The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Adventure, Comedy, Romance. He was full of it.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) is a British adventure comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam. 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.

The film was nominated for four British Academy Film Awards, winning three: Best Costume Design, Best Make Up Artist and Best Production Design and was nominated for four Oscars, four Saturn Awards and won the 1990 Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon in three categories: Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design