The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

By Terry Gilliam, published in 1988

Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars out of 5)

This is a formative movie for me. For a long time (and still today probably) I would cite this as my favorite movie. I say this having not seen it in many years and I don’t even know if it holds up anymore (probably not!!!). I still love the audacity of some of these scenes, and I recall how annoyed I was that the whole movie is about the Baron’s company of misfits as extremely old men, not as youths and not at their full power. The adolescent wanted a movie about superheroes but the story it tells — about aging and adventure — is much better than the movie I wanted at the time.

This is my favorite scene and the one that sticks out most clearly in my mind. I think the current version of me would have a different favorite scene but this was the bee’s knees for a 12 year old.