Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Theatrical Release Date: 1989 03 10 (USA)

UPC: 043396769892

Studio: Columbia TriStar

MPAA Rating: PG   Contains:[Violence, Brief Nudity, Suitable for Children]

Summary: Director Terry Gilliam adroitly applies his Monty Python sensibilities upon the "career" of famed German prevaricator Baron von Munchausen. Played herein by John Neville, the baron is seen quelling a war that he himself started, flying into the stratosphere on the back of a cannonball, ballooning to the moon, exploring the innards of a volcano, being swallowed by a whale....In short, all of Munchausen's fabulous lies are here presented as "truth," played out in full view of nonplussed witnesses Eric Idle, Charles McKeown, Jack Purvis, and Sarah Polley. Fringe benefits include several loving medium shots of jaybird-naked Uma Thurman as Boticelli's Venus and an extended unbilled cameo by Robin Williams -- that is, by the head of Robin Williams -- as the King of the Moon. Filmed under considerable duress on a budget eventually exceeding 45 million dollars, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen never quite caught on with moviegoers, though it has enjoyed a lucrative afterlife on videocassette. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Fantasy

Awards: Best Production Design – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Costume Design – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Makeup – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Makeup – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Costume Design – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Makeup – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Makeup – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Visual Effects – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Features: Interactive menus
Languages: English two-channel Surround, Spanish, Portuguese
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Thai
Theatrical trailer
Scene selections

Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Format: DVD

Release Date: 04/27/1999

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DDS2.0 Dolby Digital w/ 4 channels

Runtime: 127 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,Spanish,Portuguese

Subtitles: English,Spanish,Portuguese

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side#1--
0. Side#1--
0. Scene Selections
1. Start. [3:18]
2. Henry Salt & Son. [4:57]
3. Act II. [7:04]
4. A wager. [2:21]
5. "Torturer's apprentice". [2:53]
6. Awakening Bertholdt. [3:13]
7. Empty treasury. [3:07]
8. Theatre under siege. [7:07]
9. Cannonball exress. [5:51]
10. Inflatable knickers. [6:07]
11. Off to the moon. [4:10]
12. Royal welcome. [5:58]
13. Bertholdt. [5:42]
14. A jealous king. [6:46]
15. With Vulcan. [5:43]
16. Venus. [9:18]
17. Expelled. [1:43]
18. World's other side. [5:10]
19. Adolphus & Gustavus. [3:35]
20. Bucephalus & snuff. [3:13]
21. "The town! We're here!". [2:10]
22. The Baron surrenders. [3:10]
23. Executioner's block. [3:14]
24. Routing the Turk. [5:50]
25. Victory parade. [3:04]
26. "I met my death.". [5:02]
27. Adieu. [1:14]
28. End credits. [4:54]

Nathan Southern

The fabled Baron von Munchausen appeared in a number of live-action and animated screen incarnations prior to 1989, including Josef von Baky's 1943 UFA-funded, Goebbels-produced Munchausen. Yet Terry Gilliam bravely resisted the temptation to rework any of those prior screen versions. Instead, his film is twofold. On the most rudimentary level, he uses the Munchausen stories as a kind of loose framework on which to hang an assortment of the most audacious visual fireworks ever to illuminate the silver screen. And on that basis, the work is truly extraordinary, bringing to light effects unlike any created before or since in a Western feature, which defy all boundaries of form, dimension, and logic. Consequently, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen -- like Ray Harryhausen's 7th Voyage of Sinbad 30 years prior -- held captive the imaginations of those viewers who were fortunate enough to catch this film as children, during its initial theatrical run. From the "animated constellations" that swirl and gyrate through the celestial fabric, to the scythe-wielding Grim Reaper who bursts forth from an inert stone statue, sending stone shards flaying off omnidirectionally, to the glimpse of a white sand-filled sea of tranquility with the half-buried stone head of some obscure lunar monarch in the foreground, Gilliam plunges breathlessly and rapturously into a preadolescent visual dreamscape. If the film only functioned as a collection of visual pyrotechnics (as many assumed), it would indeed be disappointing; instead, Gilliam intuitively plunges deeper, and the film gains longevity from its thematic level. With Baron, Gilliam completed a planned screen trilogy on the theme of imagination as it triumphs over reason and logic. This thematic triumvirate began some eight years prior with Time Bandits, continued with 1985's sci-fi tragicomedy Brazil, and wraps with Baron. And that theme is the glue that holds this massively overscaled, freewheeling production together, ingeniously justifying every one of Gilliam's deliberate logical and temporal lapses (particularly in the confusing denouement). With -- as an added bonus -- the one-of-a-kind Pythonesque humor that flavors the majority of Gilliam's screen works providing much-needed lunacy and comic relief, the film earns its right to masterpiece status. Unfortunately, Western audiences did not agree. This outrageously expensive film (presumably greenlit during David Puttnam's tenure at Columbia) confounded many American viewers and slipped by others, bringing untold financial loss for the studio. Gilliam survived, however, rebounding to box-office gold two and a half years later, with the Christmas 1991 blockbuster The Fisher King. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Tony Smart  Actor 
Franco Adducci  Actor 
Don Henderson  Actor 
Jake Eberts  Executive Producer 
Terry Gilliam  Director 
Terry Gilliam  Screenwriter 
Michael Kamen  Composer (Music Score) 
Charles McKeown  Screenwriter 
Thomas Schühly  Producer 
John Neville  Actor 
Eric Idle  Actor 
Sarah Polley  Actor 
Uma Thurman  Actor 
Jonathan Pryce  Actor 
Oliver Reed  Actor 
Sting  Actor 
Charles McKeown  Actor 
Robin Williams  Actor 
Winston Dennis  Actor 
Jack Purvis  Actor 
Jack Purvis  Actor 
Valentina Cortese  Actor 
Bill Paterson  Actor 
Peter Jeffrey  Actor 
Alison Steadman  Actor 
Ray Cooper  Actor 
Andrew Maclachlan  Actor 
Mohamed Salem Badr  Actor 
Kiran Shah  Actor 
Ettore Martini  Actor 
Jose Lifante  Actor 

Country: UK,West Germany