Jabberwocky (1977)

Director:

Terry Gilliam

Writers:

Lewis Carroll (poem)
Charles Alverson (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

15 April 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Horror

Tagline:

Jabberwocky: the monster so horrible that people caught the plague to avoid it

Plot:

After the death of his father the young cooper 'Dennis Cooper' goes to town where he has to pass several adventures...

Plot Keywords:

Cult Comedy | Bed | Village | Crushed To Death | Female Nudity

Cast

Michael Palin	...	Dennis Cooper
Harry H. Corbett	...	Squire (Ethel)
John Le Mesurier	...	Passelewe
Warren Mitchell	...	Mr. Fishfinger
Max Wall	...	King Bruno the Questionable
Rodney Bewes	...	Other Squire
John Bird	...	First herald
Bernard Bresslaw	...	Landlord
Antony Carrick	...	Third merchant (as Anthony Carrick)
Peter Cellier	...	First merchant
Deborah Fallender	...	Princess
Derek Francis	...	Bishop
Terry Gilliam	...	Man with Rock
Neil Innes	...	Second herald
Terry Jones	...	Poacher
Bryan Pringle	...	Second gate guard
Frank Williams	...	Second merchant
Glenn Williams	...	Second Guard at Gate
Simon Williams	...	Prince
Annette Badland	...	Griselda Fishfinger
Kenneth Colley	...	First Fanatic
Brenda Cowling	...	Mrs. Fishfinger
Graham Crowden	...	Fanatics leader
Paul Curran	...	Mr. Cooper Senior
Alexandra Dane	...	Betsy
Brian Glover	...	Armourer
Jerold Wells	...	Wat Dabney
Tony Aitken	...	Flagellant
Peter Casillas	...	Third Square
Derrick O'Connor	...	Flying Hogfish Peasant
Derek Deadman	...	Apprentice Armourer
Janine Duvitski	...	Fanatic
Roy Evans	...	Ratman
Bill Gavin	...	Old Man with Petition
Harold Goodwin	...	Third peasant
John Gorman	...	Second Peasant
Julian Hough	...	Fourth Peasant and Fanatic
Des Jones	...	Door Opener
Gorden Kaye	...	Sister Jessica
Christopher Logue	...	Spaghetti-eating Fanatic
Dan Muir	...	Crescent and Red Dog Knights
David Prowse	...	Red Herring and Black Knights (as Dave Prowse)
Gordon Rollings	...	King's taster (as Gordon Rawlings)
Sheridan Earl Russell	...	Kevin Fishfinger
Peter Salmon	...	The Monster
Hilary Sesta	...	Scrubber
John Sharp	...	Sergeant at Gate
George Silver	...	Bandit Leader
Tony Sympson	...	Fourth peasant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Terry English	...	Bandit (uncredited)
Roger Pratt	...	Man Living in Barrel (uncredited)
Anita Sharp-Bolster	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Terry Gilliam

Writing credits
Lewis Carroll		(poem) (as Rev. Charles Dodgson)
Charles Alverson		(screenplay) and
Terry Gilliam		(screenplay)

Produced by
Julian Doyle	....	associate producer
John Goldstone	....	executive producer
Sanford Lieberson	....	producer

Cinematography by
Terry Bedford

Film Editing by
Michael Bradsell

Casting by
Irene Lamb

Production Design by
Roy Forge Smith

Art Direction by
Milly Burns		(as Millie Burns)

Costume Design by
Charles Knode
Hazel Pethig

Makeup Department
Elaine Carew	....	hair stylist
Elaine Carew	....	makeup artist
Scota Rakison	....	hair stylist
Scota Rakison	....	makeup artist
Maggie Weston	....	hair stylist
Maggie Weston	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Bill Camp	....	production manager
Joyce Herlihy	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Peter Cotton	....	second assistant director
John Dodds	....	third assistant director
Bob Howard	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Leon Apsey	....	carpenter
Roger Cain	....	assistant art director
Kenneth Clarke	....	plasterer
Nobby Clark	....	carpenter (as Nobby Clarke)
John Cole	....	props
Bill Harman	....	construction coordinator
Craig Hillier	....	carpenter
Ted King	....	carpenter
Allen McKellar	....	stagehand
Chris Sheehan	....	props
Bunny Southall	....	stagehand
Adrian Start	....	painter

Sound Department
Alan Bell	....	dubbing editor
Bob Doyle	....	sound camera
Bob Jones	....	dubbing mixer
Godfrey Kirby	....	boom operator
Garth Marshall	....	sound recordist
Bill Rowe	....	dubbing mixer

Special Effects by
John Brown	....	special effects

Stunts
Billy Horrigan	....	stunts
Bill Weston	....	stunt arranger

Camera and Electrical Department
David Appleby	....	still photographer
Roy Cornwall	....	clapper loader
Julian Doyle	....	additional photographer
Micky Howard	....	grip
Ray Jones	....	rigger
Andy MacDonald	....	clapper loader
Roger Pratt	....	focus puller
Simon Ransley	....	camera operator
Micky Thomas	....	gaffer
Micky Wilson	....	best boy
Micky Wilson	....	electrician

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sue Cable	....	costume assistant
William Pierce	....	costume assistant

Editorial Department
Michael John Bateman	....	assistant editor
Roy Burge	....	assistant editor
Tim Jordan	....	second assistant editor

Transportation Department
Tony Andrews	....	transportation

Other crew
Celia Bogan	....	assistant to producer
Clinton Cavers	....	monster creation
Valerie Charlton	....	monster creation
Terry English	....	armorer
Peter Leight	....	armorer
George Mossman	....	horse supplier
Sue Raper	....	accounting assistant
Jenny Reid	....	continuity
Ron Swinburne	....	production accountant

