Afterword: Gilliam's Legacy

Do we need another book on Terry Gilliam? Yes, of course, we do, because, for one, he has directed two new films since the last collection ten years ago, but, more importantly, because his work moves with the times; the world does not get less terrifying, less chaotic, less concerned with the acquisition of things. It is more concerned than ever with image, more concerned with style over substance; and these are exactly the themes that permeate Gilliam’s work. Gilliam’s last dystopian film, The Zero Theorem (2013), was made before President Donald Trump’s administration, before the presidentially supported storming of the Capitol Building, the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russo-Ukrainian War in Europe. And yet the narrative of The Zero Theorem would seem to be concerned with anxieties that pertain to our recent times. Choose any Gilliam film to watch in 2022, and it will feel like a contemporary critical commentary. Who wouldn’t be able to recognize some of the challenges of the global pandemic whilst watching 12 Monkeys (1995), with a Permanent Emergency Code standing in for the various COVID-19 Acts created across the world to curb the movement of people? How will we now view 2025, the dystopian future space of the film, when we arrive at it in the not-too-distant future?...