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The legendary Baron Munchausen…gentleman, accomplished swordsman, man of witty retors, horse rider, genius, and also a liar it seems.

Except it turned out he wasn’t. All his adventures were, in fact, absolutely true! Or were they?

So this goes in Terry Gilliam’s gigantic fantasy film THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN, a wonderful looking film that is still troubelsome after all these years.

The production back-story on the new DVD can finally be revealed. It turned out that Gilliam was, apparently, seduced into working in Rome, in Cinecitta (where Fellini was still making movies) by producer Thomas Schuhly, who promised him that he could make the movie half the cost but with twice the look!

After all, Gilliam realized now that he could work with some of the high-artists of the movie business, period: prodcution designer Dante Ferreti and even cinematographer Giesuppe Rotunno! It seemed like a dream come true.

The film was storyboarded and the script was written. It seemed that everything was in place….but then problems with management and production costs “suddenly” appeared it seemed.

But enough about those horror stories….the film in question.

Gilliam thought he could relate to the aging adventurer who thought that the world had moved on and entered a realm of chaos even though it was the Age of Reason, as it is dubbed in the opening scene. Gilliam, I presume, could probable see a little but of himself in his story, that is, a fantasist in a world that has no need for them.

THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN begins in this self-proclaimed age of reason where an unamed and unspecified European town is under constant siege from the Turks.

In the town, people are starving, scrounging around for shelter, and a motley theater crew is putting on a show about the tiltular Baron’s adventures. Done as comedy and farce, they try to both milk the audience for laughs and also gain approval with the man running the war, the Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson (played with a farcical accent by Jonathan Pryce)

Apparently, he sees it as a logical war that has obvious deficits and such, although he sees it fit to execute a soldier who has committed a superhuman act of courage in the war (a random cameo, though maybe not so random considering the time the film was made…by Sting) Henry Salt, the man running the troupe, withdraws silently to his world….

His daughter Sally Salt, maneuvers the stage while chaos nearly overtakes the proscenium arch, but then, a man bursts into the theater, played by John Neville….it is but the Baron himself! He claims that the whole production is an insult to his life and it incorrectly portraying his adventures.

Everyone derides him as insane or a loony. But he walks on stage and immediately takes charge, telling the story of his wager with Sultan. After all, he claims, he started the war, he can end it. Started it?

In a charming and wonderful effect, we see the hesistant actor playing the sultan walk carefully out onto the stage, following the real Baron’s actions, and then, with a quick pan, we see him walk confidently not to the audience, but into a huge, ornate and lavish set that is the Sultan’s baths and palace.

It workd 100% and makes you gasp with joy.

In this scene, we see that the Baron and his friends, Berthold, (Eric Idle) the world’s fastest man, Albrecht, the world’s strongest man, Aldophus, (Charles Mckeown, who also helped write the script) a sharpshooter with incredible eyesight, and Gustavus, a small man with superhuman hearing and hurricane like breath.

The Baron takes a sip of the sultan’s wine and states that it’s not bad. The Sultan is insulted and asks what is better. The Baron states that the queen in his land has a much better wine. He wagers that he can go get it several hundreds of miles away in an hour. If he wins, he gets to have as much treasure in the Sultan’s safe that a “strong man can carry”. If he loses, the sultan can have his head.

The sultan agrees with glee. The Baron calls Berthold in and instructs to go find the wine. It seems that all is going well. The Sultan, meanwhile, decides to have a little entertainment, which includes a brief segment of his opera. A giant organ is wheeled in…except it’s actually a cage full of prisoners, groaning. The sultan, on the other side, plays the organ, which activates all manners of spears and prodding sticks to force the prisoners to scream in pain, which, instead of sounding like agony, comes out like singing. The Baron is not amused.

The time is almost out, and the Baron tries to figure what is taking Berhtold so long. He instructs his friends to see what’s going on and it turns out that Berthold took a nap. Aldophus takes a short at the tree he’s sleeping under and Berthold jumps up and rushes back.

