“When I have the Map, I will be free, and the world will be different, because I have understanding...of digital watches. And soon I shall have understanding of videocassette recorders and car telephones. And when I have understanding of them, I shall have understanding of computers. And when I have understanding of computers, I shall be the Supreme Being! God isn't interested in technology. He knows nothing of the potential of the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how he spends his time! Forty-three species of parrot! Nipples for men! Slugs!! He created slugs. They can't hear! They can't speak! They can't operate machinery! I mean, are we not in the hands of a lunatic? If I were creating a world, I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, day one!”
-The personification of evil in Time Bandits
Terrence Vance Gilliam was born in Medicine Lake, Minnesota, on November 22 1940. As a child, Gilliam spent most of his time playing outside his house and at the local lake. The Gilliams did not own a television; however they did own a radio, which Gilliam credits to helping him develop a visual style, as it forced him to create sets and actions in his mind to follow along the stories. At the age of twelve the Gilliams moved to Panorama City, California, next to Hollywood, to treat Terry’s younger sister’s pneumonia. Moving to Hollywood had a strong effect on the young Gilliam – he had left the country and moved into a city, going to school with the children of movie stars, learning the ways of city life.
Terry Gilliam excelled in high school. He was his class’ president, prom king, earned straight A’s and was voted most likely to succeed his senior year. After graduation, Terry Gilliam attended Occidental University in Los Angeles, studying Physics, Architecture, and History before finally choosing to major in Political Science. Gilliam has said that living in Los Angeles during the sixties, experiencing riots and police brutality, heavily influenced the way he thinks. During these years Gilliam discovered Mad Magazine, and began a correspondence with the editor Harvey Kurzman. After college Kurzman offered Gilliam a job in New York working for Help! magazine as a cartoonist. Gilliam felt suffocated by New York City, and when Help! ultimately went out of business a few years later Gilliam went to England. In England Gilliam found work as an animator on the television program Do Not Adjust Your Set with Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones. Following this series, Michael Palin was offered a spot on a BBC program featuring John Cleese and Graham Chapman, and he agreed on the condition that his former collaborators would also be hired, as they had all been offered their own series together. These six men would ultimately star, write, and animate Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Terry Gilliam’s role as member of the Monty Python troupe started off strictly with animation, but as the show went on he began to act in some bit parts in various sketches. His unique style of animation was featured heavily in the show to establish a stream of consciousness narrative. The animations were a mix between his artwork, Victorian imagery, and colorful landscapes, accompanied by crude sound effects. Gilliam, unlike the other Pythons, was not an actor, however he was occasionally given parts in the show. His largest roles were Cardinal Fang in the Spanish Inquisition sketch, Patsy and the bridge keeper in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and the jailer in Life of Brian.
In 1975, Monty Python filmed their first full length movie of original material, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with Terry Gilliam co-directing with fellow python Terry Jones. Having two directors proved difficult, as Jones and Gilliam each had a different style of filmmaking. Gilliam preferred to make films from an aesthetic vantage, and worked to create innovative shots and sequences, whereas Jones focused more on the actors and the dialogue. The rest of the Python’s ultimately preferred Jones’ style, and he would direct the following two Python films by himself.
Terry Gilliam’s first film independent of Monty Python was Jabberwocky, which was released in 1977. Although it was independent of Monty Python, it starred Michael Palin and featured several Python actors, had a very similar style to Python films, and was released in some places as Monty Python’s Jabberwocky, much to Gilliam’s displeasure. Although the film opened to mix reviews, it has become a cult film, and helped to established Gilliam as a filmmaker.
Gilliam would receive much greater success with filmmaking in the 1980’s. His first film, Time Bandits, was written by Gilliam and Michael Palin. Filmed on a five million dollar budget financed by George Harrison, the film tells the story of a young boy who travels through times with a band of dwarves, stealing various treasures. The film starred Ian Holm, Sean Connery, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Shelly Duvall, and David Rappaport. Time Bandits earned over forty million in box office returns, and was well received by critics. The film was very important for Gilliam, because it successfully established him as a director independent of the Monty Python troupe. It also helped to establish a theme for his eighties films, as it is a story about fantasy in childhood, and his subsequent films would explore fantasy in adulthood and fantasy in old age.
After Time Bandits, Monty Python made their last film together as a troupe. Since Terry Gilliam was an establish filmmaker at this time, he elected not to spend his time on animations for this film; rather, his biggest contribution was a short film independent of the Python feature. What was intended to be just a short grew into The Crimson Permanent Assurance, and ran a total of fifteen minutes. The film is unrelated to the one that followed it, Monty Python’s Meaning of Life; instead, this one was about a group of old men who get laid off from their jobs, and instead of leaving, kill their bosses and commandeer the building as a pirate ship. Although it is only fifteen minutes long, the anti bureaucratic, pro fantasy message is the epitome of Terry Gilliam.
