Gilliam admits, however, to bickering with Jones from time to time, finding his co-director to be sentimental about shooting conditions and beholden to his own good or bad moods. This became irksome during the editing process, because Jones wanted to keep the takes that gave him nostalgia, and for Gilliam the film came first:
“We used to have disagreements because I felt Terry wasn’t looking at the film as a piece of film, he was looking at it with the memory of what happened on the day it was being shot. So if it was a good day, we had a good time, the sun was shining, the food wonderful, he seemed to remember that when he looked at these images. But they’re not there for anybody else. This was a battle we had on several scenes where he was seeing stuff that wasn’t on the film. And I said they’re nothing more than what you see right here.”
The smoky, muddy “Holy Grail” is, to this day, often included on lists of the Funniest Films of All Time, so whatever the arguments were, the troupe came out on the other side with a success. Gilliam went on to direct cult hits like “Brazil,” “12 Monkeys,” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” His films are mostly, infamously met with production problems.
Gilliam has, in recent years, become a controversial figure, speaking out against the #MeToo movement, petitioning for the exoneration of Roman Polanski, defending Harvey Weinstein, and whining about prejudice against white males. The director, now 81, went so far as to renounce his U.S. citizenship. His latest film was the 2018 outing “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” with Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver. It’s available on Fubo, Hulu, Tubi, and Crackle.
“Holy Grail” is on Netflix.