The Borogoves Are Mimsy Again--Terry Gilliam's JABBERWOCKY

Re-released in a new 35mm print, Terry Gilliam's first solo directorial effort after Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jabberwocky can be considered another masterpiece of macabre medieval comedy that complements its predecessor.

Inspired by Lewis Carroll's famous poem, (referenced throughout the film), Jabberwocky was first released in 1977 and is a farcical adventure set in a medieval kingdom strongly resembling England. It uses the basic fairytale plot -- poor peasant lad (Michael Palin as Dennis Cooper, the stock-taking son of a barrel-maker) goes to the big city to seek his fortune and winds up slaying the eponymous monster and winning the princess -- to satirize authority figures, social conventions and fantasy clichés by subverting expectations. All the while, to darkly comic effect, the movie wallows in very accurately depicted period filth and squalor, with people performing excretory bodily functions in public a common sight and a source of much "brown humor."

Jabberwocky features superb performances by not only its star, whose character's wide-eyed naivety makes him the perfect foil, but by Max Wall as the bumbling King Bruno the Questionable, John Le Mesurier as the manipulative Chamberlain, Warren Mitchell as the wheeling and dealing Mr. Fishfinger and Deborah Fallender as the beauteous blond bimbo princess who winds up wedded to the reluctant hero. Cameos by Terry Jones as a poacher who gets gobbled up by the beast in an opening scene that cleverly parodies Jaws and by none other than Terry Gilliam himself in the role of an eccentric who believes his (ordinary) rocks are diamonds add delightful frissons of fun to the film.

Rich in visual detail -- dazzling costumes, pageantry, castle and outdoor settings juxtaposed with grime, gloomy interiors and poverty -- all superbly photographed, Jabberwocky uses these contrasts in its ironic way to portray the "nasty, brutish and short" lives of the time period. Director Gilliam also employs exaggerated, slapstick violence (fist fights, brawls, the self-inflicted pain of religious fanatics), to parodic effect, especially in a hilariously over-the-top jousting scene where the mayhem and the gore and the crowd's glee elicits simultaneous mirth and dismay. Such grotesqueries, as if a Brueghel painting came alive with the protagonist's innocence in its midst, makes Jabberwocky fascinating and fun. A fine score mixing classical, period and original music also helps create moods that make the whole thing work.

The film's theme -- a good and pure soul who for romantic ideals at first hesitantly then resolutely confronts the forces of ill -- foreshadows Gilliams's 1985 masterpiece Brazil in its portrayal of dogged innocence facing institutional corruption. Thus Jabberwocky holds one's interest as a milestone in the unfolding development of a filmmaker with a unique and delightfully warped vision and as a rewarding cinematic experience in its own right.

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