The Adventures of Baron Munchausen **** (1988, John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, Robin Williams) – Classic Movie Review 2471

Co-writer/director Terry Gilliam’s dazzling and spectacular 1988 fantasy comedy adventure epic stars ideally cast theatre actor John Neville. He is on commanding form as Baron Munchausen, the 18th-century Prussian aristocrat who travels around the universe, enjoys wartime exploits against the Ottoman Empire and, most of all, of course, tells fantastic tales.

It won three Bafta awards for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Make Up Artist.

The Baron is swallowed by a giant sea-monster, enjoys a dance with Venus and makes an escape from the Grim Reaper before saving a town from defeat by the Turks. The Baron also takes a trip in a knicker balloon to the Moon, where he meets Robin Williams, who gives a show-stopping turn as King of the Moon (‘I’m Re di Tutto [King of Everything} but you can call me Ray’), and Valentina Cortese as Ariadne is the Queen of the Moon, and then down to the Earth’s core, where he finds Oliver Reed playing Vulcan, quite outrageously.

Gilliam’s fellow ex-Python Eric Idle also stars as Berthold, the world’s fastest runner, with Sarah Polley (only nine) as Sally Salt, the young daughter of the theatre company’s leader, Charles McKeown as Adolphus, a rifleman with superhuman eyesight, Jack Purvis as Gustavus, who possesses extraordinary hearing, and Winston Dennis as the fantastically strong Albrecht.

There’s huge invention and vast entertainment everywhere, and the movie is topped off with a wonderful climax when The Baron defeats the entire Turkish army. The payback for this was awful, as it ended up as one of the all-time box-office losers.

Going way over budget, it both cost and lost a fortune, taking a mere pittance at the cash registers. The cost was more than $46million and it took only $8million at the US box office after only very limited distribution there. After the ruckus over the distribution of Brazil (1985) and power struggles at the film studio, there were only 117 prints made for America.

But the film fared much better in Europe, where distributors such as Germany’s Neue Constantin Film were able to give it a more appropriate release. And it also fared much better subsequently on home video.

However, it looks a million dollars thanks to Giuseppe Rotunno’s cinematography, Dante Ferretti’s set designs, Richard Conway, who did the special effects, and Peerless Camera Company, responsible for the optical effects. And obviously the biggest credit is especially due to Gilliam’s obsessively scrupulous, painstaking direction and careful script-writing, with Charles McKeown.

Also in the cast are Jonathan Pryce, Bill Paterson, Peter Jeffrey, Uma Thurman, Alison Steadman, Sting, Ray Cooper, Don Henderson, Andrew MacLachlan, Mohammed Badrsalem, Kiran Shan, Franco Adducci, Michael Polley and Gilliam in a cameo.

Munchausen is the third film in Gilliam’s Trilogy of Imagination after Time Bandits(1981) and Brazil (1985). It is fascinating to compare it with the 1940 and 1962 Czech versions, Baron Münchhausen [Baron Prásil]. Gilliam saw the 1962 film at the National film Theatre (British Film Institute) and was inspired to re-make it.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2471

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Valentina Cortese was born in Milan, Italy, in 1923. She made her movie debut in 1940.