Jabberwocky. (PG.)
Directed by Terry Gilliam. 1977
Starring Michael Palin, Max Wall, Deborah Fallender, Warren Mitchell, John Le Mesurier, Harry H. Corbett, John Bird, Bernard Bresslaw, Brian Glover and Graham Crowden. 105 mins. Available on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. Available November 20th
For such a way out and unruly creative talent, Terry Gilliam has a very cliched, stereotypical Yank adoration for our British history. After Monty Python and The Holy Grail, and presumably working on the assumption that that would be the Python's swansong, he decided to strike out on his own, with another comic trawl around through the muck and squalor of the Dark Ages; another low budget trudge to various castle and historical locations, not at the point racketed to the protection of National Trust.
In the short term, this was a foolish choice. To audiences back then it must have looked like an unfunny remake of Holy Grail. But for a novice, wannabe film director it was an astute move; having played back up to Terry Jones on the Python film, this was an opportunity to find his vision while rehashing and reworking things he'd already done. There's a lot wrong with Jabberwocky, but the setting is very forgiving of its mistakes and (when you can see anything) it looks great. So, by the time he came to make his second film, Time Bandits, he had really got his act together. Now Jabberwocky looks like the early fumblings of a cinematic visionary.
It takes inspiration and title from a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, from whose few lines it extrapolates a story of a humble cooper's son (Palin) and a fearsome monster that is menacing the countryside. You will see it described as Pythonesque but, despite some inevitable overlaps (most obviously having Palin as the lead), it really isn't. The silliness is less manic, as much whimsical as surreal. Lewis Carroll supplies more than just a title, he's the inspiration for the film's tone, though possibly the Reverend Dodgeworth would struggle to see himself in some of the film's more extreme moments. (Does this film, which features blood spattered dismembering, public urination and full frontal nudity, really carry a PG rating?)
There's a great love of language. John Bird as King Bruno (Wall) The Questionable's windbag Herald compels an audience to, “Hear the wisdom, listen to the wit, observe the oratorial eloquence, lend an ear.” The cast is a compendium of British wonders, a glorious hotchpotch of board treaders, sitcom turns, satirical gurns, variety beasts and Carry on uns. There's are more faces than you can put names to and everybody gets a little something to do to make it worth turning up. The breadth and range of Brit thespian experience here is extraordinary; the evenings out after the day's shooting was finished must have been quite something.
The film tells us it is set in The Dark Ages, “ages darker than anyone had ever expected,” which is taken a little too literally. Half the time the viewer will be squinting into the darkness trying to see what is going on. Almost every interior is murkily lit, and often the exteriors are starved of light. Jabberwocky came out the same year as Ridley Scott's debut and it has a very similar look to the style Scott and the other Brit Pack director were using then in their commercials for Hovis and Tuborg and the like. This though is a Ridley Scott advert for squalor: wherever possible Gilliam squeezes in somebody pissing or defecating or rolling in rubbish or being dismembered. The muck and squalor is gleeful, treasured.
Often the film is so pleased with the world it has created, that it rather overlooks the need to be entertaining. The plot is rambling and directionless, the humour uneven. It's a cackhanded effort but there an infectiousness to it: it's a very pleasantly unpleasant world Gilliam created, worthy of revisiting.
Extras.
New 4K digital restoration by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, approved by director Terry Gilliam, with 5.1 surround soundtrack mix supervised by Gilliam
Audio commentary from 2001 featuring Gilliam and actor Michael Palin
New documentary on the making of the film, featuring Gilliam, Palin, producer Sandy Lieberson, and actor Annette Badland
New interview with Valerie Charlton, designer of the film’s creature, the Jabberwock, featuring her collection of rare behind-the-scenes photographs
Audio interview with cinematographer Terry Bedford from 1998
Selection of Gilliam’s storyboards and sketches • Original UK opening sequence
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by critic Scott Tobias
Directed by Terry Gilliam. 1977
Starring Michael Palin, Max Wall, Deborah Fallender, Warren Mitchell, John Le Mesurier, Harry H. Corbett, John Bird, Bernard Bresslaw, Brian Glover and Graham Crowden. 105 mins. Available on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. Available November 20th
For such a way out and unruly creative talent, Terry Gilliam has a very cliched, stereotypical Yank adoration for our British history. After Monty Python and The Holy Grail, and presumably working on the assumption that that would be the Python's swansong, he decided to strike out on his own, with another comic trawl around through the muck and squalor of the Dark Ages; another low budget trudge to various castle and historical locations, not at the point racketed to the protection of National Trust.
In the short term, this was a foolish choice. To audiences back then it must have looked like an unfunny remake of Holy Grail. But for a novice, wannabe film director it was an astute move; having played back up to Terry Jones on the Python film, this was an opportunity to find his vision while rehashing and reworking things he'd already done. There's a lot wrong with Jabberwocky, but the setting is very forgiving of its mistakes and (when you can see anything) it looks great. So, by the time he came to make his second film, Time Bandits, he had really got his act together. Now Jabberwocky looks like the early fumblings of a cinematic visionary.
It takes inspiration and title from a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, from whose few lines it extrapolates a story of a humble cooper's son (Palin) and a fearsome monster that is menacing the countryside. You will see it described as Pythonesque but, despite some inevitable overlaps (most obviously having Palin as the lead), it really isn't. The silliness is less manic, as much whimsical as surreal. Lewis Carroll supplies more than just a title, he's the inspiration for the film's tone, though possibly the Reverend Dodgeworth would struggle to see himself in some of the film's more extreme moments. (Does this film, which features blood spattered dismembering, public urination and full frontal nudity, really carry a PG rating?)
There's a great love of language. John Bird as King Bruno (Wall) The Questionable's windbag Herald compels an audience to, “Hear the wisdom, listen to the wit, observe the oratorial eloquence, lend an ear.” The cast is a compendium of British wonders, a glorious hotchpotch of board treaders, sitcom turns, satirical gurns, variety beasts and Carry on uns. There's are more faces than you can put names to and everybody gets a little something to do to make it worth turning up. The breadth and range of Brit thespian experience here is extraordinary; the evenings out after the day's shooting was finished must have been quite something.
The film tells us it is set in The Dark Ages, “ages darker than anyone had ever expected,” which is taken a little too literally. Half the time the viewer will be squinting into the darkness trying to see what is going on. Almost every interior is murkily lit, and often the exteriors are starved of light. Jabberwocky came out the same year as Ridley Scott's debut and it has a very similar look to the style Scott and the other Brit Pack director were using then in their commercials for Hovis and Tuborg and the like. This though is a Ridley Scott advert for squalor: wherever possible Gilliam squeezes in somebody pissing or defecating or rolling in rubbish or being dismembered. The muck and squalor is gleeful, treasured.
Often the film is so pleased with the world it has created, that it rather overlooks the need to be entertaining. The plot is rambling and directionless, the humour uneven. It's a cackhanded effort but there an infectiousness to it: it's a very pleasantly unpleasant world Gilliam created, worthy of revisiting.
Extras.
New 4K digital restoration by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, approved by director Terry Gilliam, with 5.1 surround soundtrack mix supervised by Gilliam
Audio commentary from 2001 featuring Gilliam and actor Michael Palin
New documentary on the making of the film, featuring Gilliam, Palin, producer Sandy Lieberson, and actor Annette Badland
New interview with Valerie Charlton, designer of the film’s creature, the Jabberwock, featuring her collection of rare behind-the-scenes photographs
Audio interview with cinematographer Terry Bedford from 1998
Selection of Gilliam’s storyboards and sketches • Original UK opening sequence
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by critic Scott Tobias
