First published in Lewis Carroll Review,
issue 25 (March, 2003), pp. 15–18.

The Cooper and the Beast: Review

Jappervokki · Jabberwocky
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Screenplay by Charles Alverson and Terry Gilliam
From the poem by Lewis Carroll
Produced by Sandy Lieberson
An Umbrella Entertainment Production presented by Michael White
National Film Trustee Company Ltd. © 1977
Runtime: 100′ 51″
Aspect ratio: 1.85 : 1 (anamorphic 16 : 9)
Format: PAL
Audio: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), German (mono)
Subtitles: English, Finnish, Swedish, French and 16 more languages
Extra features: Audio commentary, trailers, etc.
Regional code: 2, 4
Egmont Entertainment DVD Nº 15654D, Finland 2002, € 27.95

This DVD version of Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky (1977) was released simultaneously with a 2-DVD set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), and advertised as a film from the makers of the latter. That is, of course, not totally groundless. With Jabberwocky, the filmmakers got rid of the money they made with Grail and there are three actors from the Monty Python crew along, namely Michael Palin with Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones in minor roles. This is however more a post-Python or quasi-Python movie, a comedy that perhaps isn’t the best possible mixture of its varied elements — satire, fairy-tale, mediaeval epoch-presentation and animation-like jokes. “It would be funnier if we took most of the jokes out”, confesses Gilliam in his commentary.

Even though one might not call Jabberwocky exactly a Monty Python movie, there are many Pythonian touches: visual gags and overall treatment of the past, inserting modern characters, modern worries, and modern obsessions into the mediaeval world (cf. A Knight’s Tale). As one may expect, this isn’t a serious movie but more of a parody or satire of knight tales and movies, turning the circumstances upside down. All people here are more or less crazy and deluded, the knights clumsy and helpless, the king a senile idiot and the princess a gullible dreamer with no connection to reality whatsoever, the hero kills the monster purely by accident, and the castle is shaggy and dirty, falling apart all the time. The sets are quite realistic, however: all the mediaeval costumes and buildings appear credible, if not necessarily shiny and polished.

There are many picturesque scenes and views. The makers wanted to create Brueghel paintings that moved, and some scenes have taken their inspiration from Caravaggio (e.g., the father dying) or Hieronymus Bosch (the character of Wat Dabney, played by Jerold Wells). The modesty of the interiors is compensated for by ingenious camera-work. The crowd scenes are vivid, and only in the tournament sequence does one feel that too much is left to the viewer’s imagination. On the other hand, the throwing of more and more blood on the royal entourage produces a hilarious effect, mocking the blood-thirstiness of times ancient and modern.

If one thinks modern cinema up to 1977, some points of reference, also mentioned in the audio commentary by Gilliam and Palin, are easy to find: Jaws and P. P. Pasolini’s films, Ingmar Bergman’s Seventh Seal (especially the scene with the flagellants accompanied by Dies Iræ) and Andrey Tarkovsky’s Andrey Rublyov. Of later movies, one easily thinks of Predator because the monster treats his or her victims in a similar way, leaving the latter’s bone structure intact.

Despite the title, Jabberwocky isn’t so much a Lewis Carroll movie, and his influence is very marginal. He is credited last, with small print, as the Rev. Charles Dodgson. A few lines from the poem “Jabberwocky” are recited during the film (in a manner that reminds one of Federico Fellini) and the monster that gets slain is clearly modelled after John Tenniel’s illustration of the beast.

In this film we can see the entire British comedy establishment at work. Michael Palin works up a great performance as the main character Dennis Cooper, the cooper’s half-wit apprentice. Semioticians might call him a “pathemic subject”, i.e., a wretched one to whom things just keep happening. Max Wall as the king, Bruno the Questionable, gives a jovial performance of the senile, baby-like king, reciting the dialogue without his false teeth. Harry H. Corbett (the squire), John Le Mesurier (the chamberlain) and Warren Mitchell (Mr. Fishfinger) make the best of their roles, as does Simon Williams in his very brief appearance as a real prince. King Bruno and chamberlain Passelewe look and sound like an old married couple. Gorden Kaye plays Sister Jessica (!). Besides, many trivial if interesting details are revealed in the audio commentary. For instance, the big knights are played by Dave Prowse who also appeared as Darth Vader in Star Wars, shot at the same time in London. As his voice is somewhat unsuitable for those roles, his lines were spoken by Wall in Jabberwocky and by James Earl Jones in Star Wars.

One might start pondering on the symbolism and message of Jabberwocky the movie. When the film was shown at a film festival in Italy, the audience wanted to know if the depiction of mediaeval economy criticizes Thatcherism (the merchants think the beast is good for their own economy) and if the beast symbolizes Communism. According to the makers, the film might be seen at least a critique of Thatcherite politics, and most certainly it is anti-American, with all the black teeth and overall dirtiness (compared with Rock Hudson and Doris Day). Another underlying theme we are told is the relation between man and nature. This is illustrated in the very beginning where we see a beautiful butterfly brutally trampled to death.

The obvious problem with Jabberwocky is that it is an over-loaded mixture of very varied styles and aims — horror and satire, scatological humour and Brueghel landscapes — and the multitude undermines the totality. All the great art-works are, of course, multi-layered and carry several meanings simultaneously, but in the case of Jabberwocky the combination is not a happy one: the basic plot is understandable and satirical but the way of telling it distracts the viewer all the time; the surplus comedy works against the plot and the contrasts are too extreme. We are constantly asked to re-interpret the events but this happens without purpose. Probably this is caused by the editor’s deep reverence of the Pythons, which prohibited him from cutting out the silly things that do not work.

The Finnish title for this film, Jappervokki, is a very unfortunate twist. It represents, however, a long tradition of abused and questionable movie titles in Finland. The distributors are, for some odd reason, used to underestimate the intellectual capacities of our audiences and the translated titles for some films are embarrassing and silly. By 1977, we already had a Finnish translation of “Jabberwocky”, known as “Pekoraali”, and it could have been used for the film as well.

The anonymous Finnish translator of this DVD release has actually created a new rendering of his or her own of the two stanzas that we hear in the film:

Oli päivänköinen, ja limahdikkaat ötsyt kirrasivat ja kaiventoivat. Surjia olivat kaikki takkulinnut, ja kotsapossut siheltoivat.	’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
Olet lyönyt Jappervokin. Tule syliini, poikaseni. Voi tätä ihanaa päivää!	“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! —”

The Finnish and Swedish subtitles seem very accurate, but I’m not qualified to appraise the twenty-odd other language options available in this release — including Bulgarian, Hindi and Arabic!

For those who are interested in Carroll-related oddities, this DVD edition is a treat. It demonstrates how his ideas have started to lead a life of their own. Visually the film is very beautiful (photographed by Terry Bedford), presenting the English countryside and the old castles at their best. The digital transfer of the film is very good but not dazzling. The original mono soundtrack has been modified to 6-channel Dolby Digital, but, as so often happens, the surround effects sound unnatural and clumsy.

When I earlier saw this movie on television, I thought it a bit boring, but the monster itself was impressive and I considered it the best part of the film. Now in the DVD version one can see the wires with which the monster’s head is moved. So I was once again robbed of a cherished illusion. Sic transit gloria mundi!