Just before the Sultan gets his head, Berthold slides in. The Sultan takes a sip and smiles. “You win.” Albrecht, who is the strongest man in the world, takes everything from the treausre vault.

The keeper of the keys rushes to tell the Sultan, and so he chops off his head. The head ends up winking at one of the concubines.

The sultan, enraged, wants the Baron dead, and begins to blow everything up. Suddenly, we’re back in the theater. It turns out mortars are being fired into the city. Jackson is dissapointed, “It’s Wednesday.” No one is supposed to fire on Wednesday.

Baron Munchausen, sad to see everyone go, decides to go backstage to ‘die’. Then, literally, Death comes to him, about to take his life force. Sally sees this and attacks the thing with giant wings, setting it ablaze for n apparent reason.

THe Baron is annoyed that he’s still alive and scolds the girl. HOwever, she insists that he can’t die because he didn’t finish the story. He smiles and realizes that there may be a little hope left in the world.

He gets up and states that something must be done about the cannons. Sally rushes to the front of the walls where all hell is breaking loose. The Baron tries to stop Sally but ends up grabbing onto a loose cannonball and goes sailing over the entire landscape. He sees the armies below and ends up catching another cannonball to ride back. The cannonball previously thus lands on the Turks mortars, destroying them.

He lands back front of Sally, gracefully, sort of. Sally knows now that he IS Baron Munchausen, and rushes to tell her dad. He scolds her believing lies, while Baron Munchausen clarifies his statement about “flying” and states that he simply grabbed a cannonball. Henry Salt is not pleased.

He then states he can save the city. The three women in the theater troupe (one of whom is Uma Thurman…) charm him into helping them.

He smiles and says he has a plan. He needs to make a hot air balloon made of women’s underwear. He does this, and he sails off to find help. Of course, Sally is a stoaway, who claims that she must see where he is going.

He states that he’s going to the moon. Did I mention that their balloon is lifting them in a giant boat? Then they fall into the sea…which then morphs in a sea of stars….when then morph into a giant surreal landscape made of sand, where classical objects of astronomy and sculptural work liter the landscape. The face on the moon is a sort of Greek styled figure buried in the pale white landscape.

The city of the moon is comprised of gigantic building cutouts, with a tinny fanfare playing, canned cheering coming out of nowhere. It is quite surreal. Then, the boat comes into a cut-out dead end, and Robin Williams (though not said to be Robin Williams in the credits) appears as a floating disembodied head with a high pitched, fay voice. His face is blue too. Apparently, he’s the king of not only the moon, but of the entire universe.

He can make anything it seems, so he makes a nice, plush room for the two of them. But then the king’s body comes in, apparently after a nice moment of carousing with the queen, coincidentally played by one of the three ladies back at the theater.

Once the body gets a hold of the head, The king’s face turns red, and then his voice devolves into a sort of farcial italian guido sound. the king is now a different person with the body: crude, loud, vulgar and kinky.

This king recognizes the Baron and states that the little man tried to run off with the Queen. This is strange since the king and queen are almost several miles tall and could be called giants.

The King changes their plush room into a dank cage. Sally and Baron seemed trapped, but then, Sally runs into Berthold. He seems to have lost his memory and is going bald. The Baron is joyful but then dissapointed with the sorry state his friend is in.

Suddenly, the queen’s head floats in, giggling occasionally and saying things like “no, don’t! not there!” Sally is visibly confused and the Baron explains that the king is tickling her feet. wink wink nudge nudge…

Oh wait, he actually IS tickling her feet. THe queen’s head is helping them escape while the king is wondering where her head is. He puts two and two together and realizes that the Baron is escaping.

The King rides on a three headed vulture creature to catch them.