After The Meaning of Life, Gilliam began work on the film Brazil. Starring several actors from Time Bandits with the addition of Robert De Niro, Brazil tells the story of an Orwellian world similar to 1984, where a corrupt invasive bureaucracy rules and one man tries to escape from it. Gilliam’s version was hated by Universal Studios, and they released their own cut, which Gilliam hated. A long battle for Gilliam’s version of Brazil ensued, and in the end, Gilliam’s version was released. Despite its underperformance at the box office, the film received nearly universal praise from critics; only Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times wrote a negative review of the film. It is widely regarded as Gilliam’s masterpiece.
Gilliam’s final film of the 1980’s was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Munchausen tells the story of an old adventurer who goes on adventures with a young girl in search of rescue for a European city under attack by Turks. Filmed entirely in France on a budget of $23 million, Munchausen ended up going seventeen million over budget. To make matters worse, there was no wide domestic release for the film, and it ended up only earning eight million dollars. These details negated all the positive reviews and awards the film earned, and has become a black mark on Gilliam’s legacy. It made him appear to be a risky and unpredictable director who could not be trusted with budgets and delivering profitable films.
Gilliam’s first movie of the 1990’s was The Fisher King, which starred Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams in New York City. The Fisher King was the beginning of Gilliam’s Americana trilogy, so named because all three of his films from the nineties took place in America and were intertwined with their cities. A departure from his previous work, The Fisher King was the first film Gilliam directed without a python member in the cast; it was also the first film he directed that he was not involved in the writing of the screenplay. Stylistically the story was a lot less fantastical than his previous works, taking place in the real world; however, the main character, Parry (Robin Williams), suffers from fantastical hallucinations. His next film, 12 Monkeys, also featured a script not written by Gilliam, and was based on the 1962 short film La Jetee. Starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, 12 Monkeys tells the story of a man who has survived a superflu epidemic and goes back in time to attempt to find a cure for it. Released to very positive reviews and a box office gross of over five times the original budget, 12 Monkeys is Gilliam’s most successful work. With the success of 12 Monkeys, Gilliam moved into a very different direction and undertook the ambitious project of bringing Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the big screen. Hunter S. Thompson personally recommended Johnny Depp to portray him, and invited Depp to live in his house for two months before filming began. Benicio del Toro played Dr. Gonzo, Thompson’s lawyer who accompanied Thompson on his drug filled adventure in Las Vegas. The film was released in 1997 to mixed reviews and was a box office flop, but has since gained a cult following. Thompson enjoyed the film, and legend has it that during the premiere the visuals triggered flashbacks for him, resulting in him screaming when the bats flew across the screen.
Gilliam transitioned the end of the nineties into the millennium working on the film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Although production problems kept the film from ever being finished, Lost in La Mancha, a documentary about the failed film was released in 2001. Starring Terry Gilliam as he endures heart break over the failure of his film, he is portrayed as a character similar to Quixote, a self fashioned knight’s errant who chases after windmills, believing them to be giants.
The last ten years have seen varying degrees of success for Gilliam. He has spent the decade attempting to regain the rights to Don Quixote, and working on several other projects. In 2005 he had his first experience working on a big budget film with heavy studio interference. The Brothers Grimm was eventually released to only mixed reviews, despite a very strong performance at the box office. Gilliam blamed the poor reviews on the studio interference, which had angered him so deeply that he left during filming, and was gone long enough to make another film, Tideland. Tideland tells the story of a little girl named Jeliza Rose who accidently gives her junkie parents lethal doses of heroin within the first fifteen minutes of the film. After their deaths, she is alone in the middle of the Texas countryside, miles from civilization, and her closest neighbors are an insane taxidermist and an imbecile. Filmed on a small budget and completed in less than a year, it is possibly the most distinct and beautiful of Gilliam’s work. It was almost universally panned by critics, but the ones who reviewed it positively referred to it as a masterpiece and a classic. Fellow Python Michael Palin said that Tideland is either the best thing Gilliam has ever filmed, or the worst. His most recent film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, was a return to his eighties style, as a fantasy based on age with lower budget special effects. Although it was stalled in production due to the sudden death of star Heath Ledger, the film was eventually finished and was his best received film by critics of the last ten years.
Gilliam refers to his films from the 1980’s as his trilogy of age and fantasy. Time Bandits is a story of a child who enters a fantasy world, Brazil is the story of a thirty-something year old man who finds his own fantasy world, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen explores the fantasy world of an old man. All three of these films have the main characters fighting an epic battle at the end of the fantasy, with Kevin fighting against the personification of evil in Time Bandits, Sam against an evil bureaucracy in Brazil, and Baron Munchausen against Turkish invaders in Baron Munchausen. Each of these stories also experimented heavily with special effects and lavish sets; his movies in the next decade would be a lot less fantastical, although still more so than the average director.
