The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Plot synopsis:
In an unnamed war-torn European city in "The Age of Reason", amid explosions and gunfire from a large Turkish army outside the city gates, a fanciful touring stage production of Baron Munchausen's life and adventures is taking place. In a theatre box, the mayor, "The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson," reinforces the city's commitment to reason by ordering the execution of a soldier who had just accomplished a near-superhuman feat of bravery, claiming that his bravery is demoralizing to other soldiers and citizens.
Not far into the play, an elderly man claiming to be the real Baron interrupts the show, protesting its many inaccuracies. Over the complaints of the audience, the theatre company and Jackson, the "real" Baron gains the house's attention and narrates through flashback an account of one of his adventures, of a life-or-death wager with the Grand Turk, where the younger Baron's life is saved only by his amazing luck plus the assistance of his remarkable associates: Berthold, the world's fastest runner; Adolphus, a rifleman with superhuman eyesight; Gustavus, who possesses extraordinary hearing, and sufficient lung power to knock down an army by exhaling; and the fantastically strong Albrecht.
When gunfire disrupts the elderly Baron's story, Jackson cancels the acting troupe's contract because of the Baron. The Baron wanders backstage, where the Angel of Death tries to take his life, but Sally Salt, the young daughter of the theater company's leader, saves him and persuades him to remain living. Sally races to the wall yelling for the Turkish army to go away, and the Baron accidentally fires himself through the sky using a mortar and returns riding a cannonball, narrowly escaping the Angel of Death once again. Insisting that he alone can save the city, the Baron escapes over the city's walls in a hot air balloon constructed of women's underwear, accompanied by Sally as a stowaway.
The balloon expedition proceeds to the Moon, where the Baron, who has grown younger, finds his old associate Berthold, but angers the King of the Moon, a giant with separate minds in his head and body, who resents the Baron for his romantic past with the Queen of the Moon. The death of the King's body, and a bungled escape from the Moon, brings the trio back to (and beneath) the Earth, where the Roman God Vulcan hosts his guests with courtesy and Albrecht is found. The Baron and Vulcan's wife, the Goddess Venus, attempt a romantic interlude by waltzing in the air, but this cuts short the hospitality and Vulcan expels the foursome from his kingdom into the South Seas.
Swallowed by an enormous sea creature, the travellers locate Gustavus, Adolphus, and the Baron's trusty horse Bucephalus. The Baron (who again appears elderly after being "expelled from a state of bliss") encounters the Angel of Death for the third time. Finally they escape by blowing "a modicum of snuff" out into the sea creature's cavernous interior, causing it to sneeze the heroes out through its whale-like blowhole. The Baron, young once again, sails to where the Turkish army is located but the Baron's associates are too elderly and tired to fight.
The Baron lectures them firmly but to no avail, and he storms off intending to surrender to the Sultan. His companions rally to save the Baron, and through a series of fantastic acts they rout the Turkish army and liberate the city. During the city's celebratory parade, the Baron is shot dead by Jackson and the Angel of Death appears a final time to take the Baron's life. An emotional public funeral takes place, but the denouement reveals that this is merely the final scene of yet another story the Baron is telling to the same theater-goers in the city. The Baron calls the foregoing "only one of the many occasions on which I met my death" and closes his tale by saying "everyone who had a talent for it lived happily ever after."
The Baron leads the citizens to the city gates to reveal the city has indeed been saved, though it is unclear if the events of the battle occurred in a story or in reality. Sally asks, "It wasn't just a story, was it?" The Baron grins, rides off on Bucephalus, and then disappears.

Tags: comedy, fantasy, cult, absurd, psychedelic, romantic, revenge, storytelling

Review:
The town is under siege by the Turks and only Munchausen and his band of curious adventurers can save it, so long as Death or a doctor doesn't catch him.Terry Gilliam, having hit his stride with the 1984-and-a-half classic Brazil, went on to fulfill his ultimate fantasy film with a great cast of actors (Jonathan Price included), beautifully detailed sets and costumes, and a very strange yarn of a tale indeed.
Bit parts are filled out by Robin Williams, the late Oliver Reed (seen most recently as Proximo in Gladiator) serving up a fiery Vulcan - husband to a young (not to mention stunning) Uma Thurman as Venus.A great deal of the magic that sparkled in Brazil seems to have been rekindled here, and while it may have been panned at the time of its release, time has treated it well.
This is a movie which has one great ambition and has ABSOLUTELY, TOTALLY, UTTERLY, FULLY, UNQUESTIONABLY fulfilled: to present the story of Baron Munchausen as the real one would have seen it.
