The Film:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is one of director Terry Gilliam’s (Brazil) most creative endeavors. This may seem broad, considering Gilliam’s incredibly imaginative films through the years, but there is something unique about this one in particular. Gilliam made the film through both an older man and a younger child’s eyes. In doing so, Gilliam has crafted a film that can stand the test of time and be enjoyable for just about anyone.

The story starts off with a play where an actor is reenacting the supposedly true adventures of Baron Munchausen. Suddenly, an old man claiming to be the real Baron shows up and tells the audience this play is not the whole truth. He then begins telling his tales of fantasy, which enrapture the audience. Unfortunately, the war going on outside disrupts his story, so the Baron decides he will find a way to save the town. The Baron must find his fellow friends to defeat the Turks so the Baron makes a hot air balloon ship (ironic, eh?) and begins his travels to the moon. Unknowingly, a young girl named Sally (Sarah Polley), daughter of the theater company’s owner, has snuck onto his balloon and goes on the voyage with him. They first go to the moon and find Berthold, an extremely fast man, who once worked with the Baron. Once they escape from the moon and its King, the others continue to try and find more friends from the past including Gustavus, who can create a powerful wind. From there, the journey continues as the Baron and his friends encounter water beasts, Venus (Uma Thurman), and eventually the Turkish army.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a very engaging flick and one that should not be missed. There are a few faults to be found such as the occasional confusing plot point and the imperfect pace. However, the film overall is so entertaining that most will overlook its problems.

The screenplay is very inventive, going places never seen before on film. The characters are all interesting, even if there may be one too many. The development of each character is defined just enough to where the characters stay appealing.

The acting is top notch. There are many small roles filled by actors such as Sting and Robin Williams, which just adds to the pleasantness of the film.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a solid film that almost never materialized. With its infamous production behind, now is the time to see what a great gem this movie is.

8/10

Special Features:

This 20th anniversary edition DVD of the Baron is jam packed with even more escapades. On the first disc, there is a revealing commentary from Terry Gilliam and co-writer/actor, Charles McKeown. The two go into detail about the troubled production. Gilliam talks about the dangers of filming on a trapeze wire. He also discusses the confusion of shooting Baron Munchausen at different ages. Both discuss the closure of the film set and the production’s notorious budget overage. The second disc also has some great features. The best of all is The Madness and Misadventures of Munchausen. It is a documentary about an hour and ten minutes long that goes into much further detail of the production than even the commentary. It starts off with discussion of writing the script. Gilliam mentions he had to self finance the script so that McKeown could write it. One of the actor’s talks about Hollywood and how everyone should stay away as it is an industry filled with awful people. Many of the interviews in the later half consist of the crew going into detail about certain producers that nearly caused the death of the film. The producer is interviewed to give his side of things and at one point mentions that people were not upset with him because he did something wrong but rather because he is German. The next featurette is Storyboard Sequences that consists of thirty minutes of storyboards for various scenes, mainly scenes that were never actually shot. There are also several deleted scenes, most of which aren’t finished. One deleted scene is an alternate opening for the film. For fans, these deleted scenes might be worth looking at. Also included on the disc are Sony trailers for Seinfeld season 9, Waterhorse and Final Season.

BluRay Exclusive:

Fantastic fun for the whole family, Baron Munchausen is even more dazzling and vibrant than ever in high definition. Though a few of the matted special effects show their age when displayed in 1080p, for the most part, the imaginative world of Terry Gilliam is quite a visual treat. The lossless audio included on the disc will also knock your socks off.

Aside from the high definition though, all that Sony offers BluRay viewers for their extra money is a lame duck trivia track. This is especially disappointing coming from the creators of the technology, who don’t even bother upconverting the included standard DVD features into high definition. With an expected 29 million BluRay players expected to invade U.S. homes by the end of the year, hopefully the age of meager high definition extras won’t last much longer.

8/10

Overall:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a highly underrated film from Gilliam. This is a terrific treasure that is in desperate need to be rediscovered.

- G. Brandon Hill (Movie, DVD) and Joe Russo (BluRay)