Welcome to 2018, Tor.com! How about a new Movie Rewatch of Great Nostalgia to celebrate? That’s what I thought you said!
Today’s entry is that grand disaster of 1988: Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen!
Previous entries can be found here. Please note that as with all films covered on the Nostalgia Rewatch, this post will be rife with spoilers for the film.
And now, the post!
KATE: I wanna do Baron Munchausen next.
ME: But I’ve never seen it.
KATE: Don’t care.
ME (to Liz): Have you seen it?
LIZ: I’ve… sort of seen it? In bits and pieces?
ME: Well, so…
KATE: Nope, don’t care.
ME: But—
KATE: AHHHH DON’T CARE
Sister Kate, it turns out, has pretty strong opinions on the nostalgitivity of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and since I let Liz-via-husband-Pete talk me into Xanadu, I figured it was only fair to give this one to Kate, so here we are.
It’s interesting that both of these films were, from a box office perspective anyway, more or less total bombs; the difference is that unlike Xanadu, which even its most ardent fans would not argue is an actually good movie, Munchausen received critical accolades on release and was nominated for multiple awards. Yet, it tanked even harder than Xanadu did, earning $8 million domestically on a reported $46 million+ budget. Ouch.
Which just goes to show you, box office revenues are a pretty lousy metric by which to judge the quality of any given movie. It turns out that if your distributing studio is bound and determined to kill your film, your film will no longer pine for the fjords no matter how awesome it is. The in-fighting at Columbia, on top of the enormous production delays and snafus that occurred during shooting, meant that the experience of making Baron Munchausen was a pretty hellish one for everyone involved, particularly director Terry Gilliam, whose reminiscences on the project read rather like those of a weary old soldier recounting his battles of yesteryear. Which, considering the plot (and theme) of the film, is either ironic or apropos—or both.
KATE: It was a complete fluke that I saw it. I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, and it came on HBO during one of the free trial periods they used to do, and I didn’t even really understand what was happening, but it didn’t matter; I just sat there and watched it with my mouth open, in awe.
By contrast, I had barely ever even heard anyone talk about this movie at all, then or now, and really knew almost nothing about it. This is weird when you consider that Gilliam’s previous film Brazil (1985) is one of my favorite movies. This is even weirder when you consider that Gilliam considers Brazil to be part of a loose trilogy with Munchausen and his 1981 film Time Bandits… the latter of which I also have never seen.
LIZ: Wow, you are fired from 80s Nostalgia Film Club.
I really am. Look, I have no idea how that happened. My only excuse is that I discovered Brazil at complete random, in college, a decade later, and at the time the proto-Internet had not evolved to the point of being able to hock up that connection in one big Google loogie. I don’t think I even made the connection of its director with Monty Python until years later. It was a simpler time, kids, what can I say.
Nevertheless, once I did finally sit down and watch The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, some thirty years after it was made, the aesthetic and thematic connections to Brazil (and, I presume, to Time Bandits, but I can’t speak to that) were screamingly obvious.
Terry Gilliam’s work (I’ve also seen 12 Monkeys, so I’m not completely talking out of my ass here) is very much a dark offshoot of the surrealist comedy of Monty Python. You definitely see the roots of it there, but Gilliam seems far more interested in the “surreal” bits than the “comedy” bits. Which is not to say his films aren’t funny (they are), but it’s a sharper, bleaker kind of humor, that seems tangential to his fascination with using story, cinematography, and production design to create “reality against fantasy” cage fights and seeing who will win.
(It’s pretty obvious which one he’s rooting for.)
The story of the (fictional) Baron Munchausen, therefore, must have been like catnip to Gilliam, what with the sublime absurdity of his very tall tales, and his blithe rejection of facts as boring inconveniences not worth his consideration. Why tell the truth when the made-up stuff is so much more fun? All the world’s a stage, old chum, and so forth.
Which makes casting John Neville as the titular character particularly inspired, as Neville was far more famous for his theater work than anything else, and brought a grand, well, theatricality to the role that was perfect. I can’t think offhand of anyone else who would have played it better.
He was well-paired with child actress Sarah Polley as the pragmatic yet full of wonder Sally Salt, who both kept the Baron grounded and inspired him to fresh heights of whimsy, which is a neat trick. I was sad (though not particularly surprised) to learn that Polley had had a terrible time making this movie, and regarded the entire experience as “scarring”. Shame.
