The Holy Grail on Film: Essays on the Cinematic Quest ed. by Kevin J. Harty (review)

Long since the Arthurian legends introduced the special chalice that bestows eternal youth and happiness on its owner, the Holy Grail is still arguably one of the most sought-after religious icons on the silver screen. A diverse range of cinematic genres, employing different methods of storytelling to recount the quest to locate the fabled cup, have captured the imagination of generations of film enthusiasts.

Taking the reader on a filmic adventure that begins in the early 1900s and ends in the mid-2000s, Kevin J. Harty's edited collection illustrates how historical fact and fiction have been woven into the collective consciousness through the rewriting and revising of central thematic materials. The contributions focus on the filmic sub-genre of 'cinema medievalia', a term often understood to be the cinematic reimagining of medieval society and events with a distinct emphasis placed on Grail seeking. Examining such films as Thomas Edison's Boy-Scouts-of-America-endorsed The Knights of the Square Table (1917), whose storyline focused heavily on the reimagining of the court of King Arthur, and Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code (2006), in which the legacy of the Knights Templar is refashioned, each chapter seeks meaning in analysing the 'black box of historical fact by examining the textual transmission of its secret history' (p. 113).

The secret history of the Grail, and indeed of the Grail adventurers and the events and situations they came across, is interwoven throughout each chapter. Some of the films discussed present an obvious connection to Grail-quest themes, such as John Boorman's Excalibur (1981) and Steven Spielberg's popular Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Other filmic selections display a more tenuous link, and their symbolism and relationship to the Grail quest is debated with reference to hetero-normativity and Grail romances, as is the case with Frank Coraci's The Waterboy (1998), starring comedian, Adam Sandler, which also analyses medieval notions of chivalry.

The collection offers in-depth analyses of an impressive range of cinematic representations of the Grail quest, spanning such diverse genres as comedy and fantasy, with Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) 'wreak[ing] havoc with the codes upon which audiences of Grail quests rely' (p. 81), and drama, with The Fisher King (1991) and its pseudo-medieval aesthetic and exploration of mental illness. David W. Marshall's discussion of the disruption of the historical relationship between the Grail and the quest to locate it through the fantasy action film, The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice (2008), is certainly interesting in its approach to reading the film as a representation of rebirth and renewal. Joan Tasker Grimbert's contribution considers the closer exploration of filmic representations of the Grail made possible by the advent of DVD technology, with her discussion of Robert Bresson's ideological interpretation of the past, in Lancelot du lac (1974), and the ability of the modern viewer to rewind and review at their own pleasure so as to deduce hidden meanings within the film.

Harty notes that the Grail 'is still a symbol, but it has become a symbol for whatever the signifier chooses it to be' (p. 5). In essence, the Arthurian legend continues to appear in modern cinematic manifestations, moulded, influenced, and reinterpreted across many genres, ranging from avant-garde to the popular and mainstream. The original Grail narrative has not so much been lost in the cinematic landscape, as transformed and reinterpreted in each new film. And as Christine M. Neufeld writes, such films continue a medieval tradition that is 'not a search for the correct answer, but rather for the right question' (p. 81).

This volume makes an important contribution to the burgeoning interdisciplinarity that is bringing together medieval literature, history, literary adaptation, and cinema. It provides an intriguing new contextual framework for understanding how myths and legends can be refashioned...