True Detective Dream Director: Terry Gilliam

Known primarily as the American member of Monty Python, Terry Gilliam has made a serious name for himself as a director. His works include the blistering social commentary, Brazil, and the truly bizarre 12 Monkeys. Gilliam has no specific film that screams as being a perfect match for True Detective, but his works are highly surreal and, for the most part, very dark. Gilliam could bring out he cosmic horror just under the surface of True Detective like no other director out there. This one is very farfetched, but “Dream” is in the title, right? Gilliam’s best films include elements of science fiction, which admittedly is not what True Detective is about. That hardly matters, however, as there are few directors out there that have as singular a vision as Gilliam does.

If there’s one particular scene that should be considered proof of Gilliam’s worthiness, it’s not in the above mentioned films — it’s in 1991’s The Fisher King. The Fisher King doesn’t contain any science fiction, but Robin Williams as a man gone insane after the murder of his wife embodies all the best of Gilliam’s surreal tendencies. The scene in which Williams runs down the street in a suit while being chased by an unseen knight in red is both fantastically shot and difficult to watch. In season one, Matthew McConaughey as Rust is the very personification of unhinged — the very thing that Gilliam does best. Are you familiar with the work of Terry Gilliam? Do you think he’d make a good fit for True Detective as we know it?