PH. D's Favorite Movies: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Terry Gilliam is one cursed individual. Not to say he’s mean or spiteful, he’s just had a run of phenomenally bad luck in the course of filming his wonderful pieces of art, and in trying to release them properly to the public. Almost all his films have been beset with a variety of different production problems, delays and even full-blown disasters. Such is the case of his failed Don Quixote film, a catastrophe which was documented on camera and later released in documentary form as “Lost in La Mancha”. Now, I haven’t seen that documentary, but I hear it presents a rather grueling picture of that films' troubled production and eventual doom. This man… it’s very difficult to believe he’s still making films, after all the shit he’s had to go through. Both “Brazil” and “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” were marathon productions that over-shot their budgets and tested their crews to the breaking point. Really, though… thank God! Those two films are among my very favorites. First of all, they’re funny, they’re constantly visually engaging, and they have very broad thematic depth. I should stop talking about Brazil (which IS my favorite film, and my love of that one is a whole other story) and go on to Baron Munchausen. This one’s just had a brand spankin’ new DVD release for its 20^th anniversary with a pretty good documentary and an insightful commentary track.

First of all, I’d like to state one thing: This entire film is a beautiful painting. It becomes immediately clear to the discerning eye that this film works fantastically well visually. It really does stretch the possibilities of 1988 technology, and benefits from Gilliams’ affinity for practical props and effects. As the director states in the commentary track, there really is something special about seeing real things, be it the floating personage of the Grim Reaper, Death with his tattered, wispy cloak floating behind, or be it a hot air balloon escaping over a crowd of Turkish soldiers. Note the excellent use of miniatures, in scenes that would be taken in today’s cinema as only practical with computer generated effects.

So yeah, the movie is insane visually, but what about the other important parts that constitute the film? The plot, for one, is perfect to support Gilliam’s recurring themes of imagination and its conflict with reality. The film is set during the 19^th century: the age of Enlightenment, where politicians and intellectuals attempt to rule everything through logic and reason. The story centers on the daughter of a Theatre manager (a young Sarah Polley) who, whilst performing in a town besieged by the Ottoman Empire (read: The Turks), gets entangled with the mythical figure of Baron Munchausen (John Neville). Along the way, you get to meet the Baron’s crew: the strong man, the dwarf with the lungs of steel, the human version of the Road Runner (Eric Idle) and a talented sharp-shooter. We get taken to various fantastical locations, such as the moon, where a mad king battles between the primitive cravings of his body and the more intellectual pursuits of his head. We’re presented with a rather comical version of a forge located in a Volcano, where the god Vulcan fawns over Venus, his beautiful wife, while his workers go on strike for better wages. Also explored are the innards of a Leviathan of a fish, where the crew members of ingested ships play never ending card games. Of course there is an epic confrontation as a climax, where huge ships are thrown about, Eric Idle outruns a bullet, and the Baron decapitates a more than a dozen men. All of this is good, and stuff, but what does it MEAN? (Who really cares about that suff? I do!)

Thematically, the film explores the conflict between the whimsical world of imagination and dreams, and cold, logical reality. It effectively completes the “imagination” trilogy begun with “Time Bandits” (imagination as a boy), followed by “Brazil” (imagination as a man). "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” explores imagination seen through the eyes of an insane (or senile?) German Baron. All three seem to present a rather dull view of the real world, dominated by appliances and bureaucratic political figures, concerned with appearance and the opinions of discerning individuals. In contrast to this somewhat exaggerated portrait of modern and dystopian (in the case of Brazil) society, we have the land of dreams, of fantasy. While it becomes clear to the audience that these dreamscapes are more pure, more full of adventure than the real world could ever be, they are still fabrications, lies, to tell the truth. To Gilliam, this doesn’t seem to matter. I think he believes that the world of dreams and creating and imagination is a really effective portal to get out of the blatantly depressing world, and his films are there to provide that escape for the casual and invested film-goer.

I realize that the average viewer would find “Brazil” and “Munchausen” either too childish, or too impenetrable, but to me, and seemingly many other film “buffs”, they seem to hit the right buttons. Gilliam has the touch, and I really, truly hope that anyone who is reading this can feel the same sense of joy and escape that I do while watching these wonderful films. There’s so much loving craft and layers of meaning carved into these that I can’t possibly keep all of it to myself. See “Baron Munchausen”, share the joy! Fly my minions! Fly! Mwahahahaha!