If age linked Terry Gilliam’s first three films together, America linked his second set of three films together. Whereas his first three movies took place in Europe, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas each took place in a different American city, and in each film, it can be argued that the city itself was a supporting character. In The Fisher King, Parry and Jack both live in New York City; Jack a disc Jockey, and Parry one of New York’s numerous homeless. Together, they ride the subways, they walk along the Hudson, and they lie naked together in Central Park. As well as being the first of Gilliam’s Americana trilogy, this is also Gilliam’s second film to feature a quest for the Holy Grail. In 12 Monkeys, Cole is shown in a post apocalyptic Philadelphia, and is sent back in time to vaccinate the future population from the disease that has wiped out humanity. He is sent to Baltimore by accident, and must travel to Philadelphia. In both cities we are shown both the gritty underbelly of the cities and the higher class sections. Terry Gilliam’s next and final film of this trilogy, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is based on Hunter S. Thompson’s book of the same name. The book chronicles Thompson and his lawyer, Dr. Gonzo, as they drive through the Nevada desert and the trouble they create during their time in Las Vegas. The moods of the movie that would normally be conveyed through people and conversation can be seen through the various locations within the city itself, for example, when Raul (Thompson’s pseudonym) and Gonzo are at the peak of their drug trip, they are shown at a carnival, and when their trip goes south, the characters find themselves in a trashy diner in north Las Vegas.
A more unifying theme, that spans multiple decades rather than being limited to a single span of ten years, is fantasy versus reality. Every single film, despite the director’s best efforts, is to some extent a fantasy world that only exists on film. Gilliam has always stressed this, making his films blatant fantasies that not only take the audience on grand adventures but also to dark ones as well. His motif of fantasy versus reality is perhaps his best known theme. In the early eighties, when Terry Gilliam was first establishing himself as a film maker, he made his first film that dealt strongly on the conflict between fantasy and reality. Time Bandits tells the story of a boy, Kevin, who lives with his two ineffectual parents who are obsessed with technology, whereas his head is stuck in the past. That is his reality. Kevin leaves this reality with a gang of incompetent thieving dwarves who travel through history in search of great treasures. However, not all of this fantasy land is great and spectacular; Kevin almost gets eaten by a monster, sinks with the Titanic, and has to fight a battle against pure evil. Like Kevin, Sam Lowry in Brazil also has a tough reality to face: a totalitarian government, a narcissistic mother, and a tedious job. Throughout the beginning of the film Sam allows himself to ignore these truths by dreaming that he is a flying knight on a quest to rescue a fair maiden. Baron Munchausen, on the other hand, actually is a flying adventurer with many fair maidens at his disposal, his only real problem with reality is that nobody believes him. The Fisher King switches up the theme a little bit; in this film, Parry’s fantasy that a red knight chases him whenever he feels good about himself is less preferable to reality, where he was once a professor and has friends who are trying to help him overcome a traumatic event. In the end, he is freed from his dark fantasies, able to build a normal life. In 12 Monkeys, Cole has two realities, the past and the present; however, psychologists are able to successfully convince him that the future epidemic world is a fantasy world that he made up, and that he is crazy. For Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Gilliam uses drugs as a realistic barrier between fantasy and reality. Throughout the film Raul Duke and Dr. Gonzo are incapable of distinguishing between what is actually happening and what is merely a result of their drug use. Drugs in Fear and Loathing are perhaps the clearest example of a physical barrier until 2009’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. In this film there is a mirror that will let any character enter it and reveal a fantasy world to them. The mirror is controlled by Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), an immortal monk who has made several deals with the devil, and the mirrors fantasy world quickly turns dark as the devil begins to use the mirror to steal the souls of Parnassus’ clients.
As a student, Gilliam was always interested in history, and as a director he has incorporated historical figures and settings on a regular basis. His first two films, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Jabberwocky both took place in the medieval period, and the aesthetics correspond appropriately. There are large castles, there is a primitive system of commerce and feudalism, and the people are subservient to kings who live in great castles. In Time Bandits, the bandits stop at several turbulent histories, such as Europe during the Napoleonic Wars, they meet Robin Hood in eleventh century England, they meet King Argemennon in Greece, and they go down with the Titanic. Kevin, the young protagonist, helps the bandits navigate the time periods with his knowledge of history. Both The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and The Fisher King are based on old historic legends; however, Gilliam takes several liberties with both films. In 2005’s The Brothers Grimm, we are given an exaggerated version of history, where the Brothers Grimm (Heath Ledger and Matt Damon) are both con artists who fall under a curse while traveling in the woods of French occupied Germany. The film has a closer resemblance with one of their fairy tales than their actual lives. In Gilliam’s upcoming film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the story will follow a man thrown back in time to Cervantes’ Spain, where the elder Quixote confuses this man for his sidekick, Sancho Panza. Although the book is fiction, the film will give a snapshot into early seventeenth century Spain.
