Terry Gilliam Movies
Submitted by crispin on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 09:11
Tags:
- Time Bandits
- Brazil
- The Fisher King
- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- 12 Monkeys
Author Comments:
Terry Gilliam, the animator for Monty Python's Flying Circus, is my all-time favorite director. I love the unique visual style of his movies. There is always something unique about his films. Thus, a tribute list to him.
"Brazil" is definitely my favorite Gilliam movie, and one of my top 5 favorite movies in general.
I really liked "Fear and Loathing", although so many critics gave it bad reviews. I thought it did an excellent job of portraying the American spirit of the late 60s and poke fun at the American consumer society.
I'm not the sort of person that gets blown away by movies, but it has happened to me once. I was in a small cinema with a total audience of about seven. The movie was Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL. The movie starts with a dream, and watching it was like a waking dream. It was a day session, and leaving the cinema and going back out into the light was like waking from a dream - or do I mean nightmare? See this unique movie on the big screen. Let it blow you away.
Admission: 'anonymous' was me.
18 months later! Why come clean now? You'd gotten away with it. :-)
I guess I subconsciously wanted to stir up more discussion of this marvellous film. It really is one of the handful of films that impacted hugely on me and came as a reminding revelation of how magical the cinema can be.
It really is wonderful. I do find it so hard to get up the emotional energy required to rewatch it though. That's probably why I haven't bought the DVD yet, which is, by all accounts, terrific. Film school in a box, they say.
Jim, thanks for the DVD review. If I had a DVD player (waiting for my last VCR to give up the ghost), I'd buy the Criterion Collection disk and post my own review here at TL. As things stand I'll buy the disk, but it may be some time before I get to watch it. Would you believe I've only seen BRAZIL that one time? For years it was unavailable to me, then when it appeared on video cassette I couldn't bring myself to small-screen it - guess I was afeared of disappointment - but I will see the DVD one day.
Actually, don't buy the disc until you have a player. The one complaint about it that I've heard is that it's a non-anamorphic transfer, which basically means it won't look as good on a widescreen TV (should you ever upgrade (assuming you don't have one now)). It's possible (theoretically) that an anamorphic version will be released, so buying any non-anamorphic DVD prematurely is probably a bad idea. I'm trying not to buy any non-anamorphic DVDs, but it's hard when movies that I want are already released in non-anamorphic format. There is no guarantee they will ever be re-released as anamorphic, but I know I'll kick myself if I buy now and then shortly thereafter a superior print comes out.
Message received and understood. Thanks.
I still find it interesting to look at the, as I call it, "Circle of Life Trilogy" on the whole. It adds greatly to my enjoyment of all 3 movies.
Time Bandits - Childhood
Brazil - Midlife Crisis
Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen - Old Age