From today you can watch cult director Terry Gilliam’s whimsical fantasy comedy “Jabberwocky” completely free on Amazon Freevee. The medieval fantasy nonsense is still providing laugh-out-loud muscle soreness over 45 years after its initial release.
1975 saw the release of “The Knights of the Coconut”, a comedy masterpiece. In this medieval slapstick, the famous King Arthur saga was put through its paces by the legendary comedy troupe Monty Python. Vulgar Frenchmen, sparsely animated monsters and anarchist-syndicalist peasant communes: this film simply has it all and thus rightly deserves a place in the eternal comedy best lists.
If you’re in the mood for even more medieval nonsense, you should definitely take a look at the fantasy comedy “Jabberwocky”, which is on offer from today on Freevee, Amazon’s free streaming service. You don’t need a Prime Video subscription, but you will have to be prepared for commercial interruptions.
“JABBERWOCKY” IS AT HEART A MONTY PYTHON FILM
But it’s still worth giving “Jabberwocky” a chance, because not only does it come from Monty Python member and cult director Terry Gilliam, but it also feels like a thematic continuation of “Knights of the Coconut”. No wonder, after all, the film was made shortly after the release of “Knights of the Coconut” and a total of three of the six members of the British comedy troupe were involved in the project.
In addition to Terry Gilliam, who fully reveals his penchant for absurd fantasy narratives for the first time as director, the film also features his colleagues Terry Jones and Michael Palin, the latter even taking on the lead role.
Movie viewing time tonight again. On this occasion, Jabberwocky (1977) Starring Michael Palin & A whole host of British character actors. An entertaining fantasy film featuring many slapstick comedy moments. First to be solo directed by Terry Gilliam as well. 70s movies pic.twitter.com/R4WAABgV9f
– William Roberts (@RWCR14) June 14, 2019
AND THAT’S WHAT “JABBERWOCKY “
IS ALL ABOUT.
Dennis (Michael Palin) dreams of a glorious life together with his beloved Griselda (Annette Badland). But his beloved doesn’t really want to know anything about him and when his father dies, the young cooper is drawn out into the wide world, which he wants to improve with his ideas.
Once he arrives in the city, however, the idealistic new citizen discovers that life far from the countryside also has its pitfalls. When he hears about the flesh-eating monster terrorising the kingdom of King Bruno the Questionable (Max Wall), Dennis sees his chance has come. As a squire alongside the Knight of the Red Herring, he sets out to defeat the terrible monster…
PYTHON HUMOUR AND PLAYFUL FANTASY ELEMENTS
“Jabberwocky” combines Pythons humour and Gilliam’s fascination with dreamy and playful fantasy films. In particular, the direct influence of the British comedy troupe on the film is clearly more noticeable than in Gilliam’s later films such as “Brazil” or “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, which also always included humorous scenes, but which were always subordinate to the actual film action.
The situation is different in “Jabberwocky”: In this whimsical medieval romp, a good joke can sometimes influence the entire plot. Would you like an example? In order to keep the mortality rate at the jousting tournament as low as possible, the winner is determined by a round of “hide and seek”. If you’ve always wanted to see knights in full armour at a game of hide-and-seek, this is the place to be.
Terry Gilliam’s “Jabberwocky” is like a confused fever dream version of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem of the same name from the book “Alice Behind the Mirrors” – this is even hinted at by the wonderfully unconventional trailer you can watch at the beginning of the article.
