Adventures of Baron Munchhausen: The Screenplay

by Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown

The adventures of Baron Munchausen, one of the most famous liars in history, were first set down in print over two hundred years ago and since then they have been
retold and added to by storytellers around the world to the delight of frivolous adults and serious children everywhere.

This book tells the story of Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown's exciting and hilarious new screenplay, which shows a company of actors in a beseiged town
headed by Henry Salt Esq., the internationally famous actor manager and abetted by his daughter Sally. The play they perform retells the story of Baron
Munchausen, but it is interrupted by an aged and outraged member of the audience who claims to be the Baron himself.

Only nine-year-old Sally will believe that he really is the Baron and so begins an exciting and enthralling series of adventures for them both, which starts with a daredevil wager against a murderous sultan and takes them to the moon and beyond.

True to the tradition of Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits, this story of the film offers a delightfully colourful adventure in time and space, a truly Munchausenesque
extravaganza.

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

Terrence Vance Gilliam is an American-born British writer, filmmaker, animator and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. He has the distinction of being the only American-born Python, as the rest of the group are all native Britons.

Reviews

[Emmett O'Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second favorite screenplay. It is said that this is the end of a trilogy made up of Time Bandits (the trials of a boy), Brazil (the trials of a man), and Adventures of Baron Munchhausen (the Trials of an old man). The titular Baron is relegated to myth and mocked as a lier and must use his ability to tell stories to become relevant again. He sees no place in the world where he is valued until he meets Sally, who genuinely wants to know what he has to say.

All of this told at about the time of the American Revolutionary War, in Europe, with superheroes. The movie narrative ends three times which often confuses people. It might seem at first that the Baron does not have any explicit powers of his own, but when you realize what his powers are, the three endings make sense.

[Esteban Martos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yo lo leí de niño en español, es un cuento con un personaje muy pintoresco que es una especie de Don Quijote muy exagerado en una serie de aventuras que tiene, pero aún así, tiene moraleja de cómo se puede trabajar en equipo y cuando un grupo de gente tiene talento y sabe trabajar en equipo es fácil vencer cualquier obstáculo

[Robert Söderbaum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a must read