Monty Python's animator graduated to director when he helmed their first proper film in collaboration with the other Terry. I can't say what kind of impression Holy Grail would have made if I was watching it for the first time today (besides belatedly getting decades' worth of references), but when I first saw it at 10 years of age, taped off the telly and incomplete, it blew my mind and was watched on repeat for the best part of several weeks.
I was never under the delusion that Terry G's solo efforts would come anywhere close, but I've enjoyed most of what I've seen, so might as well check out the rest. Here are my The Top 18 Terry Gilliam Films.
Key:
Short film
Not
Terry G's animations were rarely the highlights of Flying Circus episodes. If you can't get enough of them though, here are some more: an orphaned Terry 'toon made too late for the series and a compilation of some of his non-Python works. It's all the same sort of thing, down to reusing the same cutouts.
16. The Legend of Hallowdega (2010)
I'd misjudged the maverick director as being above doing a corporate for an energy drink company, but we all have pressing financial commitments sometimes. His singular style is briefly present in the strange gadgets between the lazy mockumentary and doctored footage of actual race crashes that I sincerely hope no one died in.15. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
This film isn't aimed at me, and if I didn't impose pointless completist rules on myself, I would have respectfully steered clear and not wasted my time. It's rare to experience something made with such passion that offers so little value.
A return to overt fantasy isn't enough to dig Gilliam out of his career nadir. I can't see this slow and boring story appealing to kids, and adults obviously aren't going to get anything out of it. It all looks quite nice, but also like it would rather be a Tim Burton film.
14. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
A return to overt fantasy isn't enough to dig Gilliam out of his career nadir. I can't see this slow and boring story appealing to kids, and adults obviously aren't going to get anything out of it. It all looks quite nice, but also like it would rather be a Tim Burton film.
The bastard son of Holy Grail isn't trying to fool you, but it's easy to see how it could be mistaken for a Python film. Until you get a few minutes in and realise it's not particularly funny or competent. Michael Palin's as charming as ever, but you're better off with Ripping Yarns.
The nostalgic renaissance continues with this failed attempt to do Brazil again. Under another director, Pat Rushin's confusing script would have made for a blander and less colourful film, but possibly a better one.
11. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Gilliam's imaginative renaissance was never going to be as good as the first go around. This is an inventive take on old stories, but intangible CGI dreamscapes lack the handcrafted magic of practical effects. Might as well go back to cardboard cutouts.
10. The Wholly Family (2011)
9. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
Gilliam by numbers. I'm happy he finally managed to squeeze this one out, but the finished product is totally eclipsed by the much more interesting production history.
7. Time Bandits (1981)
6. Tideland (2005)
We're at the fantasy-as-escape theme again, but as we've been through all the stages of man now, we start over with an abandoned young girl. "Fucked-up" would be a lazy way to describe most Gilliam films, but it fits the bill here. Time Bandits it ain't.
4. Brazil (1985)
3. 12 Monkeys (1995)
2. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Time Bandits convinced me that I'd grown too barnacled and cobwebbed to be spirited away by imaginative fantasies any more, so this chronicle of wilful absurdity was an elation. Gilliam's messy masterpiece goes so over the top, it escapes the gravitational pull of rational criticism and everything that's wrong only makes it better.
Obviously.
10. The Wholly Family (2011)
This pasta-sponsored short is Gilliam back to his best, returning to the escapism of Time Bandits with a weird fairy tale that wouldn't be out of place on The Storyteller or some other inappropriately nightmare-inducing kids' anthology.
Gilliam by numbers. I'm happy he finally managed to squeeze this one out, but the finished product is totally eclipsed by the much more interesting production history.
8. The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983)
The overblown, over-budget supporting feature to The Meaning of Life was never one of my favourite bits of that brilliant shambles, but I prefer it in isolation as the essential supplemental E.P. to Gilliam's 80s "trilogy."
7. Time Bandits (1981)
I'm glad I got round to it eventually, but it's fair to say this panto Bill & Ted would have been an order of magnitude more appealing if I'd seen it at a more impressionable age. Like the Bill & Ted films, I found all the cliched time jumping dull and unfunny (Pythons excepted), but appreciated it much more in the second half when it got all weird.
6. Tideland (2005)
5. The Fisher King (1991)
Gilliam's '90s films take place in the real world, where the fantastical is excused (or implied) by madness. 12 Monkeys is the most satisfying take, Fear and Loathing the least, but this might be the most affecting, admittedly more so since Robin Williams' passing. Comparisons with the director's previous grail quest show how far he's come along his solitary path, with nary a Python in sight from now on.
I've never been as awestruck by Gilliam's Kafka–Orwell blend as some people, but it's not a film you'll forget. With its sarcastic design aesthetic, broad performances and malignant humour, it never really feels credible as a drama, but it's too sinister to watch for a laugh. What is it?
3. 12 Monkeys (1995)
Gilliam shows admirable restraint by presenting this far-fetched tale from an approachable, mainstream perspective in the 'present,' only loosening up when it comes to the wackier 'future'/'delusion' segments. This helps greatly in fostering the illusion of ambiguity, and could even trick you into misremembering that there was any leeway there until you watch it again.
2. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Time Bandits convinced me that I'd grown too barnacled and cobwebbed to be spirited away by imaginative fantasies any more, so this chronicle of wilful absurdity was an elation. Gilliam's messy masterpiece goes so over the top, it escapes the gravitational pull of rational criticism and everything that's wrong only makes it better.
1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975, with Terry Jones)
Obviously.