Also notable among the cast was Jonathan Pryce, who traded his hero(ish) turn in Brazil for the villain’s role as the Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson, a man so Teutonically dedicated to the cause of reason and normalcy that he orders the execution of a heroic soldier, because his improbable feats of bravery would be “demoralizing” to average citizens.
LIZ: Wait, is that Sting?
It is, in fact, Sting. Apparently his cameo in Munchausen came about because he just happened to be Terry Gilliam’s neighbor at the time, which is fairly hilarious.
By far the most startling guest appearance in the movie, though, was one I hadn’t even realized was in it until he appeared on screen.
ME: OMGWTF Robin Williams.
This role was, believe it or not, originally intended for Sean Connery, of all damn people, but increasing shortfalls in both time and money meant that the previously much more extensive “the Baron goes to the Moon” sequence got drastically downsized, and Connery dropped out. Williams’ agent apparently stipulated that Williams not be credited by name, which is why the credits list the King of the Moon as played by “Ray D. Tutto” (itself a joke, as “Rei di Tutto” in Italian means “King of Everything”, which the character considers himself to be). Disappointingly, I can see why Williams didn’t want to be overtly associated with this performance, which was… not his best, honestly, and the Moon sequence overall was definitely one of the weakest bits of the film, in my opinion.
Rather less disappointing was a very young Uma Thurman as the goddess Venus, in one of her earliest film roles. Her entrance, a hilariously faithful recreation of Botticelli’s famous painting Nascita di Venere, is easily one of the most memorable parts of the movie, as is Oliver Reed’s turn as her jealous husband Vulcan.
KATE: I loved Oliver Reed in this. He definitely started me on my whole bad boy thing.
ME: I thought that was Kiefer Sutherland.
KATE: It’s a run-off, okay, shut up.
I can’t say I loved Vulcan screaming at Venus about how she was a whore for canoodling with the Baron, personally, but admittedly that’s consistent with the mythology, so, okay, sigh.
(Weird side note: even after watching the movie, all three of us kept talking about “Aphrodite and Hephaestus” even though they are only ever referred to by their Roman names in the film. Once we noticed this, we agreed that this is because the Greek versions are way awesomer than their poser Roman knockoffs, so there.)
Rounding out the cast is Python alum Eric Idle, who plays Berthold, one of the Baron’s improbably gifted servants/traveling companions, along with Charles McKeown as eagle-eyed sharpshooter Adolphus, Jack Purvis as super-hearing/super-breathed(?) sidekick Gustavus, and Winston Dennis as super-strong Albrecht. McKeown is a longtime collaborative partner of Gilliam’s, and shares writing credit with him on Munchausen. He, along with Purvis and Dennis, appeared in all three of Gilliam’s “trilogy” movies in one capacity or another.
As a side note, we all agreed that in the highly unlikely event that they ever remake this movie, Albrecht’s role absolutely MUST be played by Titus Burgess. (If you don’t know who that is, get thee to a Netflix post haste and watch you some Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, you heathen.)
KATE: So what did you think of it, though, overall?
I think, probably, that it was a shame I didn’t get to see this as a child, like Kate did, and be able to so much more easily take uncritical delight in fabulous absurdities like, say, a balloon made entirely of women’s lingerie, without being distracted by thoughts of how much that would never in a million years actually work.
It’s not that I can’t delight in absurdity as an adult, but I can’t help also analyzing it as well. Which is useful for picking out thematic elements and such, but makes it a little harder to indulge one’s suspension of disbelief to the extent Gilliam demands—which is a pretty demanding extent. This movie is hardcore whimsy, y’all; it is not even slightly interested in catering to your need for rational narrative. Which I find admirable, in a way, but also, as a very much non-child these days, a little exhausting as well.
(Brazil is different, because the older you get, the easier it is to believe in dystopias. Yay?)
But hey, look at that, my troubles with the film also happen to dovetail with the entire theme of the film! I.e. the decline or death of imagination is, well, actual decline/aging and actual Death! Right, that’s… not depressing or anything, wow.
Okay, so I’m going to go try and devise some kind of rejuvenating spa treatment for my whimsy, and meanwhile leave Sister Kate with the final word:
KATE: It’s just stuck with me over the years, how it was sort of sad and funny and inspiring and poetic, and how the Baron never let anyone tell him what was what, because he decided what his life was. He just had moxie, or whatever the word is for that. There are parts of it I wish weren’t in there, and I wish it maybe could have been done better, but it’s one of those movies I’ll never forget.
And there you have it. And thus, we end with the Nostalgia Love to Reality Love 1-10 Scale of Awesomeness!
