莫名其妙

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Grungy, scruffy and scatological, JABBERWOCKY, according to its creator Terry Gilliam, cannot be bracketed as an official Monty Python picture, however, according to viewership, is cut (almost) from the same cloth, and it marks Gilliam's solo outing in the director’s chair, an auspicious harbinger of his long post-Python career.

An intermittently grisly, but steadily risible satire of the knight errant adventure, a brave young man slaughters a havoc-wreaking monster, then marries the princess happily ever after. That is the gist, but our prince charming is the antithesis of a knight in shining armor, Dennis Cooper (Palin), whose family name also suggests his profession, is a namby-pamby. He has bent for efficiency and pragmatism (consequently is hit out and disinherited by his father on his deathbed for not valuing craft above everything else, a funny, totally gonzo outpourings from Paul Curran who plays his father) which goes largely unappreciated or even triggers mayhem, carries a torch for a corn-fed girl-next-door Griselda Fishfinger (Badland), and is not really enjoying being taken by the wishful thinking princess (Fallender). But life is so unfair, how can he refuse a king’s fiat after claims himself as the kingdom savior and is bestowed half of the kingdom and hand-fast to the comely princess?

Coarse and tongue-in-cheek, its props are jerry-built and world-building sumptuously primitive - it takes place in the Dark Ages alright (shot in a few Welsh castles, a fair comparison could be linked to Matthew Robbins’s DRAGONSLAYER, 1981), JABBERWOCKY is a fanciful construct birthed out of Lewis Carroll’s nonsensical poem, and Gilliam shows adequate acumen in layering modernized elements onto the infantile farce: religious fanatics are laughingstocks, mercantile avarice plays a key part in the decision-making, gallantry is an antiquated bore for clodhopping fools only (knights are armored to the hilt, no face is shown, no words articulated) and joust is a bloody sport for the unenlightened, also, you never know what can push an intolerant monarch’s buttons, a long-winded herald (Bird) sets a dearly precedent for his shivery successor (Innes).

Palin is a consummate farceur, and in this rare leading performance, he gives it laldy with all kinds of schticks, Dennis is a simpleton, but a blessed one and he doesn’t know it, he goes with the flow and doesn’t care to better himself, he is already the best version of himself. His simple-mindedness isn’t equivalent to inanity, his wits crops up when he stands side by side with the madder, the crazier or the stupider; his un-knightly deportment doesn’t mean he is a coward, he isn’t made for the battlefield and no one can blame him for having sanity in him of self-preservation. Palin doesn’t seem to make Dennis funny, he underplays him with a dash of sophistication and nails the comical tone beautifully, goofiness has never been funnier.

Embracing a large ensemble, JABBERWOCKY also boasts a wonderfully fine-tuned-and-fine-toned Max Wall as the aging King Bruno the Questionable, who looks feeble, sounds benign, acts whimsical, and never falls into any easy catalogue, a king is truly worthy of Dennis, and John Le Mesurier is his careworn chamberlain, whose tart mockery and blithe effrontery has some unobtrusive bite.

As idiosyncratic and nonconformist as it is, JABBERWOCKY slips up in the home stretch, its money shot turns out to be a letdown, the bird-like monster is unwieldily churned out and doesn’t measure up its overblown monstrosity, can that critter destroy an entire village? Not enough disbelief in the whole universe can you suspend to credit that whopper, a piece of counsel, don’t bite off more than one can chew, that is universally axiomatic.

referential entries: Matthew Robbins’s DRAGONSLAYER (1981, 6.9/10); Terry Jones’ MONTY PYTHON’s LIFE OF BRIAN (1979, 6.1/10); Terry Gilliam’s BRAZIL (1985, 7.4/10).Title: JabberwockyYear: 1977Country: UKLanguage: EnglishGenre: Adventure, Comedy, FantasyDirector: Terry GilliamScreenwriters: Terry Gilliam, Charles Alversoninspired by the poem by Lewis CarrollCinematography: Terry BedfordEditing: Michael BradsellCast:Michael PalinMax WallHarry H. CorbettJohn Le MesurierDeborah FallenderAnnette BadlandBernard BresslawWarren MitchellJerold WellsJohn BirdNeil InnesGraham CrowdenKenneth ColleyPaul CurranTerry JonesTerry GilliamDavid ProwseRodney BewesRating: 7.1/10