Since it's too damned sad to keep talking about poor Heath (and poor Heath's daughter, etc., etc.) I'd just like to move on for the time being and marvel at how amazing Terry Gilliam must be at pitching. The guy's track record at making financially successful movies is basically nonexistent, disaster follows him like a TMZ cameraman, and yet time and time again people are ponying up sizable funds so he can go out and play some more. I'm not saying he isn't talented -- hell, if I had $50 million to make a movie I'd probably give it to him in a heartbeat -- but we're talking about serious investors, presumably concerned to some extent with their bottom lines, on whom Gilliam must have some kind of Svengali-like influence. This should be studied, is what I'm saying.

And yet, Tom Cruise still lives. If only Scientologists offed themselves instead of just giving that thousand yard stare.

This was actually the first thought in my mind. Gilliam's film only began filming in December! Talk about a cursed genius.

I really wouldn't call his career pockmarked, though, especially not since Munchausen has rightly become a cult classic, Brazil and Fisher King are outright classics, and Grimm grossed like $20 million just in theatrical worldwide. I actually think his career was back on track... until Shitmas came early with this gigantic shitbox from Shitta Claus.

My somewhat morbid hope against hope is that his role was more of a supporting role (he isn't the titular character Dr. Parnassus) and that enough of it was shot that Heath can be commemorated by the film's timely release, and not wreck the project entirely. And that no one fucks with it enough to derail Terry Gilliam's vision.

His last known photograph is in a creepy clown costume? Oof.

@nick_r: Actually, I took a look at boxofficemojo, and Grimm took in like $20 million more than its budget in box office receipts worldwide. That doesn't take DVD into account. I actually think that was the biggest hit of his career, despite that it wasn't really his vision or his story. (And sucked.)

And let's be honest: his proper, un-fucked-over movies are only getting more and more famous as time goes by. Honestly I'd say he's the closest thing to Kubrick still alive whose name doesn't rhyme with Bated Grinch.

The Fisher King was a creative triumph? No shit? I'd rather stick my head in a blender.

Time Bandits, on the other hand, or maybe Twelve Monkeys ...

@BlowHarder: Whereas I can't stand Time Bandits. Maybe I need to see it again drunk this time. The Fisher King is a great, difficult movie, and kudos to anyone who can coax a performance out of Amanda Plummer. She's even crazier than Gilliam.

@BlowHarder:

Twelve Monkeys was financially successful as well.

But then there's Tideland.

@blackheartededitor: Gawker has some non-creepy (at least non-clown costume) pictures.

@BlowHarder: Agreed. Fucking Robin Williams.

Gilliam's talent is that of imagery, not story telling. His career is neither cursed nor is it a puzzle. The momentum of his craft encourages his benefactors and perpetuates his projects, which projects simply lack the cohesion of story. No voodoo involved.

He spent all his luck with Python. Hung with the right people, in the right frame of mind, and could make paper move by itself onscreen. Big deal. Whatever fantastic wherewithal he inherited from proximity to and collaboration with genius has thinned, even as his visuals continue to intrigue.

Oh, and Heath Ledger died.

@BlowHarder: Twelve Monkeys??? Go to YouTube and look at La Jetée.

Not that Gilliam isn't a genius, at least not when the giant boot of god isn't squashing his films like a bug.

@BlowHarder: @Cheap Shot: @marconi: You are all dead inside. Blah blah unqualified internet criticism blah.

"Hung with the right people, in the right frame of mind, and could make paper move by itself onscreen. Big deal."

If I had a white silk glove, sir...

I love TG, but this is making me reflect...yeah, pretty g.d. unlucky. Say, whatever happened to his plans to direct Good Omens? More, uh, "bad luck"?

@marconi:

Well written thesis, but No.

Brazil was all kinds of awesome, and most directors will never come close to producing anything like it.