And all the other fantasy market driven flicks to come out in recent years at the time of this writing, there was Gilliam's take on Munchausen.Though the miniature effects by today's standards might seem rather primitive, the scope and scale of the film, combined with some exceptional and exquisite art direction and acting, create an incredible visual tapestry.
I and an acquaintance of mine at the time were hopeful that "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" would succeed, because then it would open the doors for other "superhero" films, and push story telling to its limits.
In short, without divulging facts of either sets of fables, the Baron, as originally portrayed, was just a little too robust, and the Russian tale offers a chance to splinter the Baron's self aggrandizement.Some facts you won't find in the film; Baron Munchausen was a real man, and liked to "brag" about himself (to put it mildly).
He claimed to have all kinds of amazing abilities with a gentleman's character (even having visited Royalty as well as the U.S. and the president in the white-house), but was more or less simply a soldier of fortune.Gilliam's film, in this vein, pays homage to Munchausen, real and fictional alike by playing fast and loose with the "facts" of his dual existence.
All of this stories are woven into the movie's axis tale , the siege of a European town , Vienna, by a Turkish army whose caliph (Peter Jeffreys) is after Munchausen's head .This is an imaginative , glamorous , chaotic fantasy based on the wonderful trips carried out by Munchausen , though a little bit tedium too and paced in fits and starts .
The motion picture is imaginatively directed by Terry Gilliam , an expert on wonderful , surreal atmospheres ( Time bandits , Brazil , Fisher king , Doctor Parnasus).
I've made films and let me tell you EXPERTS out their it's the hardest thing you could ever undertake, harder even than getting off your butts and getting some exercise.Baron Munchausen is in my opinion a visionary masterpiece, like Brazil and Time Bandits its pure escapism, but intelligent python-Esq escapism.
Mainly because Gilliam is far more intelligent than you, both in his use of visual metaphors and sexual innuendo but also in the fact as a director he thinks of things even Tim Burton would be jealous of.Okay the film tales off towards the end, but after to been subjected to such a rich bombardment of visual genius can you blame Terry for being tired.9 out of 10 And my favourite bit is when Eric Idle chases the bullet!!!!!
As far as I can tell, the last Gilliam movie that made any money was the excellent TWELVE MONKEYS in 1995.If you want to watch some films by a director with a knack for engaging visuals, but who also knows how to make a plot work, try Jean-Pierre Jeunet..
With stunning cinematography, costumes and make-up, together with great casting for cameos, such as Robin Williams as The King of the Moon, and Uma Thurman as The Goddess Venus, this is a visually pleasing and well acted movie.The only place where this movie really falls down is in the script, it attempts to be a comedy, but there are few laugh out loud moments, it attempts to be an adventure, but there are few truly exciting incidents.
I've watched this film dozens of times and it never ceases to entertain me.It has incredibly high production values, excellent acting, including Uma Thurman in perhaps her first role.Of course some people won't like it...
If you've seen any other Terry Gilliam movie, you'll instantly realize "The Adventures of Baron Manchausen" represents his artistic vision at its most prominent - over-the-top sets, wacky larger-than-life characters, an absurd fantasy plot line rooted in children's tales (like the upcoming Gilliam film "The Brothers Grimm"), and so on and so forth.I had heard some bad things about this film.
Although the Turks are the enemy, the real villain of the film is not is the Sultan but rather the Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson, a high official in the government of the city who represents the unimaginative, overly rational attitude to life and who has no time for Munchausen, who represents the power of dreams and the imagination.Tim Burton's recent film `Big Fish', which can be seen as a modern slant on the Munchausen story, also deals with this theme- the importance of the imagination, personified by a teller of tall tales, in a rationalistic, literal-minded world.
Imagination in this film is the faculty of the old and the very young- rationalism is the credo of the middle-aged Jackson- exemplifying the dictum that every generation rebels against its parents and makes common cause with its grandparents.The original Baron Munchausen appears to have been a real character, whose supposed adventures were fictionalised (and no doubt exaggerated even further) by a writer named Rudolf Erich Raspe.
I do like Terry Gilliam's movies, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is one of my personal favourites of his along with Time Bandits and Brazil.
My only real quibble with The Adventures of Baron Manchausen is the odd scene that drags a little too much, other than that as a fantasy-adventure and a film it is wonderful.Visually it is a delight.
