Time Bandits (1981 film)

Growing up on The Princess Bride and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures I would say strongly influenced my opinion of this being the best of the Gilliam/Palin trilogy. At first I didn't get it. It was my first Gilliam film and I didn't think he would make a film with such a ssllooow pace. At least it seemed that way after having watched all the Monty Python films. Watching it always picks up and in constant reviewing of the film I would say I often stop the film at the Napoleon scene which seems early, but I didn't like how his character took the focus off the main group. I didn't like Napoleon in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures either really so it's not a personal thing about this movie. The character can be overbearing but in Time Bandits I can at least say his fixation on the conquests of other short tyrants is amusing. However Palin's recurring role is great for its straightforward comic relief as he and Shelley Duvall play lovers from different times who can never catch a break. The tomfoolery of the Bandits are cool but the individual names I can never remember but the group dynamic is memorable all the same. The strong artistic merits of the film are first off of course Gilliam's sense of cinematography and set design but more importantly in the plot (as written by Gilliam and Palin) is the morality embodied in Craig Warnock's character, the innocent uncorrupted boy who looks for a time of character not easy material access and draining technology. I'm always amused by films, songs, television episodes and even just books that condemn technology to some degree, because I see the point but it is inheritly counter-productive. I wish we were better at keeping technology and being responsible with it. A second plot point which tickles me in a special way is the Evil Genius/Almighty Being argument about use idea of society is better with (SPOILER ALERT) the Almighty winning out because the permission of wickedness and freedom to do the right thing is with respect to Divine gift of free will and only the honest, pure of heart Kevin having the courage to ask why of the Almighty.

Jabberwocky (1977 film)

Between 1975 and 1979 the members of Monty Python did as the Wu Tang Clan would do from 1994 to 1996 and that was embark on endless solo projects featuring some work by other members to establish individual fame before reuniting to follow up on a breakthru. Monty Python And The Holy Grail led straight to 3 new BBC series featuring John Cleese (Fawlty Towers) Eric Idle (The Rutland Weekend Television) and Michael Palin and Terry Jones (Ripping Yarns) and while Graham was working on films of his own with the help of people like Bernard McKenna and Peter Cook, Terry G. called on the help of the Oxford team particularly Palin to establish his serious film career but his first three featuring Palin and a fourth with Idle Terry G. would maintain strong comedic elements. What I mean by that is the films don't play like they are trying to make you laugh although it is meant to be funny causing those who like straightforward humor to find it just plain strange (even more so than a typical Python film). But Jabberwocky is largely less popular now than it was when it was released because Terry Gilliam made consistently cult classic films with consistent quality that alienates mainstream potential fans and the fame Jabberwocky is diluted with other well liked Gilliam works. However with Time Bandits and Brazil Terry G.'s early comedic films worked splendid as Michael Palin was kind of a crossover and kind of a cult favorite giving Terry G. market appeal without selling out and this film relies on Michael Palin the comedic actor and Time Bandits Palin the screenwriter and bit actor and Brazil the dramatic minor character. Jabberwocky is like Holy Grail entertainment in a Life Of Brian/Time Bandits tone. Like the Holy Grail it has an anti-climatic ending which does weigh this film down more considerable than it did with Monty Python And The Holy Grail. However subtle zaniness and a contemporary look at olden times as a statement of the modern age make this film as good as anything else anyone from MP made from 1975-1985, maybe just less universally accepted.

Hemingway's Chair (1995 book)

Michael Palin is easily the most under-appreciated member of Monty Python (considering Graham had already done a lot by the time of his death). Michael was always pegged as the nice guy and according to sources out there he is not so pleased with it because it implies a weak will. But Palin did always seem the most self-sacrificing of the group at least when it come to the other's solo projects. To list
1) John Cleese's How To Irritate People 2) A Fish Called Wanda 3) Fierce Creatures 4) The Human Face (John Cleese documentary) 5) Jabberwocky 6) Time Bandits 7) Brazil 8) The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash 9) Bert Fegg's Nasty Book For Boys And Girls (a Terry Jones book) 10) Bert Fegg's Encyclopedia Of All World Knowledge (its sequel) 11) Secrets (a Terry Jones play) 12) The Box (a short film cowritten by Terry Jones) 13) Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (a Terry Jones film also featuring Cleese and Idle in larger roles)
And I mentioned all that deliberately with this book. You see the problem is Hemingway's Chair (one of his few personal achievements outside his children's books and legendary travel documentaries) just seems so autobiographical in this sense. I always related to Palin's characters and sketches better than any others from the Python gang and yet I consider myself fiercely independent. From Sir Galahad to Herbert Anchovy to Arthur Pewty he always the nice guy trying to do the right thing. But like Cardinal Richelieu, Adrian Bugsy Malone or Ken Pile he had a strong personality underneath all the social quirks. Plus Michael was an Oxford history grad who is speculated to have Asperger's Syndrome (also with Dan Aykroyd, Andy Kaufman, Charles Schulz, Woody Allen, Peter Tork, Jim Henson and Garrison Keillor just to mention the comedians). I have AS and I see relate able traits in him only seemingly more admirable in him. If Martin Sproale the main character in Hemingway's Chair is a reflection of himself I wish I could give Michael some encouragement. It was suppose to be humorous but the simple tragedies of the book seemed cruel to happen to a guy like Martin. Martin is an Ernest Hemingway fanatic (which I can't relate to but in Play It Again Sam Woody Allen idolized Humphrey Bogart which I didn't understand until I saw the film). He works at a post office in Theston for poor wages. His father died (presumably from suicide) when Martin was seventeen and shaped his interest in Hemingway but kept a small town docile lifestyle with a girlfriend whom he has not had sex with, quite. At age 37 he is expecting a promotion but not only not got it but the new boss wants to privatize the post office and make it run on profit not service (to Martin's great chagrin). Martin stays docile too long loses his girlfriend and loses the post office until he quits and falls off the grid. Luckily for most of the book he befriends a Hemingway scholar who helps him emotionally named Ruth Kohler. At the fall of his relationship with Elaine Rudge they start to heat up but she leaves for Oxford. In the end he sabotages things for his new boss Nick Marshall and goes to the Key West for a Hemingway festival seemingly happy but alone. I hope as Michael Palin himself goes traveling the world he remembers his loving wife, his good friends and his many admiring fans. The book however is still great if not looked at as solely an author's mirror image as there are good comical descriptions of mundane small town polite life where more class means less personality and/or character.