MovieChat Forums > Jabberwocky (1977) Discussion > After Watching This Movie, I wanted to t...

After Watching This Movie, I wanted to take a Shower

posted 14 years ago by Jakealope
11 replies | jump to latest

That had to be the filthiest, most dusty set of all times.

What are they doing? Why do they come here?
Some kind of instinct, memory, what they used to do.

[–] Flanged 12 years ago

I thought that was great, they really got across the griminess, the dustiness, the texture and smell of the city. Other films could learn from this one - I thought the sets and costumes in Gangs of New York were great, for example, but they needed a lot more dirt and smoke to get across the feel of the times. Everything looked a bit perfect, clear, pristine. That was definitely not a problem in this film!
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[–] Jakealope 12 years ago

I agree 100%. I am comparing this movie to the average medieval movie which seems to have the cleanliness of Disney World. It was a dirty time where soap was largely unknown

[–] Flanged 12 years ago

It was a simpler time, a happier time - a time when tanners could only marry other tanners because their job involved rubbing masses of dog and pig and cow sh*t into animal hides. Ah, how I long to live in those days!

Most films really don't get the filth right. Maybe Jabberwocky went a bit too far in the other direction for comedy purposes (like Michael Palin getting pissed on all the time) but by and large it is just a more convincing medieval world than a lot of serious movies seem able to achieve.

Kingdom of Heaven looked like everything got polished before each take.
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[–] louiseculmer 9 years ago

soap was not unknown. People did wash, and towns were certainly a lot cleaner than they became later with industrialisation.

[–] sionxxii 12 years ago

I think the Pythons were the first to accurately depict how it really was back then.
"...snow white over night!!"

[–] Smerdyakoff 12 years ago

They didn't have much in the way of laundry detergent or soap back then, or hot water

[–] Strangerhand 10 years ago

Europe was a real cesspool at the time. I think that's what caused the real life Black Plague, because everything there then was so filthy, kinda like what's seen in this film, I think.

[–] zingzangspillip 9 years ago

On the commentary for Holy Grail, Terry Jones points out that people in this period actually had good teeth because there was no sugar. Not sure about filth, though.

[–] louiseculmer 9 years ago

That's right, there ws far less tooth decay than nowadays. The filth is wildly exaggreated. It was harder for people to keep things clean, be ause of the lack of indoor plumbing etc, but they certainly did not wallow in filth.

[–] louiseculmer 9 years ago

europe was not a cesspool. in fact, it became a lot dirtier later on, with massivepollution caused by industrialisation. A tourist in London in Elizabethan times described the Thames as a 'crystal stream'. It certainly wasn't like a crystal stream in the Victorian era, when it became absolutely filthy and filled with sewage.

[–] Strangerhand 9 years ago

Hmm, maybe, I guess.

But what about the Black Plague that swept horrible death across the European continent during the Middle Ages, before the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era? I heard it was because of extremely unsanitary conditions, like people didn't care and would do careless things like toss the, uh, contents of their full chamber-pots out of their windows onto the streets, no problem, until the big Black Plague problem that came as a result of so many people doing such things.

But no...? That isn't how it was?