figure.

In The Madness and Misadventures of Munchausen (included on the bonus DVD of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Munchausen), Schühly further shed light on the final cost issue and the whole budget troubles by saying that as part of an earlier deal with 20th Century Fox about the film before it ended up with Columbia, a budget plan had been set up of $35 million, "and it's strange, the final cost was 35 . We always had a budget of 34 or 35 million, the problem was when I started to discuss it with Columbia, Columbia would not go beyond 25. Everybody knew from the very beginning that this cutting out was just a fake. The problem was that David Puttnam got fired, and all these deals were oral deals. Columbia's new CEO, Dawn Steel, said 'Whatever David Puttnam said before doesn't interest me'".

In spite of its bad reputation as a US domestic box office bomb, the film has gained cult favorite status over time, and Gilliam's career did not suffer substantially. In the United States, the film was not widely released due to financial issues at Columbia Pictures, which was in the process of being sold at the time. Its widest release was 117 prints for the US market, whereas art films usually get 400, and it was reported to have done well with audiences in the places where it could actually be seen.

In Madness and Misadventures, Robin Williams said about the low number of copies released by Columbia, " regime was leaving, the new one was going through this, and they said, 'This was their movies, now let's do our movies!' It was a bit like the new lion that comes in and kills all the cubs from the previous man." The film fared substantially better in Europe, where distributors such as Germany's Neue Constantin Film were able to give it a more appropriate release, and subsequently on home video, actually in 1999 becoming the very first feature DVD issued by Columbia.

Andrew Yule, in his 2000 book Losing the Light: Terry Gilliam and the Munchausen Saga out of its low US domestic gross called the film "one of the greatest financial disasters in film history" and "one of the most expensive features".

However, Munchausen is not even mentioned in any of most expensive 25-100 films lists between 1927 and 2006 (where the cheapest actually cost $140 million compared to Munchausen's alleged meager $46 million), and compared to a list of about a 100 films considered US domestic box office bombs between 1941 and 2008, it fares well above average with its 17.6% (ranking for instance closely to Once Upon a Time in America in US domestic gross percentage of production costs) for what is usually regarded a US domestic box office bomb. Additionally, its critical acclaim as well as its 4 Academy Award nominations, 3 won BAFTA Awards, and 4 Saturn Award nominations, among other wins and nominations of esteemed film prizes, might call its status as a "fiasco" into question.

Gilliam was left somewhat embittered by the experience and in interviews has often used Munchausen as a shorthand for a fiasco. However, in a commentary track on the DVD edition of Tideland, Gilliam now says that Munchausen is one of the films that his fans most often cite as a favorite. Gilliam noted the irony of the situation, adding that an artist can never really tell what work they produce will actually endure.

A laserdisc of the film was released with features such as a commentary track by Gilliam and deleted scenes.

The first DVD edition of the film issued on April 27, 1999, however did not include any of these or any other extras.

A 20th anniversary edition was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 8 April, 2008. It includes a new commentary with Director Terry Gilliam & co-Writer/Actor Charles McKeown, a 3-part documentary on the making of the film, Storyboard sequences and deleted scenes.

Finally, it was nominated in 1990 for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (lost to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), and actress Sarah Polley was nominated for two Young Artist Awards in the categories Best Musical or Fantasy and Best Young Actress.

To the top

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 film written and performed by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin), and directed by Gilliam and Jones. It was conceived during a gap between the third and fourth seasons of their popular BBC television series Monty Python's Flying Circus.

In contrast to the group's first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, a compilation of sketches from the television series, Holy Grail was composed of original material, therefore considered the first "proper" film according to the group and mainstream audiences. It generally spoofs the legends of King Arthur's quest to find the Holy Grail. The film was a success on its initial run and remains popular to this day. Idle used the film as the inspiration for the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot due to its use of songs such as Knights of the Round Table and Brave Sir Robin.

In 1974, between production on the third and fourth TV series (the latter of which Cleese declined to take part in for a variety of reasons), the group decided that the time was now right to embark on their first "proper" feature film, containing entirely new material. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was based on Arthurian Legend and was directed by both Terrys: Jones and Gilliam. The latter also contributed linking animations (and put together the opening credits). Along with the rest of the Pythons, Jones and Gilliam performed several roles in the film, but it was Chapman who took the lead as King Arthur. Holy Grail was filmed on location, throughout several picturesque rural areas of Scotland, with a tiny budget of nearly £150,000 (approx. $350.000 in 1974); the money was raised in part with investments from rock groups, such as Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin, and UK music industry entrepreneur Tony Stratton-Smith (founder/owner of the Charisma Records label, for which the Pythons recorded their song albums).