Thanks
Lewis Carroll	....	thanks (as Rev. Charles Dodgson)

Production Companies

• Python Films
• Umbrella Films

Distributors

• Columbia-Warner Distributors (1977) (UK) (theatrical)
• Cinema 5 Distributing (1977) (USA) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (USA) (VHS)
• Ipma (2002) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (USA) (laserdisc)
• Rosenbergs Filmbyrå (1980) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Sony Video (2001) (USA) (VHS)
• VTI Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• De Wolfe Music Limited  stock music

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:15 | Finland:K-16 (1989) | Iceland:12 | UK:PG (1993) | UK:A (1977) (cut) | Australia:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:16 | Australia:M (re-rating)

Filming Locations:

Bosherton Quarry, Bosherston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK

Company:

Python Films

Trivia:

The last film of 'Harold Goodwin'.

Goofs:

When the fanatics parade through the village, rolling a huge wooden wheel before them, a stack of camera equipment, partially covered with a blanket, can be seen in the background.

Quotes:

Narrator: It is the middle of the dark ages, ages darker than anyone had expected.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Secret Life of Brian (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Night on a Bald Mountain

Comparisons to Holy Grail are inevitable, making Jabberwocky pale

I've seen Jabberwocky a few times now over the years and I still can't say that I know where director/co-writer Terry Gilliam intended to go with the film. Without a doubt it's interesting. It has a good premise and varied interpretations can make the film intriguing as different kinds of satire. Unfortunately, it's not consistently entertaining or rewarding to watch, it has some technical, directing and editing problems, and it easily invites unfavorable comparisons to Monty Python. In the end, I had to give Jabberwocky a "C", or a 7 this time around, although I found myself continually wishing that I could give it a higher score.

Jabberwocky is really the story of Dennis Cooper (Michael Palin), a lovable dolt who is in love with Griselda Fishfinger (Annette Badland), the obese daughter of a local fisherman. It is set in the Middle Ages in England, probably around the 13th or 14th Century (partially based on a character identifying plaster as possibly being from the 12th Century). After Dennis' father dies, Dennis decides to head off to the "grand city" to find a job and make his fortune, so he can head back to his village in a state worthy to marry Griselda. However, things aren't going so swell in the city, either. Unknown to Dennis' village, there is a monster called the Jabberwock that has been terrorizing the countryside not far from the city. The city has been closed off and there's tight control over who gets in or out. People in and just outside of the city are starving; there is no work, and so on. Dennis finally sneaks into the city one morning and discovers the dire truth. The bulk of the film is a series of misadventures, focused on Dennis, as he tries to adjust to life within the city.

Because Jabberwocky's release date was only two years removed from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), because it was directed by Python member Terry Gilliam, who also co-directed Holy Grail, and because it has a similar setting, some similar characters, some similar scenarios, and some almost identical costumes, it easily invites comparison to its better-known brother. That's Jabberwocky's first major hurdle for anyone who has seen Holy Grail, which is likely to be a large percentage of the audience who would seek out and/or bother watching this film. The problem is that Jabberwocky isn't anywhere near as funny as Holy Grail, and I don't think that Gilliam intended it to be.

For me, the most favorable reading of Jabberwocky has it as a fairly serious satire (so "satire" in the more academic sense) not of the Middle Ages, but of the popular 20th Century conceptions of what the Middle Ages (or the "Dark Ages") must have been like. This is further enforced by Gilliam and Terry Jones' remarks on the Holy Grail DVD commentary (and maybe better enforced on the Jabberwocky commentary, which I haven't had a chance to listen to yet) during the scene when King Arthur encounters the peasants who get into a political structure debate. There, they explicitly state that they tried to exaggerate the popular misconceptions of how such peasants would have been, and acknowledge that more academic research has shown those ideas to be false. In Jabberwocky, Gilliam has his entire population as filthy, stupid gits with deplorable personal hygiene who can barely figure out how to survive. They resort to eating rats, scams that involve hacking off their own limbs so they can beg as a cripple, and so on.

Monty Pythonesque humor of the less intellectual variety does enter occasionally, especially with the bits involving bodily functions or violating the "sanctity" of the body. That's not to say that Jabberwocky is not an intellectual film in any sense. But the intellect here comes with the interpretation above--in the skewering of our "progress"-oriented misconceptions about the past.

As promising as some of that might sound, and as promising as it might sound to make concrete Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky poem from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), the film has a load of problems. Even though the focus is ostensibly on Dennis, he always feels like something of a bystander in the film, making any desired focus, and the viewer's attention, drift. Gilliam has problems making scenes flow smoothly. His pacing seems off. The sets and the cinematography are not very attractive. In fact, at least on the DVD release, much of the film looks extremely murky (oddly, I thought the color on the included trailer looked better). None of the auxiliary characters quite click, and it's often difficult to decipher what they're saying/talking about. Some scenes are almost repeated in the film, and other scenes, such as those involving the princess in her tower, or Gilliam's cameo as he's talking to castle guards, seem like rejected drafts of similar scenes in Holy Grail. In fact, all of this is in sharp contrast to the excellence of Holy Grail.

So despite all of the good points, including the opening, with its hilarious point-of-view of a Jabberwock attack, the fantastic extended final sequence, the more bloody scenes from the tournament, the sly jokes that work (such as accusing the innkeeper of cannibalism after Dennis disappears), and so on, I find my score gradually sinking throughout most of the film. Gilliam and Python fanatics will definitely want to check out Jabberwocky if they haven't seen it yet, but be prepared for a bit of a disappointment.