For Kate:
Nostalgia: 8
Reality: 6 (points deducted for Robin Williams, mostly)
For Liz:
Nostalgia: 3
Reality: 7
For me:
Nostalgia: 0
Reality: 6.5
Thus ends the first MRGN of 2018! Tell me your thoughts, O My Peeps, and watch this space for Moar!
Terry Gilliam has just had the worst luck as a director, but has managed to make some great films in spite of it. (And some that were, well, let’s just say I don’t think Tideland is going to be part of anyone’s future MRoGN.)
And you must watch Time Bandits, sooner rather than later!
I’m sorry, but this Oscar-winning movie deserves a 10 out of 5 stars, clearly it is superlative.
Yes, it plotzed, yes, it is forgotten, but it was probably just too great for people to take. Maybe it’d have worked better as a mini-series or TV show, I don’t know.
I am with Kate. I loved this movie when I first saw it… probably on cable in the mid 90s. But I can see how the mix of reality and imagination aren’t for everyone. And seriously, how have you never seen Time Bandits??!?!?!
Please, drop what you’re doing and see Time Bandits! I guarantee you’ll be glad you did.
This is my favorite Gilliam movie. Fisher King might edge it out once in awhile depending on what mood I’m in, but even as much as I love Time Bandits and Brazil, Munchausen wins me over because it’s more hopeful and optimistic without being contrived or saccharine.
I loved that film so much. I saw it on video a year or two after it came out, and I haven’t seen it since, but it was enormously influential on what I was writing at the time. I’ll have to search it out and watch it again.
Adding to the chorus, watch Time Bandits!
I’m glad, though, that you at least went on to add that this dovetails with the theme of the movie!
One of the things that makes Munchausen part of a loose trilogy with Time Bandits and Brazil is the sense that the whole story is being told by an unreliable narrator. That’s literally and obviously true with the Baron, but Bandits and Brazil are both meant to leave you scratching your head as to how much of what you saw really happened and how much of it occurred in the protagonists’ dreams, or whether there’s even a difference between fantasy and reality.
Except, of course, I must apologize at once. I do not mean to say that there are any unreliable narrators in Baron Munchausen, whether in front of the camera or behind it. The Baron inists that he flew away in a hot-air balloon made from lingerie, and the Baron is an honorable man–indeed, a baron, no less–and so the story must be true! I would never publicly question the account of a man so well known for his veracity and integrity, and anything I’ve written here that would suggest anything less than the deepest unshakeable faith in the good Baron is clearly my mistake!
Those fabulous (an excellently chosen word in this context) absurdities are part and parcel of the real Baron von Münchhausen’s tall tales, up to and including occasionally dying because he’d talked himself into an impossible corner. As I recall, Gilliam didn’t actually invent any himself, he just rearranged many of the Baron’s famous incidents.
Should anyone’s touristic travels take them to Hameln, Germany, I recommend (if you have time) making a slight detour about half an hour south to the town of Bodenwerder. That’s where the good Baron was born and they have a museum dedicated to him, there’s a fountain of him on the front half of his horse, and I could swear there was some other public art of other stories.
And yes, Leigh should watch Time Bandits. I have some ambivalence about it, because of the way it treats heroes, but it’s still very good.
9, for those can’t expect to make it to Germany.
Time Bandits,,,, YES… a must see. Sean Connery is dream boat in this one… Leigh,, please review ASAP!
Back to Munchausen… I love the way the Baron appears younger as he tells his tales! This is the best movie for a snow day (had a bunch of those lately) or a Saturday night! Fun, Fun, Fun.
Although the legend by the time Gilliam got hold of it had precious little to do with the real man, the Freiherr von Munchausen wasn’t fictional.
Great film btw.
One of my favorite Gilliam works, no doubt, and oh my god Leigh get out and watch Time Bandits RIGHT NOW!!!!!!! (I’d say Brazil is the greatest of the 3, but Time Bandits is definitely the funniest…)
i saw this as a kid, and when I watched it again as an adult I couldn’t believe that I knew Uma Thermon from way back when in this movie and never made the connection. To be fair, I was pretty young when I first saw it.
Time Bandits!
I never saw this movie, but this reminded me to rewatch the one I remember watching as a kid, though it is much older, and it actually inspired Gilliam to make this one. I’m talking about “The Outrageous Baron Munchhausen” from 1962. That one I’d give Nostalgia 11 (yes, out of 10) and maybe even some minus points for Reality. But in a good way.