The weather was poor and the 'chain mail' (actually woolen garments painted silver) just soaked up the rain; the budget only allowed for low-quality hotels, which could not provide sufficient hot water for the team to bathe every evening; Gilliam and Jones argued with each other and with the other Pythons. Terry Gilliam later said in an interview that "everything that could go wrong did go wrong." Holy Grail is the only time any of them can remember the usually amiable Palin losing his temper. This occurred when Jones and Gilliam insisted on repeatedly re-shooting a scene in which Palin played a character called "the mud eater." The scene was ultimately cut from the film.

King Arthur is recruiting his Knights of the Round Table throughout England. He is frustrated at every turn by such obstacles as anarcho-syndicalist peasants, a Black Knight who refuses to give up despite losing both his arms and legs, and guards who are more concerned with the flight patterns of swallows than their lord and master. Finally he meets up with Sir Bedevere the Wise (Jones), Sir Lancelot the Brave (Cleese), Sir Galahad the Pure (also called "the Chaste") (Palin), Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot (Idle), "and the aptly-named Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film." They declare themselves the Knights of the Round Table. When 'riding' to Camelot, they are given a quest by God (represented by an animated photograph of legendary cricket figure WG Grace) to find the Holy Grail.

They encounter a castle with a Frenchman who randomly taunts them with names like 'Daffy English knnnnnniggits' and odd insults such as, "I fart in your general direction!" and "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!", together with some mangled Franglais, notably "Fetchez la vache!" (Fetch the cow). The Knights then retreat, weathering a barrage of livestock and executing a poorly thought-out plan to sneak into the castle while concealed within a crudely built giant wooden rabbit (a Trojan Rabbit) which the French throw back at the knights. Arthur decides that he and his knights should search for the Grail individually. After they split up, Sir Robin travels through a forest with his favourite minstrels, and encounters a Three-Headed Giant, Galahad follows a Grail-shaped light to the perils of Castle Anthrax (the girls of which are very interested in being spanked and having oral sex with him), Sir Lancelot massacres a wedding at Swamp Castle, and Arthur and Bedevere encounter the dreaded Knights Who Say Ni, who demand a shrubbery as tribute. They each overcome or avoid their individual perils in a variety of ways, then reunite to face a bleak and terrible winter, the happenings of which are told in the form of a Gilliam animation. Next they venture further to a pyromaniacal enchanter named Tim, who leads them to a cave guarded by a killer rabbit.

After killing the vicious Rabbit of Caerbannog with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, the knights face the Legendary Black Beast of Aaargh in another animated scene, escaping this peril after the animator suffers a fatal heart attack. Their final task is to cross the Bridge of Death, which is guarded by "the old man from scene 24." Only Arthur, Bedevere, and Lancelot survive the confrontation, but Lancelot mysteriously disappears before the others can catch up to him on the other side. Arthur and Bedevere reach the gates of Castle Aaargh, only to find themselves facing the French taunter once more; the whole quest has in fact been a wild goose chase. As Arthur leads a great army in a charge against the castle, a group of modern police (for the 1970s) suddenly arrive on the scene, disrupting the film's climax. They have been investigating the murder of a "famous historian," who was earlier cut down by an unidentified knight while he was presenting a television program on a topic from the film's supposed era. Lancelot has already been taken into custody, and Arthur and Bedevere are promptly arrested as well. The film ends abruptly when one of the policemen covers the camera lens with his hand, knocking the film loose.

The film was shot on location in Scotland, particularly around Doune Castle, Glen Coe, and the privately owned Castle Stalker. The many castles seen throughout the film were either Doune Castle shot from different angles or cardboard models held up against the horizon. (This is referred to in Patsy's dismissive line, "It's only a model" - another example of fourth wall breakage.) The only exception to this is the very first exterior shot of the castle of the Swamp King, which is Kidwelly Castle in South Wales — all subsequent shots of its exterior and interior were filmed elsewhere. King Arthur was the only character whose chain mail armour was authentic. The "armour" worn by his various knights was silver-painted wool, which absorbed moisture in the cold and wet conditions.

The film was co-directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, the first major project for both and the first project where any members of the Pythons were behind the camera. This proved to be troublesome on the set as Jones and Gilliam had different directing styles and it often wasn't clear who was in charge. The other Pythons evidently preferred Jones, who as an acting member of the group was focused more on performance, as opposed to Gilliam, whose visual sense they admired but who they sometimes thought was too fussy: on the DVD audio commentary, Cleese expresses irritation at a scene set in Castle Anthrax, where he says the focus was on technical aspects rather than comedy. The two later Python feature films, The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life, both have Jones as the sole director.