Terry Gilliam’s luscious sets and fantasy worlds convey the feeling that he views the world with child like wonder, so it is no surprise that he features children in several of his films. In Time Bandits, the main character of Kevin is about eight years old. He has spent his childhood romanticizing history, and comes to learn that some of his heroes are disappointments; however, he never openly insults them and remains in a state of wonder throughout the film. In The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, only Sally Salt, a mistreated little girl, believes that the Baron is who he says he is. She is so enamored with him that she stows away on his hot air balloon, and follows him on his adventures to the moon and to meet gods. When the Baron ultimately gives up on his quest, Sally remains resilient and demands they continue trying, and it is she who ultimately helps the Baron regain his youthful energy. In 12 Monkeys, Cole is a full grown adult in body, but having spent his life witnessing everybody he knows dying and then subsequently living a cage, he is left with the mental capacity of a child. Although he acts dangerous at times, he relies on the kindness of everybody else to be able to do most things. When he returns to the past, he views the living world with amazement, whereas everybody else in the film appears jaded. Finally, in Tideland, the entire film is shown through the eyes of a nine year old girl named Jeliza Rose. The daughter of a washed up rock star, Jeliza Rose witnesses her parents’ overdoses within the course of two days, but remains resilient and joyful despite this. She thinks of her house and surrounding fields as a big adventure, and her wild imagination helps her to stay happy throughout the film. In the introduction to Tideland, Gilliam says “I was 64 years old when I made this film, and I finally discovered the child within me. It turned out to be a little girl.”
As a Python, it should come to no surprise that Gilliam places an emphasis on comedy in his films. Time Bandits, Gilliam’s first major film, displayed his dark, sometimes Pythonesque brand of humor. The various midgets often bumble their way into trouble with comedic results. Then there is Napoleon, portrayed to be a drunken fool who cares more for puppet shows than military victories. Michael Palin’s and Shelley Duvall’s characters also add to the comic relief as two young lovers who seem to have counterparts at all points in time, all of whom become victim to the time bandit’s antics. Baron Munchausen portrayed the same type of offbeat humor, especially the king of the moon, portrayed by Robin Williams, who is snappy and rude and talks incredibly fast. Eric Idle’s character Berthold is also a constant source of comedy as he runs faster than the road runner when he is in action and is frighteningly forgetful throughout the film. In 12 Monkeys, a more serious film,, Jeffrey Goines provides dark humor by explaining his fantastical conspiracy theories in the mental institution in which he and Cole are trapped . Goines, portrayed by Brad Pitt, is often loud and obnoxious in his monologues, and is chastised for disturbing the other patients. Goines desperately wants to be taken seriously, and is considered a serious threat by Cole for a while, but in the end he is just a sad rich kid looking for something to rebel against. In Terry Gilliam’s personal introduction to Tideland, he tells the viewer that they should not forget to laugh during the film. At first glance, that seems horrible, as the film is about a lonely girl without parents whose only neighbors belong in an institution. However, the movie is shown through the eyes of the little girl, Jeliza Rose, and she is seen laughing throughout the film. With Tideland, Gilliam wants the viewer to see the world not with our bias and judgment, but through the eyes of this little girl, who views her parents’ accidental overdoses and neighbors’ eccentricities as innocent. With this perspective, the viewer can watch the film and laugh when she laughs, seeing the comedy that she sees.
A symbol that Gilliam often uses is cages. Cages represent isolation, and are a physical manifestation of the hopeless direction his films eventually go in. In Time Bandits, all of the bandits and Kevin find themselves locked in a cage towards the end of the film by a character portraying the physical manifestation of evil; since they are small enough to fit through the bars, it proves not to be a major setback. In Gilliam’s following film, Brazil, Sam Lowry sees Jillian, his fair maiden, in a bubble cage in his dreams. He, as her valiant knight, has the duty of rescuing her. In Baron Munchausen, the Baron’s old sidekick Berthold is found locked in a birdcage on the moon, having been there so long that he is now completely unsure of whom he is. The Baron rescues him and helps to restore his memory. Although there are no cells in The Fisher King, his subsequent film 12 Monkeys compensates by employing two cages; the first is where we first meet Cole, imprisoned underground for his own good, along with the rest of humanity who survived the epidemic that killed almost six billion people. Later in the film, when Cole has traveled back through time, he is placed in an isolation chamber in an asylum, which effectively serves a cage. Gilliam seems to have dropped the cage motif in his later films.