In order to trick the bird, the Baron decides that she and Sally should run in opposite directions. AFter all, the king had instructed the bird heads to look for the individuals. So the bird’s go in opposite directions and end up ripping itself apart, revealing that the bird is nothing more than a giant machine.

The king lands in a crater and the head flies off, proclaiming the head is free and body is dead. Of course, his nose begins to itch, and he can’t scratch it. he sneezes and flies off into space.

Continuing the adventure, The three walk to the edge of the moon tip (now it’s a crescent) and space suddenly has constellation and star charts and diagrams flying around them. The Baron lowers a rope and they descend….sort of, for they didn’t have enough rope, and they fall to earth.

They land in volcano where the God Vulcan and his cyclops (Oliver Reed and men with one lens viewers) are auctioning off pieces of coal. Vulcan welcomes his guests into his nice room, and then his wife, Venus, (Uma Thurman!) rises out of a giant sea shell in the foutnain, completely naked. A couple of floating girls fly up to Venus and drape cloaks on her to make a pretty dress.

It’s visibly clear that Venus has no affection (at the moment) for Vulcan. He makes her a new diamond…one of dozens he gives to her.

But then she sees the Baron and the Baron sees her! Love at first sight.

They walts off into the ball-room and float in the air because the Baron is in a state of bliss. Vulcan is visibly jealous and steam comes out his ear.

Albrecht suddenly comes in, with a wig and dress. He is now a tea server for Vulcan for some reason. Turns out Albrecht always wanted to be “pretty”. berthold decides to distract vulcan from the dance by doing his own, albeit horrible dance.

Vulcan joins in…by jumping up and down like a monkey. The Baron and Uma-I mean, Venus, share a kiss. Sally is frustrated that the Baron won’t come down to help the city which is still under siege.

So she tells Vulcan what’s going on. He is totally enraged and tosses the baron out a giant whirlpool. He also throws Berthold. Albrecht jumps in. Sally rushes to his aid but she gets thrown in anyway. His anger satiated, Venus scolds him…but then they share a tender moment anyway and kiss passionately.

Menwhile, the four are thrown on the otherside of the earth and end up getting eaten by a large fish.

Inside the fish, they come across a shipwreck where Aldophus and Gustavus are playing cards. Aldophus seems to have aged the worst, his voice sounding like an asthamatic Donald Duck, bald, and blind in one eye. Gustavus is a wizened dwarf. The Baron decides to go play some cards, though he is old looking now.

Death appears again and deals the cards. Sally tries to stop him from taking the losing card. The Baron is dissapointed in himself and decides to stay there…but then his trusty horse Bucephelus appears out of nowhere! The Baron’s enthusiasm returns again.

He takes a “modicum of snuff” and makes the fish sneese. They are all expelled in a row-boat and land right off the shore where the Turkish army is still attacking.

In a strange moment, the Baron and his horse fall overboard, but then he pulls himself out of the water, even floating over the surface for no discernible reason other than because it’s cool.

The Baron attempts to rally his allies to victory, but they’re all too old and tired. The Baron, now dissapointed in them, decides to give himself up to the Sultan.

In the tent, Horatio Jackson and the Sultan are making arrangements for who should surrender next week and how the battle should proceed accordingly. Jackson requests that the Turks surrender. The Sultan, understandably, states that they’re winning. Jackson states they he surrendered last month. the sultan nods and understands.

Then the Baron enters. and states that the Baron can have his head.

It then becomes a repeat of what happened earlier in the film, though on a much, much bigger scale, with an epic pull back tracking shot that seems to go on forever and ever.

But then, just before the blade goes down, the bullet from Aldophus shoots it in half, the blade sailiing off and cutting the sultan’s hat in half.

what happens next is a chaotic and insane battle scene where all the companions get to show off their talents.

In the end, the Turks surrender and run off, never to be seen again. The Baron enters the town, to much fanfare and cheer.

Jackson, jealous and angry that this man could’ve possibly proved him wrong, does the next sensible thing and shoots the Baron dead.

