My Week in Film #5 Terry Gilliam Special

I didn’t watch any films this week, so as Mark has requested, I’m going to provide you the reader with a brief overview of the films of my favourite director, Terry Gilliam. Gilliam is known for his whimsical style and films that are both child-like and dark.

Gilliam’s first directorial credit of note is for Monty Python’s Holy Grail, which of course, is very funny. Similar in style and execution is Jabberwocky, another medieval-set series of sketches loosely strung together by a scant plot.

Time Bandits was one of Gilliam’s more commercially successful films and also one his most enjoyable. The plot concerns a group of dwarves who have stolen a map that shows the way through time and are using it to steal riches. The time travelling element once again gives Gilliam a device to scenes of historically based amusement. John Cleese’s Robin Hood stands out as being particularly funny. The film has a great ending and stick around for the credits, during which George Harrison’s magnificent song Dream Away plays.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is another series of funny scenes attached to a thin plot. The aged eponymous Baron is attempting to recruit his old companions to protect a besieged city. Overblown and over budget, Munchausen is a fun film with only one criticism, in that it is at times overly sentimental. It is also pretty indulgent, but personally, I like that.

Brazil is perhaps Gilliam’s best film though it is only my third favourite. Brazil is basically George Orwell’s 1984 fed through Gilliam’s fevered imagination and twisted into something weird and compelling. Dream sequences and reality contort with each other and the set and costume design is remarkable. An artistic and political triumph, its one man against the system theme mirrored in Gilliam’s fight to get the film released.

Twelve Monkeys is probably my favourite Gilliam film and film in general (I say probably, it fluctuates regularly with my next entry). Bruce Willis stars as a convict sent back in time to the 90s to try and gather information on a biological weapon that has wiped out much of the earth’s population. Institutionalised for his apocalyptic rambling, he meets an excellently unhinged Brad Pitt in a career best performance (yeah, why not?). The film is amusing, thought-provoking, dark and persuasive in all the right measures. I urge you to seek it out.

The other contender for my personal favourite film is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro star in Gilliam’s adaptation of the superlative Hunter S Thomson (my favourite author) novel of the same name. The narrative is drug fuelled quest in search of the American Dream. Psychedelic camera work, puppetry, post modern devices and remarkable prose combine to create what is frequently but accurately described as a trip of a movie. In an interview I was lucky enough to attend the filming of with Mark Kermode and Gilliam, the director explained how he took pains to make sure the horizon line never appeared horizontally. This attention to detail, combined with Depp’s accurate mirroring of Thomson provides us with an addled but amazing piece of cinema.

In terms of Gilliam’s films that I have actually seen (the two main films I haven’t are The Fisher King and Tideland), only The Brothers Grimm disappoints. In many ways, this represents the flaws of Gilliam’s style most prominently. It is incoherent and muddled, with only vague impressions of plot and character. The general idea is quite interesting – portraying The Brothers Grimm (played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger) as conmen creating fairy stories for personal gain, but is executed poorly.

Gilliam’s next film will be The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, starring the late Heath Ledger, as well as Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law in the titular role. If Gilliam’s canon to date is anything to go by, it should be well worth a look. Gilliam’s back catalogue is certainly worth a dabble – there should be something to interest everyone, from futuristic noir to medieval comedy via social satire. I would suggest you try any of the films mentioned above (except The Brothers Grimm), though as I have said, I would particularly recommend Brazil and Twelve Monkeys (maybe try the less accessible Fear and Loathing if you’re brave!).