Director Terry Gilliam has had one of the most unpredictable, non-traditional careers in contemporary filmmaking. An American cartoonist and humor-magazine editor, Gilliam moved to England at the height of the Vietnam War, finding employment as an animator despite his lack of experience in the field. From there, he joined Monty Python before launching a solo directing career that would include such notable titles as Brazil, Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys, The Fisher King, The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, visually arresting films that were frequently troubled by tumultuous productions. Bob McCabe's attractive, coffee-table-style career retrospective, Dark Knights & Holy Fools, does a nice job collecting Gilliam's winding path in one volume. Loaded with stills, sketches of unused ideas, and other arcana, it should prove a satisfying collection for fans of the director's work. It could use a bit more Gilliam, though. When quoted, he's forthcoming on every stage of his career, from his relationships with other Python members to his unhappy dealings with the studios that made Brazil and Munchausen, to working with Bruce Willis and Hunter S. Thompson. But McCabe's breezy, light-on-analysis approach could reveal much more, and the truncated, chapter-ending interviews all seem to stop just as they get interesting. Dark Knights provides an enjoyable look at a singular filmmaker, but it also points to a better book that—aside from Gilliam On Gilliam, a recent entry in Faber's always-good series of conversations with filmmakers—might still someday be written.