Terry Gilliam is by far the best director in my mind. He made all the python movies, 12 monkeys, Time bandits, The Fisher King, Fear and Loathing in Lost Vegas and all sorts others. Terry Gilliam is awesome!

I also like Terry Gilliam, but "Terry Gilliam is awesome" is not really a discussion thread. Maybe something more like your top 5 Gilliam movies.

1. Adventures of Baron Munchausen
2. Brazil (Check out the "Love Conquers All" version , too)
3. 12 Monkeys
4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
5. The Fisher King
6. Lost in La Mancha - A super movie about a Gilliam film that wasn't.

Has anyone seen the 5 hour version of brazil? I can't seem to track it down anywhere. I would like to know whats different on it from the original movies. I also haven't seen "The Brothers Grimm" yet, because I've no cash. I would like a non critic review of it.

Movies I didn't like by Gilliam:

1. The Fisher King
2. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
3. Time Bandits

Actually I nearly despised them.

Movies I did like by Gilliam:

The Monty Python movies.

The Fisher King was a great movie. Although I have to admit I could've done without the Robin Williams nude scene.

Terry Gilliam's career has unfortunely fallen flat. I didn't see THE BROTHERS GRIMM, but it is widely viewed as a misfire and there was a lot of sniping between Terry and Bob Weinstein over the final cut of the film. It was released this year as part of Miramax's housecleaning and was roundly panned before disappearing into DVD-land.

BROTHERS followed his aborted DON QUIXOTE picture that fell apart and was chronicled in a good documentary.

And Terry has a new film that has been making the film fest circuit but early reviews peg it as a stinker.

Terry's best work may be behind him.

I've seen the monty python movies -of course- 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing. He is one of the more interesting of hollywood directors working today in my opinion.

As for Brazil I want to see it but it is so god damned expensive -80 or so dollars- that I would rather rent it before I make that investment. But no video rental house around me has it! To top it off the alternate video rentals are literally across the city from me.

ARGHH!

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Fuffcans:
As for Brazil I want to see it but it is so god damned expensive -80 or so dollars- that I would rather rent it before I make that investment. But no video rental house around me has it! To top it off the alternate video rentals are literally across the city from me.
ARGHH!

They have it on Amazon.com for as low as $35.

You should also be able to pick up a rental copy in widescreen format from a local store. A number of copies are usually available on ebay if you'd like to pick up the criterion edition with the director's cut and commentary instead; although I suggest at least seeing the studio's version to decide if you really love the film enough to invest in the three disc set.

My Top 5 Gilliam films are as follows:

1. Brazil
2. 12 Monkeys
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
4. The Fisher King
5. Time Bandits

If The Meaning of Life and Holy Grail weren't such collaborative efforts by Monty Python and co-directed by Terry Jones, then I would include them; but I think the five I've selected are arguably the films that he has had the most influence over.

The director's cut of Brazil is one my favorite films of all time, and if you've ever seen the short film La Jete, which 12 Monkeys is "based" on, then you'll have to agree that his ability to transfer his fantastic imagination to the screen is difficult to compare to any other filmmaker's. Perhaps that is why as his ambitions grow larger, such as trying to film versions of Don Quixote and The Brothers Grimm, his execution seems to fall short. Unfortunately, I think that he may also be growing past a point where he can generate the energy (and money) neccessary to create another masterwork like Brazil.

I've always felt Gilliam is a director who thrives on confidence. His best works tend to come after another, slightly less wonderful film while his weaker efforts, or least 'Gilliam' films, come after a failure.

While I've seen Adventures of Baron Munchausen appear on the top of someones list here, I've always felt it is a weak film. It suffers immensely from a lack of freedom Gilliam had with the budgetary issues and his eventual failing with the project. Its be no means a terrible film and still has marks of his personality, but compare that to the magnificent his masterpiece, Brazil and you're not even within similar realms of quality.

Brazil, while still a troubled picture, is Gilliam working at full confidence coming on the back of Time Bandits. Similarly, later in his career, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas comes on the back of the nearly-as-great Twelve Monkeys, the film that finally turned round the post- Munchausen slump that was marginally continued with the okay but not quite fully Gilliam Fisher King.

Anyway, after all that, my personal list would run:
1. Brazil
2. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
3. Monty Python And The Holy Grail
4. Twelve Monkeys
5. Time Bandits

Though I believe to be in a minority, I liked The Brothers Grimm very much. Again, Gilliam's vivid imagination is on display, and this is a good thing. I thought the story itself was interesting and melded well with the visual effects. Gilliam's problem seems to be that his imagination frequently exceeds his budgetary limitations, and therefore he has problems with financing his films. You need to see the documentary Lost In La Mancha about his disastrous attempt to do Cervantes' Don Quixote story. You cannot ignore, however, the pure imagery of Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, particularly the last one. Hell, I felt like I was trippin' watching that film. I'm afraid his reputation for big ideas which costs mucho bucks make it hard for Gilliam to obtain financing. I don't go to the theater very often, but any film he makes, I'll buy it on DVD. In my book, there's no filmmaker out there with his imaginative powers.

