Jabberwocky (1977)

By the late 1970s, Monty Python's resident animator and occasional performer, Terry Gilliam, was ready to direct a feature film on his own (he codirected Monty Python and the Holy Grail two years earlier). Returning to the medieval muck and monstrosities that served as a backdrop for Holy Grail, Gilliam chose a darker satire for this erratic but funny outing. The result was a witty, modernist fable about an unprepared hero (Michael Palin) pushed through a heroic journey by uncontrollable forces of destiny, propelling him into a duel with a fearsome, man-eating dragon called Jabberwock. Raunchy, irreverent, and borderline cynical, Jabberwocky reveals a lot of Gilliam's flaws as a first-time solo filmmaker, but it also serves as a map of his obsessions and extravagant sense of art direction--elements of his artistry that certainly flourished in subsequent works. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

TERRY GILLIAM TRIES HIS HAND IN HORROR.....well sort of

JABBERWOCKY starts off with the very talented Terry Jones as a poacher checking his traps. He suddenly encounters the JABBERWOCK which eats his body to the bones(great scene I might add the likes of George Romero and Peter Jackson)its the middle ages and the JABBERWOCK has terrified the land.
Enter Dennis Cooper(played by my favorite Python Michael Palin)a barrel maker who is in love with a VERY plus size girl who really wants nothing to do with him. I will not give the movie away and would like to point out some things I liked and did not like with this movie. I really do admire Terry Gilliam he is fantastic with the camera and can be compared to the likes of Lynch and Raimi. The GORE in this though limited is excellent and you really do feel like it is the dark ages. Michael Palin plays this straight and though I love ALL the Python actors any other would not have made it believable(meaning I would not have taken the role of Dennis seriously and would have been waiting for the punch-line ESPECIALLY if the role was given to Cleese)the disappointment in this film is that it really cannot make up its mind what it wants to be? Is it a HORROR film a comedy a adventure WHAT? Terry throws in some comic moments but has few successes in this he also throws in some HORROR but not enough and the script in the middle of the film is quite dry. Still I feel the good outweighs the bad by a small margin. Believe it or not I have this in my HORROR collection(right after ERASERHEAD 1977) for it looked out of place anywhere else. Python fans this is not a comedy at all do know this. This is based off a Lewis Caroll poem,I would love to see a Terry Gilliam HORROR picture though in truth I think this is as close as I will get. August 15, 2008

Absolutely Terrible

This movie is so bad. It's incredibly boring, and not funny at all. This is probably one of the only movies i've ever seen that actually put me to sleep. Skip this and go buy Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That movie is 100x better than this load of garbage.Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition) August 3, 2008

Jabberwoky DVD

Funny, funny, funny. Terry Gilliam (Monty Python) spins a fantastic story that is hilarious and a little dark. A must have if you enjoy Terry Gilliams other work or are an avid Monty Python fan. January 18, 2008

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble...

Just when you thought it wouldn't get any better since the release of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones collaborate to lampoon England's medieval civilization period complete with a monster who terrorizes the once happy kingdom ruled under King Bruno the Questionable (Max Wall). Both Gilliam and Jones made cameos in which both became victims of the monster who stalks them with Jones, who plays a poacher, as its first victim at the start of the film. Helpless survivors ravaged by the monster attempted to seek protection behind the walls of the nearby great city.

Michael Palin plays the lead character Dennis Cooper, who, as a cooper's apprentice, was determined to better his father's business of barrel making through stock taking, but his father's thought of stock taking was just as inferior as was his own son. After the death of his father who left him with nothing, Dennis goes out on his own to make good in the big city in which entrance was restricted to those who had valuable possessions such as money. Dennis was denied entrance since he had nothing except a rotten potato he "received" from his full-figured sweetheart, Grizelda Fishfinger, to remind him of her.

Some of the scenes were hillariously gross - a lot of urination - when Dennis was peed in the face by one of the guards just before he gained access to the city when a constipated guard came out through a side door to defecate and straining while he was doing it, and being locked out after Dennis entered through this door. Dennis admired the layout of the city until he was swamped by much of the population during "rush hour". He later learns that his trade was unavailable to him due to a guild sign. During this time, King Bruno made a proclamation to have the monster killed much to the chagrin of some of the local merchants who feared loss of business if the monster was slain. Unknown to Dennis, the reward for the monster's slayer was half of the kingdom and the hand in marriage of the king's daughter, whom Dennis accidentally enters her room where, as a believer in fairy tales, she thinks he's a prince who gained access to the castle through stealth and falls in love with him.

Many of the knights in shining armor, including the legendary Black Knight (David Prowse), become contestants in a jousting tournament where the winner would be sent by the king to slay the monster once and for all. It became clear that jousting was not the answer so the knights engaged in a game of hide-and-go-seek and the winner was the Red Herring Knight (also played by Prowse) that upset his squire (Harry H. Corbett), whom Dennis befriends, who "promised his body to a woman that night (the innkeeper's wife)". Dennis is made into a squire to accommodate the Red Herring on his quest to slay the monster, but not before the Red Herring's death by the Black Knight who was hired by the merchants to protect the monster. Dennis thought his life was coming to an end just as the Black Knight left him for dead but became horrified as the monster appears. The Black Knight was killed off and Dennis accidentally slays the monster.

After returning to the city as a hero with the monster's head, he is mobbed by throngs of jubilant people who carry him upon their shoulders. In his excitement, Dennis was set to marry Grizelda Fishfinger until he was approached by King Bruno who offerred him half of the kingdom and, to Dennis' unpleasant shock, to marry the princess. The wedding wound up being a battleaxe ceremony in which the guards prevented "Prince" Dennis' escape from the altar. The honeymoon scene was hillarious as Dennis struggles to break free from the princess' constant grasps and calling for Grizelda while being carried out past a jubilant crowd with King Bruno waving and guards protecting him just as the fireworks ignited.

This is a must see for any Python fan!
January 7, 2008

RUSH HOUR!

First off, the setting that Terry and his crew make allows you to feel the fifth, the dirt, and the unwashed crowds that make up a medieval city. Maybe not enough pigs and rats, but that's just me. Michael Palin, as a modern man out of time, a business man trapped in a past where his ideas are strange and unwelcome, is perfect. The story is a simple fairy tale with one flaw. Michael Palin does not WANT half the Kingdom. He does not WANT to marry the Princess. He just wants a simple life, counting his inventory and being married to Griselda. A rotting potato will never mean the same thing to you again.
Extras include a great commentary by Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin, a trailer, sketch-to-screen comparisons and much, much more. January 7, 2008

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