Ranked: The Films Of Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam is a visionary -- no, Terry Gilliam is a has-been. Terry Gilliam is a grouch, but wait, Terry Gilliam is a delight. Terry Gilliam is a Python. But hang on, didn’t he “just” draw the pictures? There’s almost no declarative statement you can make about Terry Gilliam without someone directly contradicting it, and without that contradiction itself invariably containing at least the seeds of some truth. So let’s start with something easier: Terry Gilliam is an American director who … except he’s not, he’s British.

Bugger it.

The bare facts are these. 73 year-old American-born director, screenwriter, actor, animator and founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, Terry Gilliam has had one of the most fascinating on-and-off-screen careers in film lore, and inspires equal parts antipathy and adulation, often in the very same person, often at the very same moment. A political science major who became an advertising cartoonist, illustrator and animator after...