Python have been gurus in my life since I was a kid in the 70s.  I've always liked their absurd attacks on every institution in the world, and their staggering creativity and originality.  Their TV show is still my favorite thing they've done, but Grail has more than enough to make it classic.  I love the filmmaking of this film--Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam are working on a pitiful budget, on location, and for the most part this looks great.  Imagine if people in the middle ages had cameras and decided to make a documentary--it might look a lot like this.  These directors are clearly knowledgeable about artistic films from directors such as Ingmar Bergman, and their knowledge gives the movie a texture and tone you just don't find in comedies.  But this isn't just any comedy.  If you're looking for something light and fluffy, you won't find it here.  Even the rabbit is a vicious killer!  Take the scene early in the film with the guy collecting dead bodies in a plague village for a fee.  The animal and human dung, the groans of terminal illness, a cat being beaten to death against a wall, then a man being beaten to death for "nine pence"--you get the idea.  But nevertheless the scene is funny.  If you like that scene you'll like the rest of the film.  Still, it is a mighty angry movie.  It condemns the violence behind legends like King Arthur (a towering performance from Graham Chapman, absolutely convincing, one of the finest straight men--even though in real life he was gay--in a movie comedy), organized religion, and western philosophy.  One more thing--the characters who make me laugh the most are Tim the Enchanter, Roger the Shrubber, and the Old Man on The Bridge of Death.  (Terry Gilliam's presence as actor and director and animator on the movie is a marvel--a great way to see how his career as a great director started.)  Like all Python films it has peaks and valleys; some scenes last too long, some are based on a thin concept, some push it as far as mixing the gruesome and the madcap, like the Tale of Sir Lancelot where John Cleese as Lancelot slaughters or otherwise brutalizes a bunch of women, children, and old men at a wedding, rather bloodily--too much here, I think.