Did anyone else checkout the interview he did for the latest A.V. Club? He talks a lot about his new film Tideland, which received a terrible Metascore. You can read it here.

Fear and Loathing is definitely my favorite, and is in my top five movies of all time. Brazil would probably be in my top ten.

I just saw most of Brazil (except for a spot in the middle) and really liked it. I'm glad it was the non-American ending. I'd much rather see a movie the way the director intended than a sugarcoated version.

The parts with the guys barging into rooms with guns reminded me of V for Vendetta, one of my favorite 2006 movies.

Based on what I saw, I'll definitely watch the part i missed and probably check out more of Mr. Gilliam's movies.

Boy, talk about a director who is in a career free-fall. First, there was the LOST IN LA MANCHA debacle where the film was cancelled after they started shooting because Jean Rochefort had a back problem. Then there was the ill-fated BROTHERS GRIMM where there was all sorts of sniping between Gilliam and the Weinstein Brothers over the final cut of the film. Miramax, in the waning days of the Weinstein Brothers reign, dumped it into theatres and it disappeared without a trace. And now last Friday TIDELAND opened to poor reviews and limited distribution. It is playing in one theatre in Manhattan and is getting only a one-week run.

His stubborn campaign to claim the final cut of Brazil shows his integrity as a filmmaker that none of his movies can show.

A very clever individual in the way he used Pitt, Willis, and a thirty million budget to create an un-comprehensible movie, Twelve Monkeys.

His refusal to put the name of Alex Cox on the script of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas shows his pride as a movie director.

He is a very self-confidant individual who gets away with creating artsy movies within the standard LA environment that nobody will ever understand.

I enjoy to watch all of his movies as one complete epic.

quote:

Originally posted by j26:
His stubborn campaign to claim the final cut of Brazil shows his integrity as a filmmaker that none of his movies can show.

Yeah, I give him his due, but I honestly don't much care for his films. I've tried -- on four separate occasions -- to sit thru BRAZIL without falling asleep, and I just can't make it ... but TIME BANDITS keeps my interest every time.

quote:

Adventures of Baron Munchausen

I saw it years ago and struck me as a trainwreck,
I think what makes Gilliam so interesting is that his films are this mesh of ideas and concepts its like a runaway train that sometimes loses control or crashes. I have not seen Brothers Grimm but it seems to be that his filmmaking decisions were compromised alot during the making strikes me as not being pure Gilliam.

top 5.

1. Brazil- directors cut (fav movie ever. A 5 hr version heard that too is it a myth?
2. Fisher King
3. Twelve Monkeys
4 Jabberwocky
5. Tideland( his last film. Got so so reviews but worth the look)

Have yet to see all of Fear and Loathing

Gilliam is a fantastic director, but he's a piss-poor businessman. The tragic butchering of Brazil was pretty ironic since the film commented on the very perpetrators of the crime. It's almost as if [Sid Weinberg] didn't watch the film; [he] just felt it was too long and didn't think it was a practical length for the American audiences with such short attention spans.

I have the Criterion version of Brazil and I have yet to watch the "Love Conquers All" version. Somehow I'm scared of it. The notion that such an impressive experience could be curtailed by big business clowns didn't strike my fancy.

Somebody commented above on Gilliam's diminishing vision. True, his films have lost the verve and wit that once defined his style. It sucks for sure, but with [somebody] breathing down his neck and looking over his shoulder whenever he has the inclination to get creative, it makes sense that his muse might have fled. The Brothers Grimm got a lot of flack. It wasn't an awful film; it was adequate but under-stylized. In many places I could see that he might have wanted to go somewhere else with it, but he just couldn't. [That one was largely due to his clashing with the Weinsteins]

But I'm not convinced [all these corporate honchos] are concentrated evil like Gilliam makes them out to be. I haven't seen Tideland, but if what I've heard was true, he might have gone too far with it. Sometimes he lets his style get in the way, and I think [some people] might understand that a little more than he does. I don't deny there's something akin to manipulation underlying [some of the] decision making, but if Gilliam learned discipline, I think he'd be one of the finest directors around.

Gilliam is one of my favorites. I love the guy for everything he's done for cinema. He's tragically overlooked and deserves some more credit. While Michael Bay squanders the statements he can make through film, better directors like Gilliam--who see film rather as an art form--gather dust.

My top five:

1.) Brazil
2.) 12 Monkeys
3.) Time Bandits
4.) The Fisher King
5.) The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

[I placed the statements I edited in brackets because, as mark f noticed, I made a rather huge mistake by positing the Weinsteins in Sheinberg's place. Now my pro-Gilliam blurb resembles a thrashed government document.]

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