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Well, I really want to encourage a kind of fantasy, a kind of magic. I love the term magic realism, whoever invented it –

I do actually like it because it says certain things. It’s about expanding how you see the world.

I think we live in an age where we’re just hammered, hammered to think this is what the world is.

Television’s saying, everything’s saying ‘That’s the world.’ And it’s not the world. The world is a million possible things.

—Terry Gilliam: Salman Rushdie talks with Terry Gilliam

Most of the time when you refer to a series of films, the grand majority of the time those films are either done by the same creator or at least have the same characters and story (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings).  These are often refereed to as trilogies, series or even with the Alien films, the quadrilogy.  And like Harry Potter or James Bond, we see an ongoing number of films, hence making it a series.

Today, I will be discussing a trilogy.  However, this trilogy I am about to discuss is more along the lines of a thematic story connect.  And with this in mind, I am going out on a limb and saying that these films should be watched in this context more so than in the original context they were created for.  With this in mind, the films will begin to blossom into a new realization of thought process, making them much more enjoyable.  All of these films of this trilogy are all done by the same legendary director, Terry Gilliam.

I like to call the trilogy, the Escapism Trilogy.  I have heard of it called by the Trilogy of Imagination, however accurate that feels, I believe it’s more about the escapist mindset than simply imagination. It’s much, much more than that.  Now, I guarentee that you have seen at least one of these films if not all of them.  Now, your homework is watch them all, in one sitting, under the mindset of the Escapist mentality. Gilliam has always said that he thinks of his films as trilogies. And here is where the thematic trilogy comes into play.

The mentality is that Terry Gilliam examines how people utilize escapism in their lives through out different ages.  How a boy escapes his reality, how a man escapes his, and how an old man escapes his.

Let me explain.

1981 – Time Bandits

A young boy accidentally joins a band of dwarves as they jump from time-period to time-period looking for treasure to steal.  The young boy finds his life trivial and less than exciting, until his imagination runs wild and he finds escapism.  He escapes by going on an adventure through worlds and times unknown.  The escape is from the mind of a child so of course the stories and elements are huge and disproportionate to reality.  Of course the young boy wants to go on an adventure but has not lived long enough to establish a reality in which to ground his imagination.

Fun Fact: Gilliam did not originally intend to cast Sean Connery as King Agamemnon in the movie, he merely wrote in the screenplay that when Agamemnon took off his helmet that he looked “exactly like Sean Connery.” To Gilliam’s surprise, the script found its way into Connery’s hands and Connery subsequently expressed interest in doing the film.

1985 – Brazil

A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state.  The man in the story feels like he is forced into his escapiam rather than hoping for it like the young boy.  He has lived his life.  He has a grounded mentality in realism and thrives, lusts for an escape from his mundane and xeroxed life.  Reaching the center of his life he strives to break free from the monotony and find an adventure.  However, to differentiate between him and boy, at this point of his life Sam, our protagonist, finds struggles and emotional distancing from the world around him and finds that his escape is to break free from the “establishment” and all the 1984-esque aesthetics.

Fun Fact: Gilliam had trouble with studio producers over the black ending he wanted on the film. The producers wanted a “happy Hollywood” film which eliminated (among other things) the final transition and a critical line of dialogue which reveals the fate of Jill. These changes were made, and this “butchered” version was shown on US television at least once. Gilliam threatened to disown the film, and consequently the cinematic release and all videotape versions show the film essentially as he intended it to be seen (although the US cinematic release still omitted the line about Jill).

1988 – Adventures of Baron Munchausen

An account of Baron Munchausen’s supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.  The Baron goes on a rehashing of his old adventures and goes back to all the places he once adventured through only to find things not as magical and memorable as they once were… in his memory.  The Baron, being an old man, escapes from reality by looking back on his own life as a young man.  He escapes into his memories.  He escapes by going INTO his memories and altering how they were, just like many older people who look back at their lives and say things like “it was better back then” or “things were bigger” or “more magical.”  Instead of creating a world from the ground up like the young boy, the old man takes structures he knows, similar to Sam in Brazil and recreates them into what he wished they were.

Fun Fact: In the scene in the King of the Moon’s bedroom, above the headboard is a small bust. In a close-up shot, the eyes of the bust are seen to contain lights that blink on and off, accompanied by the sound of a camera whirring and clicking. This is line producer David Tomblin’s homage to “The Prisoner” (1967), which he helped produce and direct in the late 1960s.

While imagination certainly plays a key role in all these films, the more proper theme as I have described is that of escapism.  To escape what we know as truth and run towards a world we can only hope to be a part of.  Do yourself a favor and watch these movies if you haven’t already.