Gilliam’s commitment to practical effects where possible lends its aid as well in this blending of the fantastic and real. As much of the film takes place on the set of a film shooting on location, one is always wondering whether the knight we see charging is really a figment of someone’s imagination, part of the insanity that Toby is being drawn into, or simply and extra on the film which Toby is the director of. The color and life that Gilliam excels at packing every frame to the brim with becomes a veil which hides the true nature of scenes from the audiences eye, leaving them many times with ideas about what is happening without and sure conviction as to what is happening. Like a dream which the viewer is trying to interpret even as they are caught up in it, the film is constantly convincing you that you know what is happening and then pulling the rug out from under you.

This quality in Gilliam is perhaps my favorite. Somehow in this madness he is able to create characters that are both mythic and mundane at the same time. Like in “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” it is never really clear whether the characters are really who they claim to be or only symbolic stand ins for Gilliam’s own knights and windmills. Regardless, I thrill to see him tilt his lance again and if some of his own madness is in his dogged determination to see this film eventually live, then I for one will not nitpick over pacing issues and murky themes like some trumped up duke making fun of a knight with a shaving bowl on his head.

Instead, I will cheer him on, a champion for the dreamer and everyman who feels the blood of legends in is bones.