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Directed by Terry Gilliam; screenplay by Charles McKeown and Mr.
Gilliam; director of photography, Giuseppe Rotunno; edited by Peter
Hollywood; music by Michael Kamen; production designer, Dante Ferretti;
produced by Thomas Schuhly; released by Columbia Pictures.
126 minutes. Rated
PG.
STARRING: Baron Munchausen...John Neville Desmond/Berthold...Eric
Idle Sally Salt...Sarah Polley Vulcan...Oliver Reed Rupert/Adolphus...Charles
McKeown Bill/Albrecht...Winston Dennis Jeremy/Gustavus...Jack Purvis
Queen Ariadne/Violet...Valentina Cortese Horatio Jackson...Jonathan
Pryce Henry Salt...Bill Paterson Venus/Rose...Uma Thurman Daisy...Alison
Steadman Heroic Officer...Sting King of the Moon...Ray D. Tutto (Robin
Williams)
Why
this film became a box-office disaster probably has more to do with
problems in promotion than with problems of the film itself. It's a
fantastic, imaginative accomplishment.
John
Neville is a charming, magical, mythical hero who grows younger the more
people believe in him, older the more they don't. He stumbles into
war-torn Russia a battered, aging, bitter man, and finds that those for
whom he fights are a deceived lot. The public is deluded by an excess of
rationality. Jonathan Pryce is priceless (sorry!) as the modern rational
governor who, even as his city crumbles around him, declares, "We can't
start evacuating now! What would future generations think of us?!"
Mocked and ignored, the legendary Baron despairs and lays down to die
(ironically, he lies down in the bombed-out rubble of a play that would
put on in honor of his famous character.)
Just in
time, a little girl finds him, a girl who belives so passionately in the
famous Baron Von Munchausen that perhaps he can find a reason to live on
after all! Suddenly, he feels so much better that that he and his newfound
friend (Sarah Polley) are off to battle the Turks!
Terry
Gilliam shows more pure creativity in this film than in any of his others.
He brings Monty Python wit to his interactions with the world's fastest man
(Python's Eric Idle), the world's strongest man, the man with magnifying
glasses, and the very little man with big ears and lungs that can huff and
puff a wall down.
In an array
of unforgettable characters, Robin Williams and Oliver Reed take turns
stealing the show. Williams is the King of the Moon, whose head spins around
in space philosophizing while his body runs around the earth engaging in,
well, more carnal activities with his wife. Reed lumbers about as Vulcan —
"The God", as he proudly boasts — who tries to keep the Baron from romancing
Venus (Uma Thurman in her first significant movie role).
The many
impressive visual effects carry the Baron to the moon, into the belly of a
great (and ugly) fish, to the harem house of the Turkish Sultan (for a
rousing performance of "The Torturer's Apprentice"), and skyward in a hot
air balloon made entirely of women's underwear. Children, grownups, and all
fans of Monty Python and other Gilliam ventures should have a wonderful time
with this. The Baron would agree with Albert Einstein — "Imagination is more
important than knowledge." And viewers of all ages will find it difficult to
argue.
(Munchausen
is rated PG for the bawdy bits and comic violence, like the beheading of a
Turkish Eunuch where the severed head still smiles and winks at the ladies.)
Jeffrey's
Rating: A
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