LordVorless linked to the fountain @10. This is another sculpture in Bodenwerder depicting him pulling himself and his horse out of the swamp by his ponytail. I seem to recall that happens in the film, too. There’s also one of his famous cannonball ride, if I remember correctly.
Yes, definitely you should watch Time Bandits. The relationship between the three films escaped me at the time, I suppose I should re-watch them.
Looking at the list of films Gilliam has made, it occurs to me that I saw all of them in the theater from 1981 through 1995, but I haven’t seen much of anything he’s done since. More things to watch :-)
I have the soundtrack for The Adventures of Baron Munchausen around somewhere. VCR’s were too expensive for me in 1988, but I was able to save up for a CD player, and the occasional CD. If you like soundtracks, it’s pretty good.
I’ve never watched this film from beginning to end. I’ve just watched various bits on cable. It seems pretty fun but really weird but Baron Munchausen is supposed to be as they are tall tales. I have never seen Brazil I suppose I should watch it someday soon. OMG how can you have missed Time Bandits watch it right away and tell us what you think! It’s one of my favorites but I still have trouble with the very last scene of the film.
Because we loved Time Bandits, I took my son to see this when he was 10. We both enjoyed it, but I accidently spilled our Coke into his lap at the beginning of the movie, and he will never let me forget how miserable it was to watch the movie after that. So every time someone mentions it, he gives me a “look” and I feel guilty.
I’ve seen all of Terry Gilliam’s movies except for Zero Theorem (it’s on my to-see list), Tideland, and Fear and Loathing. (Yes, I’ve even seen Jabberwocky.) However, he’s kind of a hit-and-miss director for me — to date, Munchausen is one of only three that I’ve watched more than once. The other two, which are tied for my favorite, are 12 Monkeys and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (which you really ought to see, if you haven’t).
Incidentally, the Baron’s companions were borrowed from “How Six Made Their Way in the World”, which is one of my favorite lesser-known fairy tales.
Somehow I managed to screw up the link. Here it is again.
thanks for this reminder of a movie I just loved, though I’m sorry Sarah Polley had a bad time – she was great, as was the whole cast. Gilliam can indeed be hit or miss but I’d be terribly proud if I claim claim anything like his achievements, especially, Munchhausen, The Fisher Kind, Time Bandits, Brazil and Imaginarium – real SF and fantasy on the screen.
@21
Thanks for that link. Interesting.
And I must join the ‘watch Time Bandits‘ chorus. Not the beast of Gilliam’s work (a tie between Brazil and The Fisher King for me) but the most heart-warming and fun.
As to the good Baron. I saw the film on release and enjoyed it on the whole. It’s oddly paced and some of the humour is forced, especially when compared with the previous Time Bandits and Brazil. But then the former was co-written by Michael Palin and the latter by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard. Charles McKeown is not, sadly, up to their standard. It is still, however, great fun and with a glorious message about the importance of story and imagination. The ending pretty much justifies all the problems that precede it.
As to the Baron growing younger, I remember reading a Gilliam interview in which he says that the idea was he age/rejuvenated according to his mood. So, young when dancing with Venus, old when stranded in the whale.
WATCH TIME BANDITS!!!!!!!!!!
The thing that really stuck with me about Baron Munchhausen, like a lot of children’s films that I can remember having an impact on me, is how terrifying it is. The Baron is constantly struggling with depression and old age, as are the majority of the other characters. The governments are evil, the father is ineffectual, and Death is constantly, literally, stalking the characters.
Actually, I just read a book that mentioned the real-life lingerie ballon….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/09/28/harrowing-flight-from-east-germany/d71708d0-3d36-4218-b8b9-e93e858c0df9/?utm_term=.e9fa1a1c23ad
I discovered this buried gem in 1990 while stationed with the Navy in Naples, Italy. I rented the VHS from a warehouse of a video store across the street from the base, that always smelled of damp concrete inside. The movie knocked me out. The wonder. The enchantment. The sheer imagination that Gilliam & everyone brought to it. And what a surprise to see Robin Williams! His performance was a tour-de-force, playing a body and its detachable head continually bickering and feuding with each other(!). Williams at his madcap best. I consider this his great hidden performance.
Uma Thurman, though, was my favorite…
Fortunately they came out with a 20th anniversary edition DVD, with some neat extras including a commentary by Terry Gilliam. Why did the studio not even try to promote this film? (The obviously half-hearted trailer is almost painful to watch). Maybe years afterward, they finally realized what they had.