What is most distinct about Gilliam’s films, more so than any of the aforementioned elements, is his anti bureaucratic sentiments. Not surprisingly, these themes stem from his personal problems with the film making bureaucracy. Ultimately, Gilliam usually wins his struggles, and then finds a way to incorporate them into his films. An early example of Gilliam challenging the red tape was his battle over the ending of Time Bandits. When the final cut of Time Bandits was sent to the studios, the studio bureaucrats demanded a different ending, saying that an ending where the child’s parents are incinerated is unacceptable for a kid’s movie. Gilliam refused to compromise, and offered them another deal: holding the only complete reel of the film above an open flame, he told them that it was either his ending or no film at all. Choosing not to attempt to find out whether or not Gilliam was bluffing, the studio caved in to his demands and allowed his cut to be released. Gilliam’s next movie, Brazil, would run into the same problem, but on a much larger scale. Universal Studios hated Gilliam’s cut of Brazil, and released their own cut of the movie, where Sam Lowry successfully escapes from the bureaucracy with Jillian, and all evidence of her death and his insanity are erased. Gilliam became so depressed over this that he momentarily lost the ability to walk, and for a while gave up fighting the battle. The studio cut was released in America, however, it was only played once; Gilliam ultimately, with support from Cannes film critics and several media figures launched a campaign for the real Brazil to be released; he would ultimately be successful. His next film, Baron Munchausen, went well over budget, ultimately costing Columbia over forty million dollars. The film did not receive a big domestic release, and although it was loved by critics and nominated for multiple academy awards, it only earned eight million dollars at the box office. The 1990’s were a relatively smoother decade for Gilliam; the only issue was that although he wrote the screenplay for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the Writers Guild of America made sure that he did not receive any credit or payment for it, as it was rewritten from a previous screenplay that Gilliam had disliked. His next film, however, suffered far more production problems than any of his films thus far, and has changed the way he has approached film making ever since. The Man who Killed Don Quixote was going to be Gilliam’s most ambitious project, with a big budget and a big cast, a retelling of the famous story that had already shattered the careers of other film makers, even the filmmaking legend Orson Welles. The failures of the Don Quixote film are greatly captured in the documentary Lost in La Mancha, from the flash floods to Jean Rochefort’s broken back; the movie was ultimately canceled in the first month of filming. Gilliam has been attempting to get more funding for the movie ever since. Unfortunately for Gilliam the worst was still to come. In 2004 Gilliam began work on an even bigger film for Miramax, The Brothers Grimm. This film was Gilliam’s first and last experience working with big studio interference and a huge budge ($88 million), and although it was a huge success at the box office, it received poor reviews. Bob and Harvey Weinstein co-produced the film and effectively breathed down Gilliam’s neck throughout the entire process, and heavily questioned his artistic direction. Halfway through filming, Gilliam stormed off the set, and went to Canada to film another movie, Tideland. Eventually he was convinced to compromise and finish The Brothers Grimm, but vowed never to work for such a huge project ever again. Gilliam’s production problems and bureaucratic interference continue to this day. During the filming of his most recent film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the star Heath Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose, and immediately the financiers began to pull their funding for the film. Gilliam was able to salvage the film when Johnny Depp, a frequent collaborator of Gilliam’s, offered to replace Ledger. Along with Depp, Jude Law and Colin Ferrell also arrived to finish Ledger’s scenes, and the movie was completed with four actors playing the part of one character. Gilliam was able to convince all the financial backers to support his movie again, and finished the film. It was released almost two years after Heath Ledger’s death. Since this film, Gilliam has reattempted to create a Don Quixote epic, this time starring Ewan McGregor and Robert Duvall; filming was set to begin in September of this year, but in August funding was pulled, and production has once again been suspended.
Terry Gilliam’s luscious sets and fantasy worlds convey the feeling that he views the world with child like wonder, so it is no surprise that he features children in several of his films. In Time Bandits, the main character of Kevin is about eight years old. He has spent his childhood romanticizing history, and comes to learn that some of his heroes are disappointments; however, he never openly insults them and remains in a state of wonder throughout the film. In The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, only Sally Salt, a mistreated little girl, believes that the Baron is who he says he is. She is so enamored with him that she stows away on his hot air balloon, and follows him on his adventures to the moon and to meet gods. When the Baron ultimately gives up on his quest, Sally remains resilient and demands they continue trying, and it is she who ultimately helps the Baron regain his youthful energy. In 12 Monkeys, Cole is a full grown adult in body, but having spent his life witnessing everybody he knows dying and then subsequently living a cage, he is left with the mental capacity of a child. Although he acts dangerous at times, he relies on the kindness of everybody else to be able to do most things. When he returns to the past, he views the living world with amazement, whereas everybody else in the film appears jaded. Finally, in Tideland, the entire film is shown through the eyes of a nine year old girl named Jeliza Rose. The daughter of a washed up rock star, Jeliza Rose witnesses her parents’ overdoses within the course of two days, but remains resilient and joyful despite this. She thinks of her house and surrounding fields as a big adventure, and her wild imagination helps her to stay happy throughout the film. In the introduction to Tideland, Gilliam says “I was 64 years old when I made this film, and I finally discovered the child within me. It turned out to be a little girl.”
