Jabberwocky
DVD cover for Jabberwocky
Directed by	Terry Gilliam
Produced by	Sanford Lieberson
Written by	Lewis Carroll (poem) Charles Alverson Terry Gilliam
Starring	Michael Palin Harry H. Corbett John Le Mesurier Warren Mitchell Max Wall Rodney Bewes John Bird Bernard Bresslaw Derek Francis Neil Innes Terry Jones Terry Gilliam
Music by	Modest Mussorgsky
Cinematography	Terry Bedford
Editing by	Michael Bradsell
Distributed by	Cinema 5
Release date(s)	1977
Running time	105 min
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Jabberwocky (1977) is a comic medieval film by Monty Python's resident animator, Terry Gilliam. It stars Michael Palin as a young cooper who is forced through a series of clumsy, often slapstick misfortunes to hunt down a terrible dragon after the death of his father. The name is taken from the nonsense poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. Image File history File links Jabberwocky_film. ... Terrence Vance Gilliam (born November 22, 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, animator, and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ... Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) - believed to be a self-portrait Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (January 27, 1832 – January 14, 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman, and photographer. ... Charles Alverson is the former editor (under Harvey Kurtzman) of HELP! Magazine. ... Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born May 5, 1943) is an English comedian, actor and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. ... Harry H. Corbett OBE (born Rangoon, Burma - now Yangon, Myanmar - February 28th, 1925; died Hastings, Sussex, England, March 21st, 1982) was a distinguished British actor. ... John Le Mesurier (Bedford, 5th April 1912 – 15th November, 1983), born John Charles Elton Le Mesurier De Somerys Halliley, was a British actor. ... Warren Mitchell, (born 14 January 1926, Stoke Newington, London) is a British-born actor with Australian citizenship. ... Max Wall (March 12, 1908 - May 21, 1990) was a British comedian, born in Brixton, London son of the successful music-hall entertainer Jack (Jock) Lorimer. ... Rodney Bewes (born 27 November 1938 born in Bingley, West Yorkshire) is a British TV actor probably best known for playing the lovable Bob Ferris in the classic BBC sitcoms The Likely Lads and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? Bewes was RADA trained and got his break in the... There have been several well-known people named John Bird, including: John Bird (actor) John Bird (astronomer) John Bird (politician) ... Bernard Bresslaw (February 25, 1934 - June 11, 1993) was an English actor who was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. ... Derek Francis was a British comedy and character actor, born 7 November 1923 in Brighton, England, and died of a heart attack in Wimbledon, London on 27 March 1984. ... Neil Innes (born Neil James Innes, 9 December 1944, in Danbury, Essex) is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles. ... Terence Graham Parry Jones (born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, on February 1, 1942) is a British comedian, screenwriter and actor, film director, childrens author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host. ... Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (Russian: , Modest Petrovič Musorgskij, French: ) (March 9/21, 1839 – March 16/28, 1881), one of the Russian composers known as the Five, was an innovator of Russian music. ... // Events In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network. ... // Events In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network. ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... Monty Python, or The Pythons, is the collective name of the creators of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Terrence Vance Gilliam (born November 22, 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, animator, and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ... Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born May 5, 1943) is an English comedian, actor and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. ... A cooper readies the end of a barrel at the Van Ryn Brandy Cellar near Stellenbosch, South Africa The barrel is sealed with a lid, waterproofed using reed leaves, and the end-ring fitted Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden barrels, casks, buckets and other similar wooden objects. ... Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence. ... Saint George versus the dragon, Gustave Moreau, c. ... Jabberwocky is a poem of nonsense verse written by Lewis Carroll, and found as a part of his novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871). ... Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) - believed to be a self-portrait Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (January 27, 1832 – January 14, 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman, and photographer. ...

The film, Gilliam's first as a solo director, was not well received by critics or audiences, although it has since become something of a cult film. Despite its lack of initial success, Jabberwocky strongly established Gilliam's distinctive visual style and dark sense of humour. The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... An audience is a group of people who participate in an experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

The film is close in setting and comic style to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, on which Gilliam had worked. As well as Palin, Terry Jones also appeared in Jabberwocky, giving it a distinctly Python-esque feel, with many scenes (such as the "hide and seek" jousting tournament) heavily reminiscent of Holy Grail. For its American premiere the film was initially advertised as Monty Python's Jabberwocky, but this was dropped following protests from Gilliam.[1] Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a film released in 1975. ... Terence Graham Parry Jones (born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, on February 1, 1942) is a British comedian, screenwriter and actor, film director, childrens author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Jousting is a staple entertainment at Renaissance Fairs. ...

