Jabberwocky (1977)

Not many people remember that Terry Gilliam was already a misunderstood artist long before the release of Brazil and Munchausen. One of his fears was that the work should be branded no Monty Python film. Jabberwocky had to be the birth certificate of Terry Gilliam as a film director. For the producers, the easiest way to sell the film was to use his name and fame as a member of an outstanding British comedy group, but Gilliam insisted that it would be counterproductive, and was proved right after the first few screenings. The audiences that went into the cinemas expecting to see the latest thing by the Dadaist Python geniuses, came out quite confused. Where are all the laughs? Jabberwocky was a brutal, unpleasant film. That convinced producers: they could not hide behind the Pythonian denomination. Gilliam himself had done his utmost to protect himself by doing different versions of the final cut. In one version, the film started on a far funnier note, and slowly, took on a different tone. Audiences laughed twice as much as they should have, but eventually they realised that they were laughing at something that wasn't funny. So Gilliam decided to tone down the beginning of the film in order to subliminally inform the public that they were not about to see a Monty Python film.

Gilliam went mad when he saw how the film was being advertised in America: Monty Python's Jabberwocky. He sent letters of protest, to stop such an awful publicity stunt, but to no avail. The box office result was a clear reflection of the way in which the film had been promoted: in those countries where Monty Python were media stars, it was a failure, and in those countries where people had no idea who Monty Python were, it was a success. Gilliam and Palin remember going to the screening of the film at a Spanish festival, which they found particularly gratifying: “It was being screened in a small cinema in a back street. The audience were people who had nothing to do with the festival, just people who had gone in to get away from the afternoon heat. The film wasn't even sub-titled. They were all working class people, who certainly understood not a word of English, and they loved it. It was great, the best screening I’ve ever been to, and Mike and I couldn't believe it. Once again, people with open mind”. But that Spanish experience was certainly an exception. It was not surprising that after that experience Gilliam didn't feel like working with the four other Pythons again.