Originally the knight characters were going to ride real horses, but after it became clear that the film's minuscule budget precluded the use of real horses the Pythons decided that their characters would mime horse-riding while their porters trotted behind them banging coconut shells together. The joke was derived from the old-fashioned sound effect used by radio shows to convey the sound of hooves clattering. This was later referred to in the German release of the film, which translated the title as "Die Ritter der Kokosnuss" ("The Knights of the Coconut").

The use of coconuts leads to an extended, tangential discussion on how coconuts could have found their way to the British Isles. The possibility of swallows carrying them, absurd as it seems, reappears in a key moment late in the film and helps Arthur advance his quest.

The legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh (King Arthur's pronunciation: ) is a famous creature from the film. The beast dwells in the Cave of Caerbannog, the entrance of which is guarded by the vicious killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. The Beast's name was coined by Brother Maynard, who announced "It's the Legendary Black Beast of... Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh!" as he falls into the Beast's jaws.

In the film, the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table encounter the Black Beast in the Cave of Caerbannog while they are reading the carvings written by Joseph of Arimathea which tell the location of the Holy Grail. The characters are distracted by the carvings, which say that the Grail is located in the "Castle Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh", and as they try to figure out what the Castle Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh is, the Beast sneaks up on them from behind. The monster (which comically appears in the film as an animation, in which he has multiple eyes, two legs, and is quite colourful instead of black) then eats the scholar Brother Maynard and Sir Alf (whose death was cut out of the film) and chases the fleeing knights.

Arthur and his men are unable to combat the beast and are almost killed by it, until the animator (Terry Gilliam portraying "Himself") inexplicably suffers a fatal heart attack, thus ending the "cartoon peril". At this point the Beast turns white and disappears.

On 15 June 2001, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was re-released on four North American screens. This version of the film was digitally restored and remastered with a new stereo soundtrack. In addition, it restored 24 seconds of material to the Castle Anthrax scene that was not originally in the theatrical release (although had appeared on several video and DVD editions of the film, and when the film was shown on TV in the UK) where Zoot's "identical twin sister Dingo" gets side-tracked in conversation, and she randomly remarks on how much she is enjoying this scene. Several characters, including Tim the Enchanter, God, and the army at the end of the film, tell her to "get on with it!".

In its opening weekend, it grossed a strong US$45,487 ($11,372 per screen). It played in limited release until December 2003, playing at 26 screens at its widest point and eventually grossing US$1,821,082 during its re-release run. This version of the film still plays periodically at North American repertory theatres.

Originally, Neil Innes wrote an authentic medieval score for the film, with appropriate instruments, but as accurate as it was, was ultimately deemed too 'quaint' for the film. It was decided to instead use music from the DeWolfe Music production library in London, who the Pythons had used for musical cues dating back to their television series (including recordings of The Liberty Bell March for the series and later live shows).

The imposing first track was considered by Terry Jones to be an homage to one of his favourite film directors, Ingmar Bergman.

The dramatic music played during Sir Lancelot's misguided storming of Swamp Castle is The Flying Messenger by Oliver Armstrong, from the DeWolfe library.

The flagellant monks are chanting a phrase from the Latin Requiem mass, pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem, which in English is rendered, Sweet Lord Jesus, grant them rest. They then whack themselves in the head with wooden boards. This is an obvious reference to flagellants during the time of the black plague, a practice also seen briefly in the movie The Name of the Rose. This practice can also be seen in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal.

The intermission sequence also plays a part of Fats Waller's Alligator Crawl on the organ although it was originally written for piano.

The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the movie's official soundtrack, is less of a soundtrack and more of a comedy album in its own right, which depicts the "premiere" of the film along with several other sketches intercutting scenes from the movie.

In 1983, RCA released the first available letterboxed edition on CED in North America, featuring, for the first time, a deleted scene where several characters are telling Carol Cleveland's character Dingo to "Get on with it!". Some of them include characters not seen yet at that point in the film, such as Tim the Enchanter, The Old Man from Scene 24 and the army at the end of the film. It has been available on all subsequent DVD releases.

In 1995, Criterion released a Laserdisc of the film. Additional audio tracks included commentary by directors Jones and Gilliam, and the film completely dubbed in Japanese, portions of which were excerpted with translated subtitles as examples and used in subsequent DVD releases. It also included a theatrical trailer which began with English dialogue (including Michael Palin in 'Gumby' character voice), eventually changing to Japanese, which concluded to appear as a mock advertisement for a Japanese restaurant across the street from the exhibiting theater, and includes an outtake with the cardboard cutout of Camelot falling in the distance.

