10 Iconic Directors Who Lived Their Movies Whilst Making Them

6. Terry Gilliam (Fought The Forces Of Rationality On The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen)

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The stories about Terry Gilliam's battles with studio heads are legion, not to mention legendary; all directors, as Eric Idle once pointed out, like battle analogies, but for Gilliam it often seems that "film as battlefield" is the only mode within which he can work. Gilliam probably never faced a more daunting or exhausting battle than during the shooting of his fantasy epic The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, adapted from the fanciful stories of R.E. Raspe. The film was in trouble almost from day one - shot in Italy, with a crew that largely didn't speak English, and producer mismanagement/criminal malefescence (depending on whose story you believe) that put the movie overbudget and overschedule virtually before shooting began. In the film, Munchausen battles the forces of the "modern, rational world", represented by Jonathan Pryce's Horatio Jackson, a persnickety beauracrat who has a heroic soldier shot because "this sort of behavior is demoralizing for the ordinary soldiers and citizens who are trying to lead normal, simple, unexceptional lives". Behind the scenes, Gilliam, ever the wild fantasist, was trying to construct grand visions while having to having to contend with completion bond companies and studio accountants and executives who felt there was no reason to throw good money after bad, and who simply buried the film upon release. Munchausen managed to defeat the Turks and ride into the sunset; Gilliam ended up with a financial flop, a career ruining reputation as an "irresponsible director"...and a cult masterpiece.
Contributor

C.B. Jacobson pops up at What Culture every once in a while, and almost without fail manages to embarrass the site with his clumsy writing. When he's not here, he's making movies, or writing about them at http://buddypuddle.blogspot.com.