Gilliam's battle against Hollywood to make an European art film - and he won!

Rating: 9/10 (24 November 2019)

I can't believe it took me so long to finally watch this gem, although I am a hardcore Gilliam fan (but obviously not hardcore enough to watch his 160 Mill box office runs, haha).
He started small and came up with a very expensive looking production design, featuring vintage sci-fi, steampunk and many weird twists. I was impressed by the interrogation room (although they used designs by Lebbeus Woods), the interrogation device ball, the use of abandoned opera buildings, rehabilitation centre (as mental institution) and re-building an airport terminal in a regular congress hall. The worn-down atmosphere's and no-man's-land-sceneries add enormously to the dark vibe, which is contrasted by the sweet, melancholic orchestra/tango music by Astor Piazolla as soundtrack. Once again, like in Brazil, Tideland and what-not films, the sceneries are just WOW.
I also loved the camera framing (e.g. often VERY tilted wide angle lenses when it comes to true scenes of madness, e.g. with Brad Pitt in the mental institution - maximum distortion of reality) - and it was the first time, I saw Brad Pitt actually doing some serious acting that was NOT based on the normal personas/character's he's used to play. Same goes for Bruce Willis, showing him in one of his rare not-in-character roles (weak, vulnerable Bruce here, wow!).
Overall, I also enjoyed the documentary based on the film production of 12 monkeys and it gives a lot of insight into the whole process. Gilliam is for sure one of those directors who loses his heart to the production and works with a wonderful team (and is not afraid to tell the world about the fact that he's merely sorting the strings while other great artists on his team pull them). I am sure, he'd be LOST without the ability to make movies.
I am so happy that UNIVERSAL gave him the money to produce the film and Gilliam battled his way through all the hollywood-ish guidelines to produce something that features HIS known style and voice. Sure, there are other films that are even more "gilliameske", but this one had enough budget to pull off a really impressive production design, actors, filming team and what not!
I did really enjoy the film visually - and yes, storywise, too: it takes a few watches to truly grasp all the hidden details and there are many ways to interpret this - for sure it fires up the brain-machine to do some work. So go, see it - it is and remains a groundbreaking science fiction film of that era!