Gilliam turns on critics of blockbuster “Grimm”
VENICE (Reuters) – Terry Gilliam, under fire from the critics for his new blockbuster “The Brothers Grimm,” is fed up with having to defend his first film in seven years.
After winning critical acclaim for movies like “Brazil” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” the American director has been less well received for a film that cost an estimated $90 million to make.
The reaction is the latest setback for a production dogged by delays and overshadowed by a clash between Gilliam and executive producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein over casting and the film itself.
It also follows the 2000 debacle when Gilliam’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” was ditched due to illness and floods.
But the 64-year-old, at the Venice Film Festival where Grimm is in competition, has come out fighting.
“There are some bad reviews out there, but there are also great reviews,” he told Reuters in an interview on Sunday.
“All of my films evoke wonderful and bad reviews. They’ve always been like that. I like that. I don’t like this bland ‘OK’ kind of film review and Grimm is no exception.
“There are probably too many critics out there with really pathetic opinions.”
Grimm casts Hollywood star Matt Damon alongside Australia’s Heath Ledger as versions of the real-life Grimm Brothers, whose fairy tales became required reading for generations of children.
Critics focused largely on clunky effects, “cartoon” acting and the film’s failure to generate fear and mystery.
Its apologists praise its dark re-invention of well-known fables and Gilliam’s seemingly boundless imagination.
“I don’t even defend the film any more. It stands on its own two legs and it would be a pity if people don’t go and see it,” Gilliam said. “They will just have missed out on one of the great moments of history,” he added with a smile.
DAMON SAYS FILM PRE-JUDGED
Damon said reviewers had it in for the film from the start.
“I was surprised that it (the reaction) was that lukewarm in the States,” he told Reuters.
“The movie was on the shelf for two years so that is a signal to the reviewers … that something’s wrong.
“Terry did a lot of press about his fights with Harvey and Bob (Weinstein) and he didn’t pull any punches … I think the damage has been done.”
One area of disagreement between Gilliam and the producers was casting. Gilliam wanted Johnny Depp in Grimm, not Damon, a decision which Damon himself concedes may have backfired.
“The joke at the end of the day was on the studio, in that while we were shooting, (Depp’s box office hit) ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ came out, and I’m sure they were like ‘Oh my god, we could have had Johnny Depp in the movie.’
“He’s the biggest movie star in the world now.”
Gilliam is also about to release “Tideland,” a film about a young girl who escapes into her own fertile imagination.
“Children are strong,” said Gilliam. “The modern world says they are these sweet little things that have to be defended against any kind of reality. Not true.
“The Grimms’ fairy tales were there to test children, prepare them for the world they will grow up in and I think that’s one reason why this film (Grimm) works particularly well with children.”
As to what comes next for Gilliam, he said he had nothing specific planned, and joked:
“I read the reviews, my career is over. I’m a broken man. Crushed. Smashed.”
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