Saw the film when it came out and absolutely loved it, and I remember being astonished that it tanked at the box office. It’s nice to be reminded how good it was, and I’d like to see it again some time, though I am sorry to hear that Sarah Polley had a bad time during the shoot. Of course I agree with everyone else here: how on earth could a Gilliam fan miss Time Bandits? Ralph Richardson alone is worth whatever effort you have to make — no, add Ian Holm as Napoleon to that as well.
I discovered this in a video store in my twenties. I have no idea how I missed it in the theater when it came out, particularly since I was a huge Monty Python fan and loved their films andTime Bandits. I even had a Time Bandits themed birthday party when I was sixteen (the year after it came out).
This quickly became on of my favorites, not Time Bandits (seriously, see it), but up there. It was a VHS I could pop in and just let play while I did other things around the house and nearly always see something amazing when I looked at the screen. Unfettered fantasy. It’s so unfortunate that the studio didn’t back it’s release and it never found an audience. I’m so glad there are people who remember it as fondly as I do now. Yeah it has problems but you don’t see this degree of wonder on screen very often, particularly from the pre-digital age.
I haven’t seen it now in probably a decade, and my DVD does’t have Terry Gilliam’s commentary, something to look forward to!
I remember really wanting to watch this as a kid, but it was a PG and I was just slightly too young.
Oh, and watch Time Bandits! It’s ace!
I also first saw this as a kid and rewatching it in college I was surprised by all the sexual innuendo and naked ladies. I’m sorry you guys didn’t enjoy the adventure to the moon, I thought the jokes were pretty good. Particularly the innuendo about “tickling” that really was about tickling.
I think the special effects, scenery and props were excellent. They didn’t look like they were supposed to look incredibly realistic, instead they looked like they were meant to look like stylized theatre props and sets. I don’t think I would want anyone to remake this, they might try to make everything hyper-realistic.
Kate was absolutely right to include this, and I’m so happy to hear I wasn’t the only kid who watched this. I loved everything about this movie as a kid, and it’s still a favorite of mine as an adult despite it’s flaws. Robin Williams is the part I remembered the best when I was young, even though most of the jokes went over my head. And Oliver Reed! I made my husband watch it not long ago because he had sat through almost all of the rest of Gilliam’s filmography but somehow overlooked this one.
On a tangent, will Gremlins be making an MRGN appearance? I just rewatched it last night probably for the first time since VHS in the late 1980s, or possibly even just seeing it in the theater.
I absolutely LOVE this is film since my brother showed it to me when I was like 10. I recently watched it with my son (13), and he loved it too. Watching it again inspired me to go watch Brazil and Time Bandits, neither of which I’ve seen before.
Agree that Albrecht should be played by Titus Burgess in a remake. But I cannot agree on substracting points for Robin Williams. He seems to be having the time of his life playing that part.
@16 – DemetriosX: Yes, the ponytail lifting happens in the film.
@20 – Matthew: Thank you, I did not know that about the Baron’s companions.
I know it wouldn’t fit with the theme of this column, but after reading this I’d love for you all to do a review of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. I could see the ending all by itself stirring up debate.
Yes, this is a very underrated movie! But perhaps one of the most underrated things is Michael Kamen’s wonderful score! Long out of print, hopefully someday it will be reissued by one of the specialty soundtrack labels (Intrada, La-La Land, Kritzerland, Varese Sarabande, etc.)
So have you seen Time Bandits yet?
There are sadly a rare few true mad geniuses of film left, in various degrees. Woody Allen in dark, gritty reality-grounded life tragicomedies, then only Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, in order of full-on heretical, anarchistic madness. Burton has visual genius overdose to spare, but not always contained by adequate story and content. The Gilliam brilliance is truly subversive, and the fact he has gotten away with making any films after “The Life of Brian,” even though ostensibly directed by Terry Jones, shows how dedicated the Python crew has been to jesterly subversion for fifty years. The 12 Monkeys and Fisher King were more built upon a worldly reality, one altered by tragic mental illness, the other using the sole twist of time travel to play with real world relationships and paradoxes. Time Bandits was more tightly plotted, but that made me appreciate “The Princess Bride” even more for the sheer entertainment value and gentle humor. Von Munchausen simply soars on flights of absurdity, real gallows humor, and optimistic insanity. I can’t imagine a child not having nightmares afterwards, but for adults jaded by trite memes endlessly recycled as “superhero” movies, this one is still worth it for me.