And to think that this was almost never made,when watching a recent documentary on the making it is incredible to even imagine that Terry Gilliams masterpiece almost didn't make it to the big screen and of course like so many the critics panned this movie before its release and its success was doomed even before it hit the big screen.....
Enough said..the critics were wrong..oh so wrong because this is grand movie making at it very very best..perfect casting..amazing music score and a tale that captivates you from start to finish..not to mention the incredible visions that Terry Gilliam has brought in the past of worlds so fantastic it shows the sheer brilliance of his imagination and directing.
Seemingly disdainful about this designation, he once again satirizes government and society, its cruelness, pettiness, and vanity, and the apparent loss of imagination to "logic and reason".The story is highly fantastical and absurd, with an adventurer, Baron Munchausen, traveling the world in search of his old crew to end a war that he started long ago.
These crazy and fascinating adventures, brought a third time to the movies (first was a German: Josef von Backy, in 1943 with great success, and then a Czech: Karel Zeman in 1961 with less importance), are now in version English Terry Gilliam, the realization of an ideal.This, put the Baron in the company of four super-friends and a plucky girl, and the result is a plethora of excellent fantasy film, which also mocks the style will seduce you with gifts, men's possessive and some other prototypes that this society so sick.One of the most significant fantasy films of the last century..
He began his trilogy with TIME BANDITS, a whimsical fantasy about a young boy who travels through time with a band of midgets; this was followed by BRAZIL, which defies description; and this was the third installment, a take on the onset of age.John Neville is Baron Munchausen, an old man who has gone through adventure after adventure in his lifetime.
Munchausen's team includes Berthold, the fastest man in the world (Eric Idle), the man with the best hearing in the world, the strongest man, the man with the best sight, and Adolphus, whose breath is like a strong wind (the late Jack Purvis from TIME BANDITS).Like in Gilliams' other films, cameos abound left and right.
Set in "the Age of Reason" where logical thinking and science have taken over, BARON MUNCHAUSEN tries to show the fun of imagination and fantasy.I would have to call this a kids' film, but the movie is not as innocent and dumbed-down as, say, Disney's children's fare.
It was a flop upon release for various reasons, and not without its flaws, but the Adventures of Baron Munchausen certainly stands up amongst the best of Gilliam's work and is a fitting final bow of his career in Britain.Gilliam may well be the finest fantasy director since George Melies.
And you get to see Sting sentenced to death, surely a bonus for any film.The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was buried by Columbia bosses upon release, and it remains a somewhat forgotten Terry Gilliam picture.
Needless to say I've had that film burned into my brain ever since, bought it on DVD as soon as I could, and have professed my love of it repeatedly to friends who watched with me and either "didn't get it" or thought the end was weird and depressing.Those same friends would probably appreciate Baron Munchausen more since it does have an unambiguous feel-good ending, but at over two hours long I felt the movie had a tendency to drag on.
I was positively bored to tears by the whole thing and Uma Thurman was much more attractive in Pulp Fiction.The movie is visually stunning, especially given the quality of special effects at the time it was filmed, and Robin Williams was an unexpected and pleasant surprise as the King of the Moon.
So they set off to the moon, literally (err, not literally, this IS a Terry Gilliam film after all), and go off on adventures to bring back the 'old gang' of Munchausens.
The film itself is total Terry Gilliam at his most spaced out, his wackiest, bringing his visions and cartoonish ways to the stories of Baron Munchausen in the late 18th Century.
As I watched it, however, I wondered again like with Time Bandits how I would've responded to it as a child, as I did really like these kinds of stories and films as a kid.
It may not be then as accessible to the adults who usually like Gilliam's films, on the other hand, at least at first.At its very best, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is what Gilliam set out to achieve, a live-action version of all those over-the-top, visually spellbinding Disney animated films from the classic days.
At its weakest, the script isn't as strong or funny as it could be (sadly, some of the funnier bits like the explanation of "Wednesday" were left on the cutting room floor), some of the performances (i.e. Robin Williams) are going in ten different directions at once, which is amusing but frustrating, and the whole scope of the technical aspects- the camera-work, design, art direction, special effects, visual effects, battles- overwhelm some of the more charming aspects in the actors and some scenes.
The story centers on the relationship between the aging Munchausen and a 10 year-old girl who believes all of his stories;  the girl is the best thing in the film, but John Neville, a famous stage actor, simply does not pull off a convincing character as the Baron (his first appearance in film), possibly because what would work on the stage simply doesn't work on film.
