ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN-20TH ANN EDI (DVD/WS 1.85 A/DD 5.1/ENG-KO-SP DVD

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Director Terry Gilliam adroitly applies his Monty Python sensibilities upon the "career" of famed German prevaricator Baron von Munchausen. Played herein by John Neville, the baron is seen quelling a war that he himself started, flying into the stratosphere on the back of a cannonball, ballooning to the moon, exploring the innards of a volcano, being swallowed by a whale....In short, all of Munchausen's fabulous lies are here presented as "truth," played out in full view of nonplussed witnesses Eric Idle, Charles McKeown, Jack Purvis, and Sarah Polley. Fringe benefits include several loving medium shots of jaybird-naked Uma Thurman as Boticelli's Venus and an extended unbilled cameo by Robin Williams -- that is, by the head of Robin Williams -- as the King of the Moon. Filmed under considerable duress on a budget eventually exceeding 45 million dollars, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen never quite caught on with moviegoers, though it has enjoyed a lucrative afterlife on videocassette. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast John Neville as Baron Munchausen Eric Idle as Berthold Sarah Polley as Sally Jonathan Pryce as Horatio Jackson Uma Thurman as Venus/Rose Oliver Reed as Vulcan Charles McKeown as Rupert/Adolphus Sting as Heroic Officer Winston Dennis as Bill Albrecht Robin Williams as King of the Moon Jack Purvis as Gustavus Jack Purvis as Jeremy Valentina Cortese as Queen Ariadne/Violet Bill Paterson as Henry Salt Peter Jeffrey as The Sultan Alison Steadman as Daisy Ray Cooper as Functionary Andrew Maclachlan as Colonel Mohamed Salem Badr as Executioner Kiran Shah as Executioner's Assistant Ettore Martini as First General Jose Lifante as Dr. Death

Crew Massimo Razzi - Art Director Maria Teresa Barbasso - Art Director Irene Lamb - Casting Margery Simkin - Casting Pino Penesse - Choreography Giorgio Rossi - Choreography Ray Cooper - Co-producer Gabriella Pescucci - Costume Designer Lee Cleary - First Assistant Director Michele Soavi - First Assistant Director Terry Gilliam - Director Peter Hollywood - Editor Jake Eberts - Executive Producer David Tomblin - Line Producer Michael Kamen - Composer (Music Score) Maggie Weston - Makeup Dante Ferretti - Production Designer Giuseppe Rotunno - Cinematographer Thomas Schühly - Producer Francesca Lo Schiavo - Set Designer Richard Conway - Special Effects Tony Smart - Stunts Charles McKeown - Screenwriter Terry Gilliam - Screenwriter Stratton Leopold - Supervising Producer Gottfried Burger - Book Author Rudolph Erich Raspe - Short Story Author

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
The fabled Baron von Munchausen appeared in a number of live-action and animated screen incarnations prior to 1989, including Josef von Baky's 1943 UFA-funded, Goebbels-produced Munchausen. Yet Terry Gilliam bravely resisted the temptation to rework any of those prior screen versions. Instead, his film is twofold. On the most rudimentary level, he uses the Munchausen stories as a kind of loose framework on which to hang an assortment of the most audacious visual fireworks ever to illuminate the silver screen. And on that basis, the work is truly extraordinary, bringing to light effects unlike any created before or since in a Western feature, which defy all boundaries of form, dimension, and logic. Consequently, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen -- like Ray Harryhausen's 7th Voyage of Sinbad 30 years prior -- held captive the imaginations of those viewers who were fortunate enough to catch this film as children, during its initial theatrical run. From the "animated constellations" that swirl and gyrate through the celestial fabric, to the scythe-wielding Grim Reaper who bursts forth from an inert stone statue, sending stone shards flaying off omnidirectionally, to the glimpse of a white sand-filled sea of tranquility with the half-buried stone head of some obscure lunar monarch in the foreground, Gilliam plunges breathlessly and rapturously into a preadolescent visual dreamscape. If the film only functioned as a collection of visual pyrotechnics (as many assumed), it would indeed be disappointing; instead, Gilliam intuitively plunges deeper, and the film gains longevity from its thematic level. With Baron, Gilliam completed a planned screen trilogy on the theme of imagination as it triumphs over stiff-necked reason and logic. This thematic triumvirate began some eight years prior with Time Bandits, continued with 1985's only fitfully successful but equally ambitious sci-fi ragicomedy Brazil, and wraps with Baron. And that theme is the glue that holds this massively overscaled, freewheeling production together, ingeniously justifying every one of Gilliam's deliberate logical and temporal lapses (particularly in the confusing denouement). With -- as an added bonus -- the one-of-a-kind Pythonesque humor that flavors the majority of Gilliam's screen works providing much-needed lunacy and comic relief, the film earns its right to masterpiece status. Unfortunately, Western audiences did not agree. This outrageously expensive film (presumably greenlit during David Puttnam's tenure at Columbia) confounded many American viewers and slipped by others, bringing untold financial loss for the studio. Gilliam survived, however, rebounding to box-office gold two and a half years later, with the Christmas 1991 blockbuster The Fisher King. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
 

Dante Ferretti: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Art Direction (nominated) Dante Ferretti: British Academy of Film and Television, Best Production Design (winner) Fabrizio Sforza: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Makeup (nominated) Fabrizio Sforza: British Academy of Film and Television, Best Makeup (winner) Francesca Lo Schiavo: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Art Direction (nominated) Gabriella Pescucci: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Costume Design (nominated) Gabriella Pescucci: British Academy of Film and Television, Best Costume Design (winner) Kent Houston: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Visual Effects (nominated) Maggie Weston: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Makeup (nominated) Pam Meager: British Academy of Film and Television, Best Makeup (winner) Richard Conway: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Visual Effects (nominated)

General Specifications: Language Options: English, French Subtitle Options: English, French, Spanish, Por, KO, TH Sound Processing: DD5.1: Dolby Digital w/ sub-woofer channel Additional Features: Commentary with director Terry Gilliam & co-writer/actor Charles McKeown The Madness and Misadventures of Munchausen: An all-new 3-part documentary on the making of the film Storyboard sequences with all-new vocal performances by Terry Gilliam & Charles McKeown Deleted scenes Marvelous world of Munchausen enchanced graphics & trivia track (blu-ray exclusive) DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1: Theatre Wide-Screen MPAA Rating: PG DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: ABC Content Length: 127 min