Ìý After his long-gestating Don Quixote project fell apart at the seams, director Terry Gilliam went to work on The Brothers Grimm. It's "half-decent fantasy hokum" with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger hamming it up as 18th-century conmen whose adventures inspire some of our best-loved fairytales. No doubt the real Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm would slap Miramax with a lawsuit if they were still alive, but hardly anyone saw the film so no harm done!
Once Upon A Time...
Matt Damon sets the record straight in Bringing The Fairytale To Life. "We don't want people to think this is a biography of the Grimm brothers," he says, "This is a much more fun, light-hearted angle." Between lots of behind-the-scenes footage, the cast and crew talk more about the intersection of fantasy and reality and Gilliam sums up his intentions, saying, "I want the audience to exercise their imaginations and be frightened." A quick tour of the enchanted forest is also included.
Even critics of the film admit that it looks great, which is the least you'd expect from Terry Gilliam. In The Visual Magic Of The Brothers Grimm, the director reveals how he realised this Grimm fantasy world despite having to make certain sacrifices. For instance, he wanted to make more use of models and animatronics to help the actors with their improvisations but "they looked terrible" he says. In the end, these effects were achieved using CGI although designing a credible wolf with natural looking fur was next to impossible.
In his commentary for 12 deleted scenes, Gilliam admits to another oversight. "There's one compromise I made on this film," he says. "The secondary characters have dirty teeth, but our main actors have nice, white, shiny American teeth. I sold out." If you can stand the glare of those pearly whites, Damon and Ledger swap more banter, Peter Stormare sneers a lot and the forest comes to life and attacks the Grimms in what is revealed to have been the most expensive - and ultimately the most redundant - scene of the film.
Battling The Giant
Gilliam is refreshingly honest in his commentary for the main feature. He starts off by saying that he didn't like the script, "but I was out of work" and thought that he could develop it into something that would allow him to indulge his childhood fantasies. Being quite active in the art department, he goes on to talk about the intricate production design, but eco-minded hippies won't be happy to hear that the ‘enchanted forest' was created with trees brought in daily from a forest in Czechoslovakia. They might be just as alarmed to discover that Gilliam had to fight Miramax for Ledger's right to grow a beard!""The Miramax team don't like facial hair," he explains, "so that was one of our great achievements and I hope the world appreciates it."
While the extras menu isn't as plentiful as the Czechoslovakian countryside - or indeed Heath Ledger's hair follicles - Gilliam does provide a good amount of behind-the-scenes info with a pleasingly tongue-in-cheek approach. Those who are familiar with his work will surely get something out of this DVD.
EXTRA FEATURES
