The more I learn about film, the more I realize how difficult it is directing films. Directors face pressure from producers, investors, critics, and fans throughout their entire careers. With deadlines set, directors often find themselves fighting weather, local political turmoil, and even their own actors. No one in Hollywood seems to have experienced these pressures more than director Terry Gilliam.
Gilliam made a name for himself working with the British comedy group “Monty Python”. As a director, Gilliam’s films have been plagued by production problems. Gilliam has spent most of his life fighting with studios over his films. Many of his projects were shut down early in production. Gilliam’s films have also been plagued by disaster. In 1999, Gilliam attempted to film “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” which had an original budget of $32.1 million, but in the first week of shooting, the actor playing Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) suffered a herniated disc and a flood severely damaged the set. Despite setbacks such as these, Gilliam has still managed to bring us some incredible films, such as “Brazil,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “12 Monkeys,” and “The Fisher King”.
Sadly, though, with the death of Heath Ledger, tragedy has struck Gilliam again. At the time of Ledger’s death, Gilliam and Ledger were about halfway through filming Gilliam’s newest film “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”. Ledger’s death was a tragedy. Actors always seem a bit larger than life. Anytime an actor like Ledger dies, it reminds us that actors are, like us, just human beings and that the studio system can be as fragile as life itself.
