THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN (1988) ** Great, great sets. Turkish cannons, the moon, the angel of death...terrestrial and outer space, all brilliant. Unfortunately Terry Gilliam's script and direction is somewhat like a bright guy who's been holding up the end of the bar for a few hours too long-not without intelligence or insight, but cyclically redundant, and eventually you've heard what it is that he chooses to say, which doesn't necessary represent anywhere near the end. John Neville lacks of the grandeur necessary for the baron, and little Sarah Polley is too young to carry him. Instead we end up waiting to see whose lair we'll end up in next-Robin Williams is King of the Moon, but if he doesn't have a body how can he be on methamphetamine? Oliver Reed is also entertaining, but has also been better, with his crazed blue eyes shining the torment of one who has married the love goddess. Uma Thurman is, not incidentally, quite credible as Botticelli's Venus, which is saying something. If you watch closely enough you'll also be rewarded with a cameo by Sting, but you shouldn't allow yourself to be that distracted from the sets. I'm wondering if they'd cut about half the dialogue and put in more ballsy music, if that would have worked better. I think it would, and offer the similarly attired Smashing Pumpkins video, "Tonight," as Exhibit A. Its entertainment value is more favourably condensed, it tells a story just as well, and it looks very much the same. Doesn't mean that it's ripped off; this kind of funky stuff goes back to Georges Méliés' Le Voyage dans la lune, or the caves at Lascaux. Where it was drawn, incidentally, by the real Baron von Munchausen.
back to Brilliant Observations on 1776 Films page, or Index
go back home, or send me email
Reviews won't do it any more! I need sustained brilliance! I want to buy your novel!