Neville looks great as the Baron, but he simply looked liked a theatrical character as the Baron, not a real man caught up in his own dramatics and myths.Eric Idle as the world's fastest man (and one of the Baron's amazing friends) is simply wasted in the film, and none of his sequences are really funny; his character is simply not given enough funny things to do, and some of his antics are actually painful to watch.
Read the book also, however; you will gain a greater appreciation for what a nightmare this movie really was to make, including bizarre stories concerning drugged tigers escaping the set, bets concerning who was going to the first to sleep with the then 17 year-old virgin Uma Thurman, deranged producers not concerned with trivialities like paying actors and crew, Italian scam artists ripping off the production right and left, explosives experts using far too much gunpowder (almost blowing up a horse), etc., that make Baron Munchausen seem tame by comparison.
Director Terry Gilliam and his collaborators have produced a marvelously intricate tall tale which overflows with lush design elements, superb model effects and droll cameos by the likes of Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman and Robin Williams.
Although The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen went spectacularly over budget and drowned miserably at the box office the film in its after life of syndication and video distribution hasn't done all that bad for director Terry Gilliam.
That one was pure fantasy, this one has a lot of belly laughs which one would expect from a pair of Monty Python troupe graduates like Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.Cast as the fabulous German aristocrat and teller of tall tales is John Neville who I first encountered and best remember as the Duke Of Marlborough in The First Churchills.
Like Terry Gilliam's other films Time Bandits and Brazil, Baron Munchausen is about escaping the shackles of reality through imagination.
It appears the myth of the Baron Munchausen is based on the real person Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen, a German Baron who allegedly became famous for inventing preposterous, imaginary stories from the Russo-Turkish War.In this film directed by Terry Gilliam (a member of the Monty Pythons) the events take place during the siege of Vienna in 1683 by the forces of the Ottoman Empire.
An account of Baron Munchausen (John Neville)'s supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.Terry Gilliam is one of the strangest, yet most brilliant, directors working out there today.
Said Eric Idle, "Up until Munchausen, I'd always been very smart about Terry Gilliam films.
Though not as big of a hit as "Time Bandits" or "12 Monkeys" or as big a cult favorite as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" or "Brazil," "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" still provides all the spectacle and whimsy of director Terry Gilliam's greater works.
Every member of the cast, however, does great work, making the time you spend with the characters a real joy.The great thing about Terry Gilliam's films is their level of detail in plot, set, costumes and special effect.
During a play celebrating the legend of Baron Munchausen, who should appear but the Baron himself (John Neville), who tells how he sparked the war in the first place and then, with the help of a little girl, Sally (Sarah Polley), flies off in a balloon made of women's knickers to reunite his former companions and affect the city's rescue.Like every one of Gilliam's films I've seen, "Munchausen" has both breadth and depth in terms of visual power.
Got hold of the Blu-ray recently though, as I wanted to judge the movie for myself after hearing so much about its production (and after watching Lost in La Mancha, a documentary about a different Gilliam project)...As probably goes without saying, it's a rather ambitious film, and that is normally a good thing.
I love Terry Gilliam, because even before I gave two shits about directors, I loved his movies, "Time Bandits" and "The Adventures Of Baron Munchaussen".This film is an epic children's fantasy about getting old and dying, and the role of the imagination there in.
i just finished watching the adventures of baron munchausen and i wanted to know if anyone else noticed Berthold's (Eric Idle) huge erection in this movie?
This is a thoroughly wonderful movie and is probably my favourite Terry Gilliam film.
i have always had a thing for adventure movies, and films like this always give me a good mood.john neville does a splendid job as the baron, i almost applaused at his magnificent performance during the movie.
munchausen looks and feels like a b-movie, so little money was apparently at use, but gilliam's vision and neville's acting is what drives it on.
It was directed by Terry Gilliam and it was a fantasy film, and this combination should work perfectly.
There is always something eye popping about his movies, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is probably as outlandish Gilliam can get without the aid of todays computer imagery.
This is a movie that only Gilliam could create:  the third in his unofficial "trilogy" of Time Bandits (imagination and the role of children), Brazil (imagination in an average, responsible man), and finally Munchausen - the imagination of an old man trying to capture his glory days by telling preposterous stories.
"Monty Python" troupe veterans Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam team up again for an epic comedy adventure, one of many screen versions, about the eccentric Baron Munchausen.
John Neville is playing the baron, but you can see Oliver Reed, Eric Idle, Valentina Cortese (who, at this time, has starred in 99 movies), Jonathan Price, Uma Thurman, Robin Williams, Sting (in an incredibly little role).