Monty Python and the Middle Ages

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, aside from the parodies, a certain perspective of the Middle Ages is shown. The qualities and characteristics can been seen if you look through the obvious satire of the film and use some past knowledge to make an educated guess. The director also gives his character’s many attributes, some subtle, some conspicuous but only a few of them seem to be crucial to the director. The director parodies almost every aspect of the tale of King Arthur in the movie including chivalry.
The aspect of the middle Ages is seen through a distorted lens in the movie. But, some characteristics stand out more than others. One quality is that there was an overall dirtiness throughout the movie; everyone was literally covered in dirt amongst other things. Another quality is the hierarchy of people depending on social status. This can be seen when King Arthur is the leader of his group of knights and when he is appalled at the way the French would treat someone of royal blood. A final characteristic of the movie is honor and the director parodies the black knight. He took the honor code too seriously in the “fight to the death” mindset where he continued to fight even though he was missing his four limbs.
In the movie the director tries to stress what he believes to be crucial attributes. He showed the “brave and noble knights” as being cowards and lacking in common sense. He also made anyone that had power, whether it is imaginary or real, have a proper way of talking and walking. The director made the French have silly characteristics in how they waved their hands and how they made ridiculous insults like “I fart in your general direction,” and “You mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.”