The Directors - Terry Gilliam - Region 0 DVD

If you can forgive the pedestrian narration (which is salvaged only by quotes from Gilliam's irreverent, self-penned "official biography"), the documentary's highlights are the interview clips with Gilliam, whose observations about his life and work are far more interesting than Emery's cursory tour through Gilliam's career. Clips from Gilliam's films are well chosen, but the survey never probes beyond a superficial assessment; Gilliam provides the substance, and the stellar interviewees (including Shelley Duvall, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, Amanda Plummer, David Warner, and Mercedes Ruehl) offer additional depth with their insightful gratitude. This is must-see viewing for any Gilliam fan, but it's also a bit of a tease, leaving one wanting more. It's perhaps fortunate that the film was made before Gilliam's flawed, impersonal production of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but members of Monty Python are conspicuous in their absence, if only because the focus remains on Gilliam's solo career. On the other hand, it's nice to see time given to "The Crimson Permanent Assurance," the fantastic short film in Python's The Meaning of Life that liberated Gilliam from "the nightmare of animation" (his words), and set him on course for a glorious and visionary career. --Jeff Shannon