This movie was just a collassol misstep by Gilliam. I gave this film a huge chance and boy was it bad. I really have no idea what Gilliam was thinking. It was so bad, in fact, that the movie starts with an introduction by Gilliam defending it, actually stating that, "many of you are going to hate this film". He goes on to say that you should watch the movie through a child's eyes, and then you will understand it better.
I thought this was an interesting approach as one of the first things they teach you in film school is to make sure the film stands on its own. Because you're not going to be able to introduce everything about your film before the audience sees it. But I think that with the internet and DVD being so big now, that that may be antiquated thinking. Why shouldn't you be able to introduce your movie and tell people how to view it?
Anyway, it didn't matter, because even taking Gilliam's advice the movie was still a disaster. The girl is incredibly annoying and the whole movie is following her around as she plays with her doll heads. I know I'm not of the status of Terry Gilliam, but if you're going to follow a girl around playing with her dollheads for two hours, I'd probably make sure the girl wasn't annoying.
Then of course - and I guess these are spoilers here - but is there such a thing as spoilers in a bad film - there is Jeff Bridges dying of a heroin overdose, then being gutted, bronzed, and leathered, and the girl continuing to play with him as if he is alive. It's just so bizarre. I guess Gilliam was trying to show the resiliency of children, but he ended up showing us that he needs to stop writing his own scripts. There's near retarded pedophilia in this movie, more people holding onto their dead loved ones, and I believe some incest, but the movie got so weird it was hard to tell.
Watch this one if you are just so fascinated by a train wreck that you have to look.
OH! And there's a train wreck in the movie. I actually read one reviewer who suggested the train wreck was a symbol that Gilliam planned to film a disaster all along (a train wreck) - the ultimate 'f you' to the movie industry. After seeing this film, I'm not so sure he was wrong.
I thought this was an interesting approach as one of the first things they teach you in film school is to make sure the film stands on its own. Because you're not going to be able to introduce everything about your film before the audience sees it. But I think that with the internet and DVD being so big now, that that may be antiquated thinking. Why shouldn't you be able to introduce your movie and tell people how to view it?
Anyway, it didn't matter, because even taking Gilliam's advice the movie was still a disaster. The girl is incredibly annoying and the whole movie is following her around as she plays with her doll heads. I know I'm not of the status of Terry Gilliam, but if you're going to follow a girl around playing with her dollheads for two hours, I'd probably make sure the girl wasn't annoying.
Then of course - and I guess these are spoilers here - but is there such a thing as spoilers in a bad film - there is Jeff Bridges dying of a heroin overdose, then being gutted, bronzed, and leathered, and the girl continuing to play with him as if he is alive. It's just so bizarre. I guess Gilliam was trying to show the resiliency of children, but he ended up showing us that he needs to stop writing his own scripts. There's near retarded pedophilia in this movie, more people holding onto their dead loved ones, and I believe some incest, but the movie got so weird it was hard to tell.
Watch this one if you are just so fascinated by a train wreck that you have to look.
OH! And there's a train wreck in the movie. I actually read one reviewer who suggested the train wreck was a symbol that Gilliam planned to film a disaster all along (a train wreck) - the ultimate 'f you' to the movie industry. After seeing this film, I'm not so sure he was wrong.