Themes

Commerce

One of the most noticeable themes in the film is the importance and influence of commerce in making decisions. Dennis Cooper, after being gleefully disowned by his dying father, is unable to continue his work as a barrel maker (hence the name Cooper). Despite having good ideas about raising productivity, the merchants and businesspeople he meets are quite unwilling to listen to him. Cooper moves from his village to the "town" (it is never named), enclosed by castle walls, in search of business opportunity. There he discovers that the guilds and merchants have complete control over what is sold, and that ordinary people are struggling to survive, let alone make a living. While in the city he discovers Wat Dabney, a legendary cooper and inventor of the "inverted firkin". Despite his obvious skill, Wat is unable to break into a market controlled by the guilds, and has cut his foot off in a deliberate attempt to become a beggar — an act so successful that he ends up cutting off his other foot by the film's end. A cooper readies the end of a barrel at the Van Ryn Brandy Cellar near Stellenbosch, South Africa The barrel is sealed with a lid, waterproofed using reed leaves, and the end-ring fitted Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden barrels, casks, buckets and other similar wooden objects. ... Pierrefonds Castle, France. ... A guild is an association of craftspeople in a particular trade. ... Merchants function as professionals who deal with trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to produce profit. ... A Firkin is an old English unit of volume. ...

The top merchants in the town, though, are profiting handsomely from the fear the Jabberwock monster has caused the populace, and are noticeably reluctant to help the King find a solution to the problem. Moreover, the Bishop is very happy that such fear has led to increased giving to the church and increased attendances at mass and confession. The Bishop is so unimpressed by the King's choice of a champion to slay the monster that he blesses the champion by simply flicking holy water at him with his index finger. The merchants eventually conspire to send the "black knight" to kill the king's champion, and are aghast when Dennis Cooper arrives back at the town with the monster's head.

"Creaking bureaucracy"

King Bruno the Questionable and his aide, Passelewe, are aged rulers in a castle that is falling apart around them: darkness, dust, cobwebs and fallen plaster lie everywhere. It is so dark and decrepit that the town outside the castle is refreshing in comparison. So entrenched are these two in their misrule that the only solution the king can come up with to fix the problem of the Jabberwock is to emulate the deeds of his great great great great great grandfather (Max the Vainglorious) and set up a bloody tournament to select a champion - a decision that only works because Dennis Cooper manages to accompany this champion (Cooper, by chance, slays the Jabberwock after the champion is killed by the Black Knight).

The "creaking bureaucracy" — a theme fleshed out far more in Gilliam's 1985 film, Brazil — also includes the inept behaviour of his herald, who is far more concerned with his own process of heralding than in the message he is trying to communicate - a process which eventually prevents the King from actually speaking, and results in the herald being executed. Heralds, wearing tabards, in procession to St. ...

Accidental and unconventional happiness

A major theme that Gilliam himself cited on the film's audio commentary is the theme of happiness from one's perspective. By the end of the film, Dennis gets everything a fairy tale hero would want (the recognition for killing the beast, the princess's hand in marriage, and half of the kingdom) all by accident. Also, all Dennis wanted was to live a humdrum life with an overweight peasant girl, who didn't even like him. In the most part, he is forced into the stereotypical form of happiness, which would later be a theme in Brazil.

Trivia

Michael Palin as the hapless Dennis Cooper

• During the scene where the Black knight falls off his horse, a lorry can clearly be seen in the background.
• The man inside the Jabberwock suit is facing in the opposite direction the monster is facing. This was done to represent the monster's digitigrade legs.
• The wires holding up parts of the Jabberwock are clearly visible.
• Many of the props and costumes were recycled from the set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• Terry Gilliam plays a man who discovers diamonds in the woods outside the castle, but which are just rocks.
• 'Allo 'Allo! actor Gorden Kaye plays "Sister Jessica", one of the Blessed Sisters of Misery who attend to the princess. Kaye later appeared in Terry Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil
• The champion has a red fish on his helmet. On the audio commentary track of the DVD, Gilliam says this was meant to be a red herring, signifying that that the champion will not actually be the one to slay the Jabberwock.
• A tavern in the town is named The Queen's Haemorrhoids.
• One of King Bruno's ancestors was Emperor Otto the Bent.
• The narrator of the film's trailer warns that it is so terrifying "No one will be admitted to the theatre until the last ten minutes of (the) film".
• Passel ewe can mean "a large amount of female sheep"[2]
• Dennis Cooper rows a Coracle up to the Fishfinger household.
• Real horse carcasses are used in the scene where Dennis and the Champion are ambushed by the Black Knight. The horse that the champion rides is visibly disturbed by these surroundings.
• Much of the crew and some of the cast (David Prowse) were working on Star Wars at the same time and hated working on it, saying George Lucas didn't know what he was doing, according to Terry Gilliam's comments on the audio commentary. Also, according to Gilliam, films like Alien and a Blake Edwards Pink Panther film, mostly likely The Pink Panther Strikes Again. In fact, Edwards had his crew burn some of his castle sets so that Gilliam could not use them for Jabberwocky.

