The first third is the best Terry Gilliam movie ever made. The second third introduces some unnecessary new complications, motivations (sauce?), and tones. And then the last third is a punishing slog of plot escalations, yelling, and baffling pacing. I’d be curious to know how much got cut, because there are clear remnants of abandoned plots all throughout and some clumsy narration near the end desperately tries to salvage some scenes that must have been orphaned by rearrangement.
Those delays all make sense now.
