THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Once again the ever-so-slightly exaggerated adventures of the great Baron are told. Terry Gilliam brings many of the great images of the Munchausen stories to the screen but the story that ties them together has problems. Rating: high +1.
THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN is purported to be the final installment of a "trilogy" of films directed by Terry Gilliam, the animator for the "Monty Python" television series. And while the first two, TIME BANDITS and BRAZIL, were based on original screenplays, BARON MUNCHAUSEN is an adaptation of the famous adventures which are for Europe sort of what the Oz stories are for the United States. The earliest Munchausen stories were first published in 1785. Since then the tall tales have taken many forms. Many Americans first became aware of the Baron through NBC's 1933 radio program THE JACK PEARL SHOW, in which Pearl played the Baron. There have been at least two previous film versions, one from Germany in 1943 with Hans Albers as the Baron and one from Czechoslovakia in 1961 with Milos Kopecky. The latter used to show up on New York television and did some very imaginative combining of live actors and animation. Terry Gilliam's version is the latest version, and like the 1961 and probably the 1943 versions, visually it owes very much to one of the great book illustrators of all time, Gustave Dore.
The story of Gilliam's film is not taken from the book but rather is a tying together of the more imaginative scenes that Dore illustrated but in what is at times a more rapid-fire pace. And only "at times," because the pacing of BARON MUNCHAUSEN is extremely uneven. As in TIME BANDITS, Gilliam has little idea of which of his sequences are really entertaining and which are simply dull. More than once the viewer feels like telling Gilliam that he has made his point, is wasting precious screen time on an idea that has no more to offer and should get on with things. Then as often as not the next scene is a gem.
The story has a small theatre company putting on their production of "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" in a city besieged by the Ottoman Turks. As the pallid play proceeds who should arrive but the Baron himself to give his own account of his adventures. The story is difficult to relate from there, not just because it is hard to tell what is fantasy and what is reality, but because the script actually contradicts itself as to what is its actual story line versus story-within-story. Hence the story line does not bear close examination. Somewhere in all this is the Baron's bet with a sultan and a trip to the moon with Robin Williams playing a very strange moon man. There is a visit to Vulcan's forge, and another to the belly of a huge fish. Finally there is a stupendous battle between the Ottoman Turks and the Baron's friends, who amount to virtual super-heroes.
Like the 1961 version, this film is a treat more for the eye than for the mind. Scenes of the city under siege are done with tremendous historical realism. Some scenes of fantasy are done with great imagination. Then just when the proper mood is established, Gilliam will throw in an anachronistic reference and get a chuckle from the audience at the expense of the mood. THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN is a film that when it is good is very, very good, and when it is bad, it can be quite bad. It is a tough film to rate overall, but probably deserves a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale--better than TIME BANDITS, not as good as BRAZIL.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzz!leeper
leeper@mtgzz.att.com
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
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