Jabberwocky (1977)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Jabberwocky is Terry Gilliam's grimier follow up to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, set in a dirty, mud-strewn vision of the Middle Ages. A monster is terrorizing the kingdom of King Bruno the Questionable, and it falls to a young cooper's son to slay the beast. In the process, he must deal with an oversexed princess, a randy squire, his fat lover and her family, and enterprising beggars.Jabberwocky is a dirty, darker counterpart to the Holy Grail, with greater attention to the class issues of the Middle Ages. The cooper is faced with corrupt merchants who want to keep the monster alive, restrictions on entering cities, and terrible food. Furthermore, the monster's attacks are by and large played seriously, with considerable violence. Although all is this is played for humor, it's much less zany than the previous film.The film's main drawback is that it's overlong, with the Jabberwock not really playing a role for most of it. A bit of editing would have tightened the comedic timing, and made it funnier. Still, it is an enjoyable dark comedy and a good companion to the Holy Grail.

"Jabborwocky" is clearly a transition from Gilliam's work with the Monty Phyton environment to his own distinctive vision and style. There are elements of Phython that are probably over done in the film, but there is an emerging of what his work will mature to. His later works are essentially faerie tales, and allegories, often dystoptic, still based, in part on the absurd, but with more consistent themes and execution, less dependent on buffoonery and slapstick. He is capable of some very good, even classic, films such as "Brazil", "The Fisher King", "12 Monkeys", and Fear and "Loathing in Las Vegas". You might think of "Jabborwocky" as a training ground for those movies.Without saying too much, the film is a fairie tale loosely based on Dodgson's "Jabborwocky" found in the looking glass by Alice. It is considered one of the greatest nonsense poems in the English language."And as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!"What struck me the most was the authenticty of the people, the costuming, the settings, and the lighting. He says in the film's commentary that he was heavily influenced by Durer and Brueghels. For example, The opening image of a tower is obviously inspired by Breughel's "Bable". Other works like Brueghel's "The Peasant Wedding" or Durer's "The Knight and The Devil" probably influenced GIlliam too. I think Gllliam was also influence by Rembrandt and the other Dutch painters for his sense of lighting and composition. I think the lighting was excellent. Gilliam showed rooms lit by a single candle as essentially dark and dreary as they really are, not flooded with artificial light. Sometime light a single candle in a dark room and see how little it fills the room. Gilliam was sensitive to this as well as he was with the lighting in other scenes in the movie. Most movies do not really convey darkness very well. He could use lighting very well in other scenes too, most memorably the back lighting of the naked princess in the flimsy gown. I'm sure many will carry that image with them after seeing the movie.The people seem appropriate to the period and costumes as they were, not as we romanticize them to be. They were the common peasant, shop keeper, soldier, or beggar. Most directors today look for pretty faces. I don't know if you recall the early silent films. They were a wonderful collection of faces. For example, the actor who plays the king played without this false teeth causing his mouth to sink in, almost as if he were gurning. He truly looked old. The actors teeth had blackened teeth and costumes were dingy and dirty, as you wold expect from the period when the were no dentists and an aversion to bathing and they made the clothing out of scarce materials.The next thing I noticed was the language. There is the usual English country twang, but the words they use and how they use them are amusing, ironic, and witty, like Monty Phyton's high comedy or in "Jeeves and Wooster" or the like. To me, one of the highlights of the film is the interplay between the king and his chamberlain, high comedy at its best. It leads you to believe that the king and chamberlain were lovers (the word dear slips in once and awhile).I would recommend the movie, not as a work of art in itself, but to get a better into Gilliam as a director. On the DVD, watch both movie and Gilliam/Palin's commentary. The commentary is quite enlightening.

I had no idea for the longest time that this was not a Monty Python effort. I thought it was the next movie following Holy Grail. It was different but to my mind that was a good thing. I didn't want Holy Grail - The Sequel.I really like the sets and the costumes. I don't know if they were all authentic or not, but the coracle, the round boat made from skins stretched over a wooden frame is very authentic. I loved the cap the trapper wore which was made from a pelt - stretched and dried into form.I really like the dreary skies and decrepit buildings - the dirt and filth seen everywhere; the poverty and the desperation of the beggars. I don't think life was a piece of cake then - I'm really surprised that we made it where we are today.I loved the silliness and the sly wit heard and seen throughout the movie. I laugh my guts out when the loud mouthed obnoxious herald gets beheaded for his continuous interruption of the king.This is a great movie, every bit as good as the other Monty Python flicks, just different.

This is one of the many movies of my childhood, for which I still bear a fondness. If you would like some measure in comparison that list also includes Transylvania 6-5000, Monster Squad, The World's Greatest Lover, and the Ghost and Mr. Chicken. If you liked any of those even as a guilty pleasure, you may also secretly like this one. Jabberwocky is not intelligent comedy, it is more fractured thoughts which have been forced together into an incohesive montage which is still surprisingly fun to watch. However, this is one of those movies which may be of an acquired taste. This is but a prelibation to Gilliam's later works.Either way, I found it fun and it still has a place in my collection.It rates a 6.5/10 from...the Fiend :.