Also, you can kind of see Time Bandits / Brazil / Munchausen as a trilogy about imagination and fantasy interacting with reality in childhood, middle age, and dotage, respectively.

And Twelve Monkeys was way more about (extremely convoluted) plot than image.

You're right that when he (not infrequently) produces junk, the imagery is often the only worthwhile part.

@lionel-mandrake: Try as I might, I was unable to sit through more than 5 minutes of La Jetée, but I also think 12 Monkeys is pretty great. Which reminds me, what happened to Madeline Stowe's career? She should have at least 32% of Julianne Moore's roles.

"Blah Blah unqualified internet criticism blah."

'swhat it's all about sir. If qualification was a factor, we'd be in other, more laboriously detailed (and probably lucrative) forums, and significantly more harsh.

I consider Brazil my favorite Gilliam movie (he attended Occidental College in Eagle Rock with my parents, and apparently he was the class clown even then...) With all of the events post-9/11, the terrorist-threat aspect and the government response rings so satirically on-target.

@lionel-mandrake: Yes, I know La Jetée. Doesn't mean I can't appreciate Gilliam's later take, or continue to despise heavy-ham-fisted Robin Williams pretending at depth with the Joseph Campbell 101.

But then again, I am dead inside.

even if it's meant to be a self-consciously Weekly World News-esque, this is the worst headline i've ever read on Defamer.

Super...somewhat agreed. Monkeys was vivid. Time Bandits was cute, Brazil was well done, Baron was laborious. Personally I'd say Gilliam's finest hour was his sunrise-sunset-sun shatter sequence in one of the Pythons. But random critiques aside, his career has been flat in the aggregate. My point was not whether I personally enyoy this or that film, but that "curse" and "bad luck" aren't useful analyses of his pursuit. Messy, maybe.

@BlowHarder: Anyone who enjoyed, or celebrates "The Fisher King" can not use, nor borrow, any of my car batteries.

Limits are limits, people...

@marconi: If you read anything other than thesaurus entries for synonyms of "bad," if you'd read anything about the obstructions to Terry Gilliam's funding, films, and career that he WASN'T responsible for - you'd be amazed he ever got anything on film in his entire life. Plus, I think his stuff in Python that extended far past the cartoons was pretty great. Of course his British accent was bad, but whatever.

And also, I think you'd be silly to argue that the mythology of Gilliam's career is somehow unique or uniquely misleading to him. I mean, fuck... Spielberg's coasted on the myth that he's a competent storyteller for twenty years. That's right, Schindler's List, I'm looking at you and your two fists of un-kosher ham. No, Terminal, no one's talking about you. Go play frisbee on the freeway.

I mean, really, when you get down to it, any director who somehow ever accidentally let a good movie get made on his watch deserves the ludicrous mythology that invariably surrounds them and their pursuits. I still love Brazil, Fisher King, parts of Munchausen and Time Bandits. And Fear and Loathing would be worth owning on Criterion even if I hadn't gotten it as a super-sweet birthday present - so I say Gilliam's myth is well deserved. Ditto for Spielberg and the 5 to 7 excellent films he's been responsible for in one way or another.

@viruswithshoes: Way to go, Nimrod.

@swallowyourhalo: Well said.

@Miss d: Nimrod? Really? It's a regular Algonquin round table tonight, isn't it?
I could spend a couple of hours on here punching huge holes in the entire, cheese-filled structure of "The Fisher King". But I have a large barrel filled with naive mackerel in my back garden, and they're not going to shoot themselves, are they?
Shortburst = my anger at this movie stems from two major disappointments. First, I love Terry Gilliam and this made me distrust him for a long time. Two, it also put me off Jeff Bridges for a while - and that is not right, by any means.
Note how I'm not mentioning anything about Robin Williams emoting...

@viruswithshoes: You are entitled to YOUR opinion. But save the snark when you think just because TFK bruised you, how dare anyone else like it... Enjoy the shooting in the backyard, I hear it's nice this time of year...

swallow, oddly enough his American accent was worse than his British.