The first DVD was released in 1999 and had only a non-anamorphic print, about two pages of production notes, and trailers for other Sony Pictures releases. On 23 October 2001, the Special Edition DVD was released. It includes two commentary tracks, documentaries related to the film, the "Camelot Song" as sung by LEGO minifigures (Source), and "Subtitles For People Who Don't Like the Film", consisting of lines taken from William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2. There are also two scenes dubbed in Japanese, where the knights search for a "holy sake cup" and where the Knights Who Say Ni request a bonsai. It also includes a small featurette, presented by Michael Palin, about the proper use of a coconut.

The DVD "Special Edition" includes "The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations", hosted by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, which shows places in Scotland used for the setting titled as "England 932 A.D." (as well as the two Pythons purchasing a copy of their own script as a guide). Many scenes were filmed in or around Doune Castle, "Scene 24" and the blood-thirsty rabbit's "Cave of Caerbannog" were in sight of Loch Tay, near Killin, and "The Bridge of Death" was in Glen Coe. In the closing battle scene, shots facing "Castle Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh" were filmed at Castle Stalker but the shots looking the other way towards the huge army were filmed later on Sheriffmuir near Stirling once they had managed to get enough people—one of them being author Iain Banks, then a student, as he recounts in his non-fiction work Raw Spirit.

In this special edition DVD release, the opening credits of the 1961 film Dentist on the Job is seen before the voice of the projectionist (Terry Jones) mumbles that it is the wrong film. The film stops abruptly and a slide reading "One moment while the operator changes reels" is seen on screen. The projectionist can be heard scrambling to start the correct film (Dentist on the Job has the alternative title of Get On With It!).

On 16 September 2003, a "Collector's Edition" DVD was released that includes the features of the previous "Special Edition" as well as a copy of the Screenplay. This set came in a collectible box.

On 3 October 2006, an "Extraordinarily Deluxe" DVD was released that includes the features of the previous "Special Edition" as well as other, new features. These include songs from the Spamalot (with accompanying animation), a "Holy Grail Challenge" feature, and a "Secrets of the Holy Grail" feature. The aspect ratio for the "Extraordinarily Deluxe" DVD is 1.66:1, whereas the previous Special Edition features a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

In 1985, an unofficial text adventure game called The Quest for the Holy Grail appeared for the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum computers, released as a budget title on cassette tape by Mastertronic. While the game borrowed many concepts from the movie (the three headed knight, the white rabbit, holy hand grenade, shrubbery, etc.), the plot of the game made no real attempt to follow the plot of the film. Reviews of the game were not kind, lambasting it for weak humour and ease of completion.

Minigames included variations on popular games such as Simon Says (Burn the Witch), Whack-A-Mole ("Spank the Virgins") and Tetris ("Drop Dead").

A collectible card game using the characters and plot of the movie was released by Kenzer & Company in 1996.

The MUD Starmud contains an area that is based closely upon the movie.

The game Fallout 2 contains a random encounter that resembles the bridge of death. The area contains the bridge and an NPC character who will ask you questions, stump him and he is cast out into the gorge. The game has a separate random encounter in which several characters in power armor request the holy hand grenade of antioch. The hand grenade does not exist in the game as-shipped, but can be located by hacking the game files.

2008 saw the introduction (In the United Kingdom) of a video, slot gaming machine, featuring sound and video clips from Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail and had win features which are based around the Monster and The Black Knight. The game also features animation based on the film and in the style of Terry Gilliam.

This film is number 40 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Monty Python and the Holy Grail the 5th greatest comedy film of all time. The next Monty Python film, Monty Python's Life of Brian, was ranked #1. A similar poll of Channel 4 viewers in 2005 placed Holy Grail in 6th (with Life of Brian again topping the list). A 2004 poll by the UK arm of Amazon and the Internet Movie Database named Monty Python and the Holy Grail as the best British picture of all time. IMDb ranks it as #61 in their best 250 film list.

John Cleese remarked in the 2003 'autobiography' of Monty Python that he'd noticed that Holy Grail was normally ranked as the best Python film in the United States, while he and his fellow Brits generally preferred Life of Brian. He claimed he was "always surprised" by this, citing Holy Grail as being "less mature" and lacking in moral message.

A number of works, such as video games, novels and newspapers pay homage to this movie.

According to the autobiography The Pythons, Eric Idle had proposed the idea of a Holy Grail sequel in 1990. According to Idle, the movie would be about an attempt to bring the knights together for one last crusade, as a sort of self-referential statement about the Python group. Most of the team thought the idea to be reasonably promising. However, John Cleese did not want to do it, which made Idle realize that " would never, ever work together again," especially since Graham Chapman had died the year before.

To the top