Editing Monty Python and the Holy Grail (section)

===Development===
[[File:Galahad grail.jpg|350px|thumb|The legend of the [[Holy Grail]] ([[Holy Grail tapestries|1895 tapestry]] depicted) provided a unifying motif for the film.]]
In January 1973, the Monty Python troupe wrote the first draft of the screenplay.{{sfn|Palin|2006|p=174}}<ref name="BBCLocation">{{cite AV media|author=Monty Python troupe |chapter=BBC Film Night: Monty Python & the Holy Grail Location Report |title=Monty Python and the Holy Grail |year=2001 |publisher=Columbia Tristar |medium=DVD }}</ref> Half of the material was set in the [[Middle Ages]] and half in the present day. The group decided to set the film during the Middle Ages and focus on the legend of the [[Holy Grail]]. By the fourth or fifth draft, the story was complete, and the cast joked that the fact that the Grail was never retrieved would be "a big let-down ... a great anti-climax".<ref name="BBCLocation" /> [[Graham Chapman]] said a challenge was incorporating scenes that did not fit the Holy Grail motif.<ref>{{cite AV media|last=Chapman |first=Graham |chapter=BBC Film Night: Monty Python & the Holy Grail Location Report |title=Monty Python and the Holy Grail |year=2001 |publisher=Columbia Tristar |medium=DVD}}</ref>

Neither [[Terry Gilliam]] nor [[Terry Jones]] had directed a film before, and described it as a learning experience in which they would learn to make a film by making an entire full-length film.<ref>{{cite AV media|last1=Gilliam |first1=Terry |last2=Jones |first2=Terry |chapter=BBC Film Night: Monty Python & the Holy Grail Location Report |title=Monty Python and the Holy Grail |year=2001 |publisher=Columbia Tristar |medium=DVD}}</ref> The cast humorously described the novice directing style as employing the level of mutual disrespect always found in Monty Python's work.<ref name="BBCLocation" />