The Terry Gilliam Triology

Terry Gilliam is probably my current favorite film director in the whole wide world.
Well, I am saying current because I see so many films that I have decided to keep an open mind instead of just saying that and that is my absolute favorite, we never know what the future brings.
For one thing, I through lots of my teenage years thought Tim Burton was the film director god over all other film directors. now I know I am horrible wrong, later I told myself he is the art director above them all with really special looking artsy films... even there I were totally wrongs, lots of films looks like Tim Burton films, they can even be more artsy, and he got nothing on Terry Gilliam both as a genneral director and art director. nothing at all.

There is nothing like that undescribable exsperience of watching a Terry Gilliam movie.
It is just that, A terry Gilliam movie, no one makes movies quite like him, and darn it do I love his style. it's dark, it's gritty, it's self aware, it's ironic and it's always very funny.
Very absurd, very weird, strange and unique.. in other words, can't be described must be seen.

Picture of all the Pythons, Gilliam is in the upper right corner, just behind Micheal Palin

To try and understand Terry Gilliam style, we can at least try and look at his origins... it is called "Monty Python" he started of as being one of the six official pythons.. okay, things are storting to make sense... sort of, or not.
He designed and made all the animations for the show, was a co-writer along the other five pythons and a occasional actor, most infamously he was the person inside of the knight that would keep on hitting the other Pythons with a rubber chicken through out their first season. He had his directors debut on the Python film. "The quest for the holy grail" which he directed together with another python, Terry Jones. the film is to this date one of the most funny and important comedy films of all times, it was made in the 70's and still today my young buddies is quoiting it, that's quite an unbelievable feet in my eyes, I can't never make my mates see anything else that's over 15 years old, so I am quite alone with my dusty movie collection.

However, despite still making movies to this date, Terry Gilliam has his grant prime time as a director in a early stage, when he did the "Gilliam Triology" consisten of three different stand alone films that kind of, kind off not... deals with the same ideas. what people fancy to call it is. "The little boy escping from reality, the middle aged man escaping from reality and the old man escaping from reality" or that's what Gilliam himself called it.

We can also just called them "Time Bandits" "Brazil" and "Baron Von Munchausen"

Three majore uniqely film that cannot be matched by anyone, not even their own creator, filled with absurd fantasy and ironic humour on the same time as being gritty as heck.

I can might as well say it right now before I start reviewing this stuff, I implore people these films without spoiling the experience with background check and reviews, just sit back and be taken aback by the strangness and the weirdness of it all.



Time Bandits, 1981.

Oh boy, what fun I had the third time watching these movie. after having seen it twice I finally managed to purchase it, my littlesister asked if we should watch a movie and I said sure, as costume rules I brought a couple of movies I thought she would like but new she hadn't seen before, when she pointed at Time Bandits I said it was kind of a childrish fantasy film and she picked it thinking it would be a nice laugh like "Nanny McPhee" or that sort of thing.
Then the film started, it was all typical fantasy movie and all were well, though she had to note that it was the most boned sort pair of parents she had ever seen, what was up with does two? but fine, the kid would soon leave for never ever land anyhow, these films are never about the parent. then at the little boys room as he is laying in bed, suddenly out of no where a dwarf jumps out of his closet, and my littlesister whent.. what the hell?
Another Dwarf jumped out and her mout was wide open. "Two dwarfs?"
Yet again another one dropped. "The fuck Sofie, what am I watching?" and yet another one, and another one. at last eight Dwarfs had jumped out of the closet, and my littlesister was totally flabbergasted not knowing what to say, then of all things "The supreme" being appears to capture the dwarfs, and the Dwarfs escape by pushing one of the walls of the beedroom into another dimension.. yeah it's that weird. and suddenly we find ourself in a completely other, historical time, The Napoleon war, where we meet Napoleon. Strange things happened and my littlesisters eyes was glued to the screen awe while I was just laughing at dumbfounded she looked, around 20 minutes past by in the movie and Dwarfs was still there, slowly she turned to me. "Sofie" she said. "Are we going the spend the entire movie with these Dwarf?"
And I am a honest woman, so I had to confess yeas to her horror. and that is this entire movie, Dwarf's traveling in time and space and meeting Napoleon, sound strange? well it is, it's very strange and very silly.
God it's difficult to try and write about these movies, there's so much to say yet I have so much difficulty formulating any of it.
Well, to simplyfie this movie. a little boy have the most boned parents in the world who can only ever think of getting more technical merchandise that can do work for them so they would get more time to do stuff despite the fact they do nothing by sits on their asses all day.
eight dwarfs pops out of the boys closet and is forced to escape as the surpreme being is pretty mad a them for stealing his map over all the wholes in the space and time continume of the universe, they escape by pushing a wall and now uses the map to travel in time and space to get rich dragging along the boy, two persons are afte them the ultimate being, also called god, and evil, also called the devil. the film is weird, strange, bogus and my little sister have never been so shocked by any other film ending ever.



