Tripwire Reviews The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen Criterion Blu-Ray

A Near Myth

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows reviews The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen Criterion on Blu-Ray from the end of this month…

The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen
Director: Terry Gilliam
Stars: John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, Oliver Reed, Charles McKeown

Thirty-four years after Terry Gilliam managed to get this film released in cinemas, The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, telling the tale of the fabled eponymous 18th century adventurer, gets the 4K Criterion treatment.

Filmmaker Gilliam revels in chaos as a director, and even seems to thrive when the odds are stacked against him. Sometimes this works, in the case of films such as Brazil and Time Bandits, but there are occasions when he just isn’t able to bring what is in his head to the screen in a satisfying and cohesive manner.

Baron Munchausen, played by John Neville, is a formerly heroic down on his luck figure, who is also portrayed by Bill Paterson in a play that retells his exploits in a city under siege from Turkish invaders. I hope that’s clear now. Munchausen is a film that does attempt to use meta storytelling to try and propel its plot forward but ends up muddying everything.

The main thrust of the plot is a rather convoluted one: Munchausen travels the world, including some of its mythical places and even heads to the moon to reunite him with his oddly-powered sidekicks Desmond (Idle), Bill (Winston Dennis), Rupert (Charles McKeown) and Jeremy (Jack Purvis) while avoiding a beheading from the Sultan of the Turks.

It does look pretty impressive restored at 4K, but The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen is a chaotic and inconsistent mess. Despite a very distinguished cast that includes Jonathan Pryce as annoying city functionary The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson, and cameos from the likes of Robin Williams as the unhinged King of the Moon Ray D Tutto, along with Oliver Reed as Roman god of the forge Vulcan, the running time is too long and the narrative flounders. It does come across as a series of well-intentioned but somewhat flat vignettes rather than a film in its own right. Neville does bring a level of gravitas here but some of the Baron’s sidekicks irritate rather than charm. There is no arguing with the attention to detail here in certain scenes, such as the one where they are playing cards on an ancient schooner ship, however Gilliam failed to pay that same level of care to the script.

Although a deeply confusing film, it is not without its charms as there are moments when it does work, which is a source of frustration when one wonders what could have been with this project.

The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen is another example of Terry Gilliam’s reach exceeding his grasp. The extras here do offer a great deal of insight into the creative process of the film, along with its genesis and production, and more than adequately explain why its chequered history is reflected on the screen. Gilliam’s Python colleague and close friend Eric Idle described Munchausen as one of the most unpleasant experiences of his life, while the chopping and changing of its producers and studio executives does make one conclude that it was miraculous that the film was made at all, let alone released.

For fans of Gilliam and his decidedly patchy oeuvre, this is a worthwhile investment but for those with more of a passing interest, there is considerably less on offer.

JOEL MEADOWS

The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen 4k restored edition is on Criterion Blu-Ray from 30 January