Monty Python and The Holy Grail

Monty Python and The Holy Grail, I felt was a satire on either religion or almost a satire on the American dream. In the situation referring to Religion I see it as God gives everyone a purpose in life. King Arthur and Sir Lancelot and others go on a adventure and on the way God greets them with this purpose/mission of finding the Holy Grail. And with this mission they run into an abundance of obstacles and often fall into the traps getting distracted. In the end they arrive at their ‘destination’ and prepare to retrieve the Holy Grail, but their mission is cut short because it’s the end of the movie. The way I interpreted it was in all religions, one is given a purpose by their ‘God’ and therefore one should do any and everything to achieve it ignoring the obstacles (sins). In the movie all the obstacles slowed down the group leading them away from their goal.

The alternative target is the idea/theme of the American dream. The American dream is this goal we want to achieve so bad (the Holy Grail) yet so many things distract us (The three headed giant, The black knight, the witch, The troll) making the American Dream impossible to achieve and reach (The ending of no Holy Grail in possession). Depending on how you see the ideal ‘American Dream’ you could compare it to this film; saying the American dream is a myth in a way. Or you can believe in it. I see this almost like ‘Of Mice and Men’, Lennie and George trying so hard to reach this goal. A farm with bunnies on it. Lennie sadly causes trouble and forces George to kill him to spare him from any other pain. The American Dream dies at that exact moment considering their goal consisted of the two of them together. I see Monty Python and The Holy Grail as an old 1300’s, comedic version of ‘Of Mice and Men’.

Precious

This movie is honestly the saddest movie I’ve seen the director of this movie did a successful job in picking actresses to portray and express such strong, powerful and raw emotion. I can't help but feel bad for 'Precious', she's stuck in a household with her mother who doesn't care about her. Ironically her name is Clarice Precious Jones, everyone calls her ‘Precious’ and how she’s treated is the exact opposite of what her name would imply. Her mother constantly tells her that she’s stupid, fat, and ugly. Anything to put the girl down, yet has her doing everything for her. Cooking, cleaning, getting cigarettes, even sexual things. And that’s the least of her worries considering she was raped by her own father and had an ‘abnormal’ daughter, is pregnant again, and got kicked out of school. Everything in precious’s life is going wrong and it seems like she’s just going to get no where. Luckily she was offered an alternative way to get an education which seems like it’ll be a break for her to become something greater other than her mother’s slave/maid.

I find it so sad and depressing that people actually live lives like that and have to just ‘make due’ with the hand they were given. This movie really make you look at your life in a different light and makes you grateful and appreciative for your life. People in those situations really need help and a positive role model otherwise they’d be stuck and lost. I’ve seen the ending of the movie and I know that Precious tells the truth about how she’s been living and no longer has to stay with her mother in that God forsaken apartment.  household. The apparent themes in this movie are strength and prevailing. Without these two attributes I don’t believe Precious would have made it.