As a Python, it should come to no surprise that Gilliam places an emphasis on comedy in his films. Time Bandits, Gilliam’s first major film, displayed his dark, sometimes Pythonesque brand of humor. The various midgets often bumble their way into trouble with comedic results. Then there is Napoleon, portrayed to be a drunken fool who cares more for puppet shows than military victories. Michael Palin’s and Shelley Duvall’s characters also add to the comic relief as two young lovers who seem to have counterparts at all points in time, all of whom become victim to the time bandit’s antics. Baron Munchausen portrayed the same type of offbeat humor, especially the king of the moon, portrayed by Robin Williams, who is snappy and rude and talks incredibly fast. Eric Idle’s character Berthold is also a constant source of comedy as he runs faster than the road runner when he is in action and is frighteningly forgetful throughout the film. In 12 Monkeys, a more serious film,, Jeffrey Goines provides dark humor by explaining his fantastical conspiracy theories in the mental institution in which he and Cole are trapped . Goines, portrayed by Brad Pitt, is often loud and obnoxious in his monologues, and is chastised for disturbing the other patients. Goines desperately wants to be taken seriously, and is considered a serious threat by Cole for a while, but in the end he is just a sad rich kid looking for something to rebel against. In Terry Gilliam’s personal introduction to Tideland, he tells the viewer that they should not forget to laugh during the film. At first glance, that seems horrible, as the film is about a lonely girl without parents whose only neighbors belong in an institution. However, the movie is shown through the eyes of the little girl, Jeliza Rose, and she is seen laughing throughout the film. With Tideland, Gilliam wants the viewer to see the world not with our bias and judgment, but through the eyes of this little girl, who views her parents’ accidental overdoses and neighbors’ eccentricities as innocent. With this perspective, the viewer can watch the film and laugh when she laughs, seeing the comedy that she sees.
A symbol that Gilliam often uses is cages. Cages represent isolation, and are a physical manifestation of the hopeless direction his films eventually go in. In Time Bandits, all of the bandits and Kevin find themselves locked in a cage towards the end of the film by a character portraying the physical manifestation of evil; since they are small enough to fit through the bars, it proves not to be a major setback. In Gilliam’s following film, Brazil, Sam Lowry sees Jillian, his fair maiden, in a bubble cage in his dreams. He, as her valiant knight, has the duty of rescuing her. In Baron Munchausen, the Baron’s old sidekick Berthold is found locked in a birdcage on the moon, having been there so long that he is now completely unsure of whom he is. The Baron rescues him and helps to restore his memory. Although there are no cells in The Fisher King, his subsequent film 12 Monkeys compensates by employing two cages; the first is where we first meet Cole, imprisoned underground for his own good, along with the rest of humanity who survived the epidemic that killed almost six billion people. Later in the film, when Cole has traveled back through time, he is placed in an isolation chamber in an asylum, which effectively serves a cage. Gilliam seems to have dropped the cage motif in his later films.
What is most distinct about Gilliam’s films, more so than any of the aforementioned elements, is his anti bureaucratic sentiments. Not surprisingly, these themes stem from his personal problems with the film making bureaucracy. Ultimately, Gilliam usually wins his struggles, and then finds a way to incorporate them into his films. An early example of Gilliam challenging the red tape was his battle over the ending of Time Bandits. When the final cut of Time Bandits was sent to the studios, the studio bureaucrats demanded a different ending, saying that an ending where the child’s parents are incinerated is unacceptable for a kid’s movie. Gilliam refused to compromise, and offered them another deal: holding the only complete reel of the film above an open flame, he told them that it was either his ending or no film at all. Choosing not to attempt to find out whether or not Gilliam was bluffing, the studio caved in to his demands and allowed his cut to be released. Gilliam’s next movie, Brazil, would run into the same problem, but on a much larger scale. Universal Studios hated Gilliam’s cut of Brazil, and released their own cut of the movie, where Sam Lowry successfully escapes from the bureaucracy with Jillian, and all evidence of her death and his insanity are erased. Gilliam became so depressed over this that he momentarily lost the ability to walk, and for a while gave up fighting the battle. The studio cut was released in America, however, it was only played once; Gilliam ultimately, with support from Cannes film critics and several media figures launched a campaign for the real Brazil to be released; he would ultimately be successful. His next film, Baron Munchausen, went well over budget, ultimately costing Columbia over forty million dollars. The film did not receive a big domestic release, and although it was loved by critics and nominated for multiple academy awards, it only earned eight million dollars at the box office. The 1990’s were a relatively smoother decade for Gilliam; the only issue was that although he wrote the screenplay for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the Writers Guild of America made sure that he did not receive any credit or payment for it, as it was rewritten from a previous screenplay that Gilliam had disliked. His next film, however, suffered far more production problems than any of his films thus far, and has changed the way he has approached film making ever since. The Man who Killed Don Quixote was going to be