The Adventures of Baron Munchausen – (1988) Another Terry Gilliam film, similar in some respects to Time Bandits: silly, stupid, weird, funny, with terrific sets; a merging of mythology and fantasy literature into an imagination that rejects reason and science. Everything is an illusion, but whose illusion? Henry Salt, calling himself Baron Munchausen, and his daughter Sally (Sarah Polley) and a troupe of actors are performing in a playhouse before the city’s ruler Horatio Jackson (Jonathan Pryce) in late 19^th-century Vienna as the Turks are besieging the city when the real Hieronymus Karl Frederick Baron von Munchausen (John Neville) appears and begins to tell how he is responsible for the Turks attacking. “How many have died in your logical little war?” the Baron asks the Right Honorable Jackson.

Somewhat like Don Quixote, the Baron must find his former comrades-in-arms – Berthold (Eric Idle), the fastest man alive; Adolphus (Charles McKeown – co-screenwriter), the man able to see half way around the world and shoot a target at that distance; Albrecht (Winston Dennis), the strongest man in the world; and Gustavus (Jack Purvis), a dwarf with the keenest hearing and strongest lungs – to perform incredible feats, defy death, and with Sally’s urging save the city. Robin Williams appears as the Moon King, who has a serious mind-body conflict; Uma Thurman as Rose and Venus; Oliver Reed as Vulcan.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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