The Adventures of Baron Munchause (1988) is one of the most visually interesting and beautiful movies ever.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0p9W47frhI, is sadly known for being one of the movies that almost drove Terry Gilliam to madness (his Quixote movie was another) and was a notorious box office flop. Which to me, honestly, is crazy. This is one of my favorite movies and it's always brought up with a sort of air of resigned defeat.

Even today (might have been the more recent Python doc on Netlix) Eric Idle was talking about Gilliam as a director and how he tends to be sort of an anal perfectionist and he touched on Munchausen and it was just like "sigh, Munchausen..."

I remember seeing this in the theaters and was absolutely blown out of my chair. The visuals in this movie are astounding. Even today. Every scene is just packed with elements that make it a feast for the eyes. Everything else aside, just watching this movie is a treat. It won the British Academy Awards for Design and Makeup Artist and was nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects but won neither. First was lost to Batman, second to The Abyss.

You also have a top notch cast including one of my favorite Robin Williams performances that almost no one knows about (Gilliam was forbidden from crediting Williams so he appears under a pseudonym in the movie), Oliver Reed, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, a 17 year old Uma Thurman making her screen debut, and 9 year old Sarah Polley was terrific in the lead.

The tone of the movie is also something special. Gilliam can sometimes be a bit dark and cynical, as in the case of Brasil, but this is I think his most uplifting, even heartwarming movie, and silly. I don't want to spoil anything but the ending is great. And if there is a subtext, it is that stories have power. I think it's something you can pay close attention to and extract all kinds of interesting details from but it's also something you can turn your brain off to and watch with the kids. I know terms like "overlooked" get bandied about a lot, but in this case I think it's apt.

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