What a strange film this is, to be sure. Or ought that be to be unsure?
The cast is amazing. Max Wall as King Bruno, John le Mesurier as his chamberlain, Passelewe, Michael Palin, doing his innocent bumpkin ‘everyman’, as Dennis Cooper, Warren ‘Alf Garnett’ Mitchell, Brenda Cowling (You Rang M’Lord, etc), even musician and Bonzo, Neil Innes (and David Prowse as The Dark Knight!).
And those are just some of the folk in the above photo. The cast also includes cameos for fellow Pythons, Terrys Jones and Gilliam (poacher and man with rocks/diamonds, respectively), as well as roles for Harry Corbett, John Bird, Bernard Bresslaw, Gordon Kaye and more.
This was Gilliam’s solo directorial debut, two years after co-directing The Holy Grail, with Terry Jones, in ‘75. This movie had twice the budget of The Grail, but made less than a quarter of what the latter made at the box office. Actually making slightly less than it had cost to film.
The two films have a fair amount in common: medieval settings, and Pythonesque humour, as well as Pythons in both filming and acting capacities. But Jabberwocky is also a clear departure.
Visually it’s a lot richer and more artistically shot, as befits Gilliam’s artistic visions. In fact – despite the deliberately grotesque visions of medieval squalor – it’s actually quite a beautiful film, visually. Well, I think it is!
The plot is essentially that everyman loser Dennis Cooper (Palin), is disowned by his eponymous barrel-making father, on his deathbed, and cast out, sundered from his beloved (the grotesque and disinterested) Griselda.
Heading for the city, to make his way, through a series of ludicrous slapstick adventures, he eventually meets and defeats the titular Jabberwocky, gaining a Princess and half a kingdom, and losing Griselda and a potato/turnip.
Vestiges of the Pythons skit-based humour are strong, and it’s not a particularly slick film, à la Hollywood. But it is well put together, and well acted, albeit within a style or genre that’s part pantomime/farce.
The portrayal of medieval or Dark Ages culture is hilarious in its bloody and bowel movement obsessed way. On one level this is quite a gory film – even if only briefly – but it’s so comedic it’s funny and rather than upsetting.
The fight at the film’s denouement – first ‘twixt ‘Red Herring’ and ‘Black Knight’, and then Black Knight (and Cooper) vs Jabberwocky* – is cutely dated, to modern eyes, used to seeing near-seamless CGI. But I don’t mind that at all.
And, to cap it off, our hero returns, triumphant, to the City, and gets his reward.
It’s really quite weird, and feels rather lumpen and uneven, at times. And yet I really rather like it.
*It’s a pity they didn’t make the movie Jabberwocky more like Teniel’s magnificent beast. Esp’ as they used the latter, in such promo imagery such as the poster atop this post.
FOOTNOTE
I tried embedding the above, via YouTube, but I couldn’t. Jan Svankmajer’s 1973 rendering of Lewis Carroll’s work has both much in common with Gilliam’s, and yet is massively different. Both are well worth watching.
If you know Svankmajer at all, you’ll know he’s a famed Czech animator. This early work of his is already brimful of his wildly and surrealistically inventive visual imaginings.
Clocking in at under 15 minutes, there’s a surprisingly large and rich amount of ideas crammed into this short film. It also includes an English language reading of Lewis Carroll’s poem. Always great to hear.