@Miss d: Thank you for allowing me my own opinion. If you can recall, I never said, nor even intimated "how dare anyone else like it". I just said I wouldn't lend them my car batteries. Then you struck back with your-forehand of "nimrod", which I then congratulated you upon, to which I returned some quick reasons why I didn't like the movie. Your responses are welcomed, but I'm worried I'm discussing my opinion of TFK with either a major shareholder in the movie, or a close relative of Mr Gilliam...

And I thought all of Gawker Media ran on 50% snark?

@viruswithshoes: *giggle* Shall we down rapiers, enjoy a cigarette and admire the view? Sorry - I'm abit frazzled from all the Heath Ledger stuff...

@Miss d: My thoughts exactly. Glad I made you *giggle* on a rather sad, and wasteful day - whatever anyone thought about Heath Ledger, it still casts a shadow over events, but a shadow that will pass slowly over time (I think I may be becoming Thomas Kincade...)

And don't apologise for your frazzality. I've enjoyed parrying with you. We shall down our weapons, admire the view through the smoke, and look to the future. No doubt one or both of us will reach behind to push the other over said view, but that, my friend, is for the future.

Let the fight continue, and the love remain!

@viruswithshoes: Cheers.

@Miss d: Backatcha!

Sad as it is at least Parnassas is already a hit - what a brilliant bit of PR for his film...the masses will surely flock for the ghoulish last look....like stopping at a road accident...hey maybe Tom and his mates can "help"....

@nick_r:

Thank you. I've had La Jetée on my TV recorder for two years and haven't been able to get beyond the first five minutes either. Every now and then when I'm cleaning out the queue I think, Today, finally, I will come to terms with the reality that I am never going to watch La Jetée. Then I feel guilty again and zap something else.

I thought TG's visuals were the best part of Monty Python. But there is not a single movie of his that I can stand -- self indulgent and permanently adolescent are the terms that always spring to mind. The documentary describing the Don Quixote debacle was pretty interesting, however.

@nick_r: Terry Gilliam's Brazil will be watched long after we're dead. I think that's credit enough don't you?

Frankly I haven't thought about Terry Gilliam in one way or the other in quite some time. What I do find odd is that a lot of actors "last roles" are often in really shitty movies.

@viruswithshoes: Keep your damn car battery, interloper! You will not be permitted to lay a finger on, nor even to view, my MacGuffin trophy. Even if you wear the tin suit.

@raincoaster: Shit. There goes my weekend...

I love Terry Gilliam. And the fact that he has had failures shows that he is willing to try new, unproven things - something which can't be said for most other people involved with film making. Brazil and The Fisher King will be remembered long after his expensive failures are forgotten.

I saw Tideland over the weekend. Unfortunately, I don't think even 100 viewings of Brazil will wipe it from my memory.

@whoneedslight: Oh effing hell, Tideland! The wife and I watched that last week and I'm still searching for a piece of my soul. Disturbing your audience isn't the same thing as making a good film.

And notice how everyone's favorite Gilliam movie, no matter what it is, was made at least twelve years ago if not closer to twenty?

I love Terry Gilliam. To me he is a visionary that ranks up there with Ridley Scott in terms of throwing stuff at the audience to chew on visually so that the world of the characters is utterly believable. I saw Time Bandits at a theater up the street here in Westwood when it first came out and I still think it's a great movie. I like a lot of his other movies too.

After seeing Lost in La Mancha it confirmed for me that Terry Gilliam is a treasure and that other filmmakers and/or producers in Hollywood should be throwing money at this guy with reckless abandon, instead of Terry having to scratch and scrape money with [dodgy] European investors and crews so that money and language issues aren't a concern.

It's good to know that he was once again working with Heath on a movie, but of course very unfortunate about his death.

I hope Terry's movie sees completion and that it is a wild success to satisfy his [shallow]critics and investors.