Terry Gilliam

With a directorial career spanning over forty years, Terry Gilliam (b. 1940) remains rooted in the sensibilities of his early work in animation. Born in Minnesota and raised in the Los Angeles area, Gilliam, sometimes classified as a British filmmaker, has lived in England since the 1960s, renouncing his US citizenship in 2006. As the resident animator of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969–1974), Gilliam created surreal and absurd vignettes from cutout images that complemented the live sketches. After partnering with fellow Python Terry Jones in directing Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Gilliam struck off on his own with Jabberwocky (1977). Many films followed in which one or more members of Monty Python appeared as actors under his direction. Though Gilliam’s works ostensibly cover diverse subjects—bureaucracy, virus outbreaks, and the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, to name only a few—all engage with questions of the power and problems of the imagination in the face of an often-grim or oppressive reality. The overall look of a Gilliam film is unmistakable as well, with off-kilter shots meant to disorient the viewer and crowded mises-en-scène. His use of wide-angle lenses is so extensive that the 14-millimeter lens has been nicknamed “the Gilliam.” Deeply involved not only in camerawork but in many other aspects of production such as costuming, set design, and scriptwriting, Gilliam would seem to fit the definition of an auteur. However, in numerous interviews, Gilliam resists that label, stressing his collaborative approach and openness to suggestions. Indeed, the process of making and distributing his films has sometimes garnered as much, if not more, attention than the films themselves. Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Brothers Grimm (2005), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2014) all faced disruptions and setbacks of various kinds. No production was bedeviled so long and in so many ways as The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018), taking nearly thirty years to reach the screen. Frequently identifying with the main characters of his films in progress, Gilliam perhaps most resembles Don Quixote in his unstinting commitment to his vision, whether commercially successful or not, whether brilliant or baffling to critics or audiences.

Giving Away the Game – Scattershot Notes on Social Class and Other Afflictions

One of my earliest jobs was driving for an unregulated car service in New York. In the days before Uber they were called ‘gypsy cabs.’ One night I found myself on the business end of a revolver. Telling the tale to my dispatcher next day, he was staggeringly nonplussed. ‘Ya gotta put up with a lot,’ he said, ‘when you’re tryin’ t’ get ahead.’ ‘Yeah,’ I replied, disgusted, ‘even gettin’ your head blown off.’ Some time later, another driver, an African-American in a similar scenario, didn’t make it, emphasizing how much higher the stakes for a person of color. These are the real wages of work, I thought, and the rules of the game. My dispatcher’s nonchalance bespoke how invested in the game he was; in a set of beliefs, assumptions, and animating myths that keep the wheel of fortune going. Like the Monty Python skit about the collapsing tower, if too few invest in those myths, the entire edifice crumbles. The following is a personal essay that attempts to navigate the game’s parameters - social class, aspiration, and its attendant neurosis - and the myths that animate such notions as ‘getting ahead,’ ‘climbing the ladder,’ and the ‘American Dream,’ my country’s main (ideological) export. The approach is less theory-driven than empirical, phenomenological. Hence the numbered sections, a style popularized by Wittgenstein, Herbert Read and others. Here it doesn’t represent chronology so much as the elusive, episodic nature of the beast.

Media Tourism and Its Role in Sustaining Scotland’s Tourism Industry

Popular media, including films, television, comics, videogames, and books, are an increasingly important aspect of contemporary tourism. This is especially the case in Scotland, where popular culture led to the development of Scotland’s tourism industry. In this article, we will describe the phenomenon of media-related tourism in Scotland with respect to three selected case studies within Scotland: First, Glenfinnan Viaduct, made famous by the Harry Potter film series; Second, Doune Castle, used as a set for Monty Python, Game of Thrones and more recently, Outlander; Third, Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott, a classical novelist now celebrating his 250th Birthday Anniversary. In examining these case studies, the article will consider how sustainable media tourism is. This approached is from the lens of media tourism and its impact on rural communities, concerns over local infrastructure, wider understandings of media tourism as a growing sub-sector, and the sustainability of the wider Scottish tourism industry in relation to the coronavirus pandemic.

Parody and the Role of Song in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

This chapter deals with the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As Monty Python’s first full-length film, Holy Grail combines the sketch comedy style of the troupe with a loose interpretation of Arthurian legend. Although chock-full of anachronisms and outright mockery, Monty Python’s version of Arthurian legend nonetheless represents a valuable addition to the retellings of the story in the twentieth century. While the literature on the Holy Grail offers a foundation for considering the film as an adaptation of Arthurian legend, little work has been done on the film’s music and how it enhances the story. This chapter will emphasize the role of the music, especially the songs written by Neil Innes, arguing that they not only provide atmosphere but augment the narrative (such as it is). In this way, this chapter will also lay the groundwork for examining Holy Grail as the basis for Eric Idle’s later musical, Spamalot.

From Camelot to Spamalot

This book explores musicalizations of Arthurian legend as filtered through specific tellings by Mark Twain, T. H. White, and Monty Python. For centuries, Arthurian legend with its tales of Camelot, romance, and chivalry has captured imaginations throughout Europe and the Americas. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, musical versions of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have abounded in the United States, shaping the legend for American audiences through song. The ever-shifting, age-old tale of King Arthur and his world is one which thrives on adaptation for its survival. New generations tell the story in their own ways, updating or enhancing the relevance for a fresh audience. Taking a case-study approach, this work foregrounds the role of music in selected Arthurian adaptations, examining six stage and film musicals. It considers how musical versions in twentieth- and twenty-first-century popular culture interpret the legend of King Arthur, contending that music guides the audience to understand this well-known tale and its characters in new and unexpected ways. All of the productions considered include an overtly modern perspective on the legend, intruding and even commenting on the tale of King Arthur. Shifting from an idealistic utopia to a silly place, the myriad notions of Camelot offer a look at the importance of myth in American popular culture.

Notions of Place, Legend, and Broadway in Monty Python’s Spamalot

This chapter shifts to the Broadway musical Monty Python’s Spamalot (2005). As an adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot adds numerous songs written by Eric Idle and John du Prez. These songs not only send up Arthurian legend but common musical theater tropes, augmenting the “meta” tone of the show for fans of musical theater history as well as Monty Python. Furthermore, the musical incarnation increases many of the roles from the original film and includes new characters, extending the connections to the world of Arthurian legend. The musical’s expanded pantheon of references and musical theater send-ups highlight the interpretive layering in a meaningful way. The author’s analysis triangulates the legend with Holy Grail and Spamalot, arguing that while Monty Python may play fast and loose with ideas of fidelity, their versions of Arthurian legend remain true to the malleable spirit of the tale.

When the Beat in Beat Studies is the Beat in Offbeat Comedy

Amy Friedman discusses Beat comedy and its raw linguistic Anglo-American legacies in the then-burgeoning underground club scene and on television. She sketches ludic Beat voices from Kerouac to Kyger, connecting these to comedian such as the British Beyond the Fringe of the early 1960s, Monty Python, Lenny Bruce, George Carline, Richard Pryor, and Phyllis Diller. The essay includes sample online resources for classroom use.