Tragedy! Death finally returns for the final curtain to take the Baron’s soul, though Sally tries to stop him.

A magnificent and solemn funeral occurs, and it seems that the film will end on a melancholy note…until we hear the Baron’s voice interrupt the ceremonies.

“This was one of the many times I encountered death” or something like that.

It turns out this was all part of a larger tale he had been telling the audience at the beginning of the film in the theater, and the actors had been performing it unknowingly.

Everyone is rapt with attention and there is applause when the story ends with “happily ever after”

But the festivites are interrupted when Jackson wants the Baron arrested.

The baron smirks and proclaims that the gates be opened. Everyone rallies behind him and walks over the troops Jackson uses. The gates open and….

It’s just as the story told. The encampent is destroyed, all the soldiers are gone. The tale was true!

Everyone cheers. The Baron rides off into the blue sky and waves goodbye…and then promptly vanishes into thin air, right before our very eyes.

The film the ends.

This long synopsis was really just a way to collect my thoughts.

First things first…the film, looks fantastic.

Whether this is a trait of the designer, Dante Ferretti or Gilliam himself is debatable. I think it’s Ferretti, for the set design shows a considerable amount of wittisism and cultural references.

In the opening, the theater scenes are ornate, filled with 18th century iconography that seems too esoteric even for Gilliam. On the moon, Ferretti’s designs are very noticeable, with the classicalism and baroque quality. The face on the moon wouldn’t look out of place on a sculpture of Venus herself or something.

Then again, everything has an “Italian” look. By that, I mean, everything is big, grand, and simply fabulous-istic.

Rotunno’s inherently textured and dense photography makes for some striking visuals though Gilliam’s bizarre and unecessary angles make for some strangeness that seem out of place in the world of Ferretti and Fellini-esque grotesqeries.

The score is weak, almost obtrusive. It seems more fitting for, perhaps, a more traditional Hollywood picture, and this movie is missing the strangeness and lucious quality that would be heard in THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD. In fact, that film seems more in tune with what Gilliam probably wanted to do, but in the end, MUNCHAUSEN is a failure. A noble failure, but a failure nonetheless.

It’s hard to say, but some scenes run too long and simply feel too farcical for their own good. To this end, the epic-quality is ruined constantly. Gilliam seems to think they’re funny scenes, but it’s just annoying.

Even with the nightmarish set-backs on the film, Gilliam could’ve at least tweaked the script to now include so much smarmy humor that falls flat almost every scene but only occasionally flies because of sheer surreal quality.

As usual in a Gilliam film, the performances are wonderful, and also frenzied, like something out of a Ken Russell film, where every person is hamming it up, screaming at the top of their lungs.

John Neville is actually kind of suave as the Baron, and he never ever screams, over-acts or anything like that. Coincidentally, he’s the best actor in the film, hands down. Maybe even should’ve won the academy award, because the lines and dialogue he’s given make him an unsympathetic prick.

But Neville somehow makes him seem like a generous, forgiving, and wise old man who is not insane, as it does sound like on paper, but removed from the madness of the world, safe in his fantasy.

Sally is also sometimes irritating as yet another unsympathetic lout. She only gets off easy because she’s a little girl and Gilliam probably wanted someone with a funny face.

Robin Williams is….good in his role…but the character is totally out of place in this movie, and at that point the film spirals out of control. You literally begin to think, “I’m sorry, I seem to have stepped into a different film. Let me leave and return to the right theater…”

This is kind of sad, since the Moon sequences contain some of the best effects.

In the end, MUNCHAUSEN, is a big bag of what-ifs and could-haves. Perhaps I should go one step foward and say that Gilliam was totally not held back and maybe even someone else should’ve helmed this epic.

Oh well. It’s still the most watchable of Gilliam’s movies. Maybe not the best, but like Ken Russell’s THE BOYFRIEND, it’s enjoyable and a wonder to behold.