Dark Knights and Holy Fools: The Art and Films of Terry Gilliam: From Before Python to Beyond Fear and Loathing

Amazon.com Review\nWith Dark Knights and Holy Fools, film writer Bob McCabe has done a masterful job of depicting the evolution of a filmmaker and his vision. Terry Gilliam, of course, is the mind behind the bizarre and hilarious animations for Monty Python's Flying Circus, as well as the films Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Fisher King, among others. Using interviews with Gilliam and a few of his collaborators, McCabe takes readers on a chronological journey through the Python alum's work, going back as far as cartoons from his high school and college days. The book is gloriously stuffed with Gilliam's playfully wicked and distinctly rounded drawings--everything from political posters to stills from Python clips to pencilled storyboards for his films. The storyboards in particular are fascinating because they give insight into how Gilliam's mind works as he maps out his movies.
Dark Knights and Holy Fools also offers interesting glimpses at the inner workings of the film industry. McCabe chronicles Gilliam's well-publicized battles with studios over budgets, running lengths, and less-than-sunny endings, illustrating the frustrations of trying to push art through a bureaucracy (and, to a lesser extent, the frustrations of trying to reason with a visionary). Just as engrossing are the accounts of how ideas that don't quite fit into one film can materialize in another, and the amount of pure serendipity that went into some of the indelible images Gilliam has created. This is a lavish and thoughtful treatment of one of our most unpredictable modern directors. --Ali Davis\nFor the first time, this book traces thirty years of the work and art of Terry Gilliam, from his pre-Python days, through to the astounding adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, released in 1998.
Using Gilliam's own drawings, story-boards and scripts, this book builds to a complete overview of the director's work, examining in detail his striking visual sense and labyrinthine stories of Man against bureaucracy (Brazil, 12 Monkeys), triumphant tales of imagination winning over mediocrity (Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King) and, of course, something completely different (Monty Python and the Holy Grail).