In honor of the 20th anniversary DVD release, I will review this movie that I haven’t seen in 20 years. The setting is…olden times? One hundred and fifty years ago, give or take. Back when people dressed in elaborate, ornate clothes. It must be Europe, because he’s a Baron. I’m assuming England because they speak English. Munchausen sounds German or Austrian or something though. A group is gathered in a theater or maybe a dining room. No, it was a theater because I remember velvet curtains. For some reason people are having conversations. There’s this guy, Baron Munchausen, who has a waxed moustache and at some point probably wears a hat with a feather in it. It might have been based on a book. The Baron is entertaining everyone/pissing them off with outrageous stories of his adventurous life. As each one starts the scene changes to follow the story. The stories are full of fantasy and whimsy: Some guy runs really fast…did one of the stories have a giant in it, or am I thinking of Cabin Boy ? Back in the theater/dining room/whatever, there’s some other guy giving the Baron a hassle over each story. He’s a grumpy jerk who hates whimsy, adventure and Baron Munchausen. I’m picturing Principal Rooney from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off . It’s probably not him, but it’s that type, you know? This guy just can’t help but pop the Baron’s balloon. Actually, that metaphor isn’t any good, because there is a hot air balloon in the movie someplace. It might have been a blimp. Every time the plot comes back down to Earth between the stories there was a serious boring letdown where I stopped paying attention. There are depressing insinuations that The Baron is senile or that the fantasy element was just hyperbole. Is the Baron crazy or did that stuff actually happen? The conflict is classic uptight jerks vs. fun, I guess. The important thing is that Uma Thurman is in it. I was too young to remember the names of actors back then, so until Pulp Fiction came out, any sight of Uma Thurman sent me into the feedback loop of, "Oh! It’s that girl from that one thing! You know: that one movie?" Then it became, "Uma Thurman, you know, she was in that one movie before Pulp Fiction. No, not Even Cowgirls Get the Blues , that other movie." Turns out it was this movie, and this Uma Thurman. She’s even naked! Maybe I just imagined that part, but it’s the best part.SPOILER ALERT: I want to say that it ended with the Baron being vindicated, and showing up all those stuffed-shirts. Actually, did it end with the hot air balloon? Did the Baron get spirited out of the room by it in some kind of Tinkerbell, "if you just believe" feel-good moment? Hmmm. I think it’s more likely that the stories were all exaggerations that we were supposed to love anyway, or maybe it was non-committal and vague. The lesson we were supposed to learn may have been this: Bullshit is not lying if it’s entertaining. That lesson is OK for me now, but when I was 10 years-old it was a bummer compared to the crazy stories part. Way to step on my boner, filmmakers.I give my memory of this movie a C+.
Retrospeculative #2
The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen
3 min read