"Brazil" from 1985 is by many considered to be Terry Gilliams master piece.
Oh god, what is this.. how can I describe.
I just saw an old documentary about this movie where they interviewed the entire cast and most of the production team, both writers and Terry Gilliam the director himself, the first question they were all asked was "What is the movie about" and they all had completely different answers! and each of the answers were right, non of them was wrong, so what am I supposed to do. even more hillariouse is that the last question they all were asked was "why is it called Brazil?" and they all went weirdly quiet as non of them had an answer. except Gilliam who wrote the title, his answer was that he could not come up with a title that makes any more sense than that... I believe him.
I could give ten different summaries and analyzes of this movie concerning completly different subjects and morale ethics, and non of the analyzes would be less correct than the others, this movie is about so many different things, but also manage to balance it all perfectly.

Well, I suppose I ought to at least try and explain the movie, what I can say for sure that it is a a dysotpiac sciense fiction, for does who don't know, Dystopic is the oppesite as otopic, meaning when it's otopic we find our self in the most idealised place imagineable, and so this movie is sat in a total shit hold were everything is sad, gray and completly left out of emotion, people are living these strange facades and nothing is happy. I love the running theme about paper work, that when anything is to be done in this world, it would have to go through a shit loud of paper work before anything at all is done, and then when they finally get to the handy work, after a lot of time spend on paper work, no one really knows how to do handy work, as everyone is really working with paper all day long. our main Character "Sam" seems to be the only one really human, the only one with emotions and normal human akwardness, he seems very akward and is almost dissapearing in the gray strict world where everyone is drowning in paper, yet he seems so alive and likeable, only few actors would have been able to pull this off, and Jonathan Pryce carries it out beautifully, he is so exstremly likeable yet akward and seems so nice, as shit starts happening around him he is falling apart, yet he is continuesly the only one who seems to have real genuine emotions.
The ending of this movie is probably the most terrible ending I have ever seen, not meaning that it is a terrible written ending, but in the meaning that I felt horrible inside and I was flabbergasted as I just gawked at the television screen while I felt incredible upset and sad.
The visuels of the movie are stunning, pure Terry Gilliam, a must watch for anyone.



"Baron Von Munchausen" 1988 is my favorite Terry Gilliam movie.
And I think it is because that is the movie I can relate the most to, It was my first exsperience watching a Terry Gilliam movie, though I had no idea what it was at the time. I actually remember it well, I can't have been more than 11 or at most 13 when it was in afternoon television, I was stunned about what I saw and despite not ever getting to see the movie again before I was around 18, I kept remembering. If there is any film out there that looks like my mind, this is it.
Maybe a large part of it is due that it takes place in a theater building, and the theater building comes to life, but also the fairy tales withing the film that suddenly comes to life are stuff that have always represented me as a person. It's very childish, and fells very magical on the same time as being funny and ironic with a strick of gritty sarcasm regarding that evil that is sticky grow ups with minds as so.
Well, as an outline it's about a theater preforming "The tales of Baron Von Munchausen" suddenly a mystical man, very closely resemblimg the description of the baron steps up and claims to be that so called Baron, suddenly the city gets attacked by enemies and everything gets bombed, the Baron tells the story of why they are even at war in the first place, and it's all his fault, with a little girl of the theater he embarks on a journey to collect his old fairy tale gang, each with their special power so they will be able to beat the enemy and reclaim the city.
In other words, its so much as fairy tale as it's ever going to be, but with a man as Terry gilliam behind the while, the gritty humour and dark under tones are always present.
Of cause the visuals are remarkble stunning, absolutly beautifull but also very surreal and fantasi a like, their journey goes to the most absurd places yet recognisable for my child hood mind.
I love this movie so much, and I love Terry Gilliam as an artist so much, I can truthfully say that i'm glad that he is there.