After Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998, Terry Gilliam) the work of Terry Gilliam began to decline. Brazil (1985, Gilliam) is my favorite cult film. The Fisher King (1991, Gilliam) is his best work—great cast, script and crafted out of raw emotion. And Twelve Monkeys (1995, Gilliam) is a cool, enigmatic sci-fi story of time travel and tragedy.
And what makes Brazil the quintessential cult film is that it’s not really that good but I enjoy watching it immensely nonetheless. That’s why I don’t really consider Pink Flamingos (1972, John Waters) a cult film: it displays too much genius. Brazil is that rare thing in movies, that is, bizarre in a good way.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018, Gilliam) isn’t as bad as Gilliam’s other work from the last 20 years, but that isn’t saying a lot. It was a fun diversion and I’m glad I went to see it in a theater, but I can’t imagine wanting to rewatch it. On the other hand if I heard there was a screening of Brazil coming up… When? Where?
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is surprisingly focused narratively for Gilliam. It has a theme. What if a person used their imagination and lost perspective on the difference between fantasy and reality, and what if that were contagious to a skeptic? Or wait, is that a theme? Maybe, mythology deconstructed through idealism vs. cynicism approaches?
Also the pacing was great. The movie really gains a momentum that makes it past the finish line with aplomb. The Spanish countryside, sets, costumes, wide-angle compositions, Dutch angles and spectacle is all there, but… The Man Who Killed Don Quixote takes us to another world, but it’s just not one I really wanna visit. And like Bridges' character in The Fisher King notice how The Man Who Killed Don Quixote's protag the Adam Driver character sports that signature top ponytail down at the sides doo Gilliam does in real life as an autobiographic touch?
1 comment:
You ever see the documentary Lost in La Mancha? It's slight, but an interesting story about the movie he was trying to make falling away from him, like beach sand getting eaten away under your feet when you're standing in the water as the wave is going out...
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