Gilliam’s most ambitious project, with a big budget and a big cast, a retelling of the famous story that had already shattered the careers of other film makers, even the filmmaking legend Orson Welles. The failures of the Don Quixote film are greatly captured in the documentary Lost in La Mancha, from the flash floods to Jean Rochefort’s broken back; the movie was ultimately canceled in the first month of filming. Gilliam has been attempting to get more funding for the movie ever since. Unfortunately for Gilliam the worst was still to come. In 2004 Gilliam began work on an even bigger film for Miramax, The Brothers Grimm. This film was Gilliam’s first and last experience working with big studio interference and a huge budge ($88 million), and although it was a huge success at the box office, it received poor reviews. Bob and Harvey Weinstein co-produced the film and effectively breathed down Gilliam’s neck throughout the entire process, and heavily questioned his artistic direction. Halfway through filming, Gilliam stormed off the set, and went to Canada to film another movie, Tideland. Eventually he was convinced to compromise and finish The Brothers Grimm, but vowed never to work for such a huge project ever again. Gilliam’s production problems and bureaucratic interference continue to this day. During the filming of his most recent film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the star Heath Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose, and immediately the financiers began to pull their funding for the film. Gilliam was able to salvage the film when Johnny Depp, a frequent collaborator of Gilliam’s, offered to replace Ledger. Along with Depp, Jude Law and Colin Ferrell also arrived to finish Ledger’s scenes, and the movie was completed with four actors playing the part of one character. Gilliam was able to convince all the financial backers to support his movie again, and finished the film. It was released almost two years after Heath Ledger’s death. Since this film, Gilliam has reattempted to create a Don Quixote epic, this time starring Ewan McGregor and Robert Duvall; filming was set to begin in September of this year, but in August funding was pulled, and production has once again been suspended.
With so many production problems, it is no surprise that Gilliam’s films often include incompetent bureaucratic oversight. Although it is apparent with the portrayal of the king as a useless drunk in his first film, Jabberwocky, no film expresses it as clear as Brazil, a film about a bureaucracy that runs the world, and moreover, does a corrupt and overall poor job of it. In the end, Sam Lowry loses his mind and becomes a victim to the society’s terror. He finds happiness within the depths of his mind but remains catatonic in the real world. In Gilliam’s next film Jonathan Pryce would go from being the man who struggles against the bureaucracy in Brazil to the bureaucracy itself as The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Jackson’s role in the unnamed European city is as the head of the military, and as such, he promotes reason and conformity, two things that Gilliam demonstrates his disdain for. Jackson readily has war heroes executed because they make other soldiers feel inadequate and later demands that the people act civil in the times of crisis, so that their descendents do not think of them as cowards. In the end, Jackson shoots the Baron dead, but the Baron ultimately survives, saying that he has already died multiple times before. In Gilliam’s post apocalyptic film, 12 Monkeys, the future society is dominate by an all pervasive government who locks everybody underground in cages until they can be deemed useful. Cole, the protagonist, has spent most of his life in a cage, and is let out on the condition that he goes back in time in a mission for the bureaucracy. The group is extremely incompetent, and accidently sends Cole to the year 1990 instead of 1995.
A sign of an auteur is continuous work with a handful of people. This makes the movies flow together as they have similar styles not only in directing, but in writing and acting. Terry Gilliam’s most important collaborators are probably screenwriters Tony Grisoni and Charles McKeown, who co-wrote, with Gilliam, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brothers Grimm, Tideland, and Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, respectively. Gilliam’s wife Maggie Weston did the makeup on his films up until and including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which she narrowly lost the Academy Award for Best Makeup for. Their children have often been featured in his movies as well, as bit part actors. Roger Pratt did the cinematographer for Gilliam’s films up until 12 Monkeys, and Nicola Percorini has been his cinematographer ever since. As well as behind the scenes collaborators, Gilliam often uses many of the same actors. After Monty Python, Gilliam’s films often featured several other Pythons. Michael Palin cowrote Time Bandits with Gilliam, as well as acted in Jabberwocky, Time Bandits, and Brazil. Pythons John Cleese acted in Time Bandits, and Eric Idle acted in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Robin Williams, Jonathan Pryce, Heath Ledger, Verne Troyer, Peter Vaughan, Ian Holm, Tom Waits and Christopher Plummer also appear in several of his films. Terry Gilliam once said of Jeff Bridges “If it were up to me, I would cast Jeff in every movie I make. He is that good, such a joy to work with, too. He has a large fan base as well, but these guys are real cult-fans, they are dedicated, but they don't run around screaming at premieres for ‘more Jeff Bridges!’ The studios, they don't get this. They don't think he's bankable at all, but he is. It's frustrating, I think, but so very typical.” Despite his preference, Jeff Bridges has only appeared in The Fisher King and Tideland, and did the narration for the documentary Lost in La Mancha.
