Includes bibliographical references and index.

Holy Grail, silent Grail / Kevin J. Harty -- The silver chalice: the once and future Grail / K.S. Whetter -- Lancelot du lac: Robert Bresson's Arthurian realism / Joan Tasker Grimbert -- Perceval of the avant-garde: Rohmer, Blank and von Trier / Alan Baragona -- Hans-Jørgen Syberberg's Parsifal: remystifying Kundry / Jon Sherman -- "Lovely filth": Monty Python and the matter of the Holy Grail / Christine Neufeld -- John Boorman's Excalibur and the irrigating light of the Grail / Raeleen Chai-Elsholz and Jean-Marc Elsholz -- The Da Vinci Code and the myth of history / Susan Aronstein -- Percival in Cooperstown: Arthurian legend, baseball -- mythology and the mediated quest in Barry Levinson's The natural / James Jesson -- -- Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King / Cory James Rushton -- A son, his father, some Nazis and the Grail: Lucas and Indiana Jones and The last crusade / Joseph M. Sullivan -- A Grail or a mirage? searching the wasteland of The Road Warrior / Paul B. Sturtevant -- The Grail as symbolic quest in Tarkovsky's Stalker / Andrew B.R. Elliott -- The waterboy and swamp chivalry: a Grail Knight for American teens / Laurie A. Finke and Martin B. Shichtman -- Holy Grails, schlocky Grails / David W. Marshall -- About the contributors.

"This collection of new essays is the first to study film depictions of the quest for the Holy Grail--the Christian holy relic of legend supposedly used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Scholars and critics discuss American and European films that offer fresh perspectives on this enduring myth of the Arthurian world and Western culture"-- Provided by publisher.