Image File history File links Jabberwocky_01. ... Image File history File links Jabberwocky_01. ... Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born May 5, 1943) is an English comedian, actor and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. ... The driver of this DAF tractor with an auto-transport semi-trailer truck prepares to offload Škoda Octavia cars in Cardiff, Wales For other articles with similar names, see Lorry (disambiguation) and truck (disambiguation). ... A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes. ... Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a film released in 1975. ... Allo Allo! was a long-running British sitcom broadcast on BBC1 from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. ... René & Me (book cover) Gorden Kaye (born Gordon Kaye on 7 April 1941 in Huddersfield) is most famous in the UK for his work on television sitcom Allo Allo!, where he played the character of René Artois. ... Look up red herring in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Movie trailers are film advertisements for films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown; they are commonly known as previews of coming attractions. ... Coracle: Ku-Dru or Kowa of Tibet—Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago A coracle is a primitive type of boat. ... David Prowse in 2006 David Prowse, MBE (born July 1, 1935) is an English body-builder, weightlifter and actor, most widely known for his role as the physical form of Darth Vader. ... This movie poster for Star Wars depicts many of the films important elements, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, X-Wing and Y-Wing fighters Star Wars, retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981 (see note at Title,) is the original (and in chronological... It has been suggested that Amanda Lucas be merged into this article or section. ... Alien; for the other films, and spin-offs, see Alien (film series) Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alien (film) Alien is a 1979 science fiction / horror film directed by Ridley Scott. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Pink Panther cartoon character. ... The Pink Panther Strikes Again is the fifth film in the Pink Panther series (although only the third to include the words Pink Panther in its title, despite the fact that the story does not involve the Pink Panther diamond of the previous films) and continues the story after the...

Cast

• Michael Palin as Dennis Cooper
• Harry H. Corbett as Squire (Ethel)
• John Le Mesurier as Passelewe
• Warren Mitchell as Mr. Fishfinger
• Max Wall as King Bruno the Questionable
• Rodney Bewes as other Squire
• John Bird as first herald
• Bernard Bresslaw as landlord
• Antony Carrick as third merchant
• Peter Cellier as first merchant
• Deborah Fallender as princess
• Derek Francis as bishop
• Terry Gilliam as man with rock
• Neil Innes as second herald
• Terry Jones as poacher
• Gorden Kaye as Sister Jessica
• Annette Badland as Griselda Fishfinger
• Ted Milton as the Puppeteer

Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born May 5, 1943) is an English comedian, actor and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. ... Harry H. Corbett OBE (born Rangoon, Burma - now Yangon, Myanmar - February 28th, 1925; died Hastings, Sussex, England, March 21st, 1982) was a distinguished British actor. ... John Le Mesurier (Bedford, 5th April 1912 – 15th November, 1983), born John Charles Elton Le Mesurier De Somerys Halliley, was a British actor. ... Warren Mitchell, (born 14 January 1926, Stoke Newington, London) is a British-born actor with Australian citizenship. ... Max Wall (March 12, 1908 - May 21, 1990) was a British comedian, born in Brixton, London son of the successful music-hall entertainer Jack (Jock) Lorimer. ... Rodney Bewes (born 27 November 1938 born in Bingley, West Yorkshire) is a British TV actor probably best known for playing the lovable Bob Ferris in the classic BBC sitcoms The Likely Lads and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? Bewes was RADA trained and got his break in the... There have been several well-known people named John Bird, including: John Bird (actor) John Bird (astronomer) John Bird (politician) ... Bernard Bresslaw (February 25, 1934 - June 11, 1993) was an English actor who was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. ... Peter Cellier is an English actor who has appeared in film, stage and television. ... Derek Francis was a British comedy and character actor, born 7 November 1923 in Brighton, England, and died of a heart attack in Wimbledon, London on 27 March 1984. ... Terrence Vance Gilliam (born November 22, 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, animator, and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ... Neil Innes (born Neil James Innes, 9 December 1944, in Danbury, Essex) is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles. ... Terence Graham Parry Jones (born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, on February 1, 1942) is a British comedian, screenwriter and actor, film director, childrens author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host. ... René & Me (book cover) Gorden Kaye (born Gordon Kaye on 7 April 1941 in Huddersfield) is most famous in the UK for his work on television sitcom Allo Allo!, where he played the character of René Artois. ... Annette Badland Annette Badland is a British actress. ... {Infobox musical artist | | Name = Ted Milton | Background = Poet, Musician, Puppeteer | Origin = London, England | Years_active = 1962—present | Instrument = saxophones, | Genre = Art rock} Ted Milton born 1943. ...

External links

• Jabberwocky at the Internet Movie Database
• Jabberwocky transcript