In 1985 Terry Gilliam received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Brazil, losing out to the writing in Witness. His films usually garner a couple of nominations; the only win was Mercedes Ruehl in The Fisher King. Although Terry Gilliam has never personally received an Academy Award, this fact has never really bothered him. In his words: “When Driving Miss Daisy won [the Academy Award for Best Makeup] over Munchausen… To make Jessica Tandy look old? She is old! And to make Morgan Freeman look black? He is black! All this elaborate makeup we were doing on Munchausen and we don’t win? That was the bar. After that point, I said ‘Fuck it.’” Ever since he has dismissed the Oscars as another bureaucracy, merely supporting his friends and own movies from England. The fact that he has not won an Oscar is unlikely to affect his legacy; after all, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock had all been eluded by success at the Oscars. Rather, Terry Gilliam’s ever growing legacy will be the excellence of his movies, his visual innovation, and the influence he has on subsequent writers and filmmakers, from a wide variety such as JK Rowling, who personally requested that Gilliam be made director of the Harry Potter films, to Christopher Nolan, the massively successful film maker. Terry Gilliam’s biggest criticisms are that his films are self indulgent, his plots are hard to follow, and that his latest films seem to only be made for his established fan base. His admirers applaud his innovation, his ability to blend fantasy and reality, and his refusal to compromise.
A sign of an auteur is continuous work with a handful of people. This makes the movies flow together as they have similar styles not only in directing, but in writing and acting. Terry Gilliam’s most important collaborators are probably screenwriters Tony Grisoni and Charles McKeown, who co-wrote, with Gilliam, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brothers Grimm, Tideland, and Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, respectively. Gilliam’s wife Maggie Weston did the makeup on his films up until and including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which she narrowly lost the Academy Award for Best Makeup for. Their children have often been featured in his movies as well, as bit part actors. Roger Pratt did the cinematographer for Gilliam’s films up until 12 Monkeys, and Nicola Percorini has been his cinematographer ever since. As well as behind the scenes collaborators, Gilliam often uses many of the same actors. After Monty Python, Gilliam’s films often featured several other Pythons. Michael Palin cowrote Time Bandits with Gilliam, as well as acted in Jabberwocky, Time Bandits, and Brazil. Pythons John Cleese acted in Time Bandits, and Eric Idle acted in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Robin Williams, Jonathan Pryce, Heath Ledger, Verne Troyer, Peter Vaughan, Ian Holm, Tom Waits and Christopher Plummer also appear in several of his films. Terry Gilliam once said of Jeff Bridges “If it were up to me, I would cast Jeff in every movie I make. He is that good, such a joy to work with, too. He has a large fan base as well, but these guys are real cult-fans, they are dedicated, but they don't run around screaming at premieres for ‘more Jeff Bridges!’ The studios, they don't get this. They don't think he's bankable at all, but he is. It's frustrating, I think, but so very typical.” Despite his preference, Jeff Bridges has only appeared in The Fisher King and Tideland, and did the narration for the documentary Lost in La Mancha.
In 1985 Terry Gilliam received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Brazil, losing out to the writing in Witness. His films usually garner a couple of nominations; the only win was Mercedes Ruehl in The Fisher King. Although Terry Gilliam has never personally received an Academy Award, this fact has never really bothered him. In his words: “When Driving Miss Daisy won [the Academy Award for Best Makeup] over Munchausen… To make Jessica Tandy look old? She is old! And to make Morgan Freeman look black? He is black! All this elaborate makeup we were doing on Munchausen and we don’t win? That was the bar. After that point, I said ‘Fuck it.’” Ever since he has dismissed the Oscars as another bureaucracy, merely supporting his friends and own movies from England. The fact that he has not won an Oscar is unlikely to affect his legacy; after all, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock had all been eluded by success at the Oscars. Rather, Terry Gilliam’s ever growing legacy will be the excellence of his movies, his visual innovation, and the influence he has on subsequent writers and filmmakers, from a wide variety such as JK Rowling, who personally requested that Gilliam be made director of the Harry Potter films, to Christopher Nolan, the massively successful film maker. Terry Gilliam’s biggest criticisms are that his films are self indulgent, his plots are hard to follow, and that his latest films seem to only be made for his established fan base. His admirers applaud his innovation, his ability to blend fantasy and reality, and his refusal to compromise.
The Fisher King is one of my top 3 favourite films. A film that has great depth.
ReplyDeleteTerry Gilliam, one of my favorite directors. Brazil is my 2nd favorite film of all time.
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