The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys

This is a documentary video showing director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Time Bandits) at work during the filming of his movie Twelve Monkeys, a dark, sardonic movie which depicts yet another dystopian future for mankind. Gilliam first became widely known for his irreverent cartoon collages in the BBC comedy series Monty Python, and he has not grown any more respectful of authorities since those early days. The gag of this documentary is that Gilliam was given complete artistic control of this film by the same studio (Universal) he had so completely horrified with his bizarre production, Brazil. He can only retain that control if he can stay under budget, get an R rating, and deliver a film with no more than 135 minutes in the final version. He (just barely) manages to do this. The studio was suitably horrified by the final product (as Gilliam knew it would be), and the test screenings would normally have resulted in massive changes. Gilliam stayed faithful to his original vision, however, and the film easily made back the small amount it had cost to make. Indeed, it was a minor box-office hit.~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide