Time Bandits

By: The Dweeb

DVD Features Video: 1.85:1 Audio:Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround The Directors: The Films of Terry Gilliam – A Career Retrospective Featuring Interviews with Director Terry Gilliam and Actors Shelley Duvall, Brad Pitt, Amanda Plummer, Mercedes Reuhl, Madeleine Stowe, and David Warner Interview with Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin Theatrical Trailers Fold-Out Map of the Universe and Liner Notes Terry Gilliam Bio DVD-ROM: Original Screenplay Theatrical release:11/13/1981 DVD released on 1/27/2004 by Anchor Bay Running time of 116 minutes Starring:  John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, Kenny Baker, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Peter Vaughan, David Warner, Craig Warnock Director: Terry Gilliam Plot: A young boy’s wardrobe contains a time hole. Through this hole an assortment of short people (i.e. dwarfs) come while escaping from their master, the supreme being. They take Kevin with them on their adventures through time from Napoleonic times to the Middle Ages to the early 1900s, to the time of Legends and the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness where they confront Evil.

How far down the rabbit hole does this film take you? I’d say really far. Time Bandits was created and conceived from the brilliant (and twisted) mind of former Monty Python collaborator Terry Gilliam. Part fantasy, part children’s nightmare, its probably not a film for everyone, I’m not even sure what genre this could fall into. Was it all a dream? This film is filled with that strange Python sarcastic humor and yet it seems to take it a bit beyond that. It’s wacky and funny while at the same time can be really creepy at times. Well, creepy in the sense that you want to hide your head under the covers.

This odd little film follows the adventure of a young overly imaginative boy and a band of ‘little people’ ( I can’t say midgets anymore can I?), who use a map to travel through holes in time to rob historic figures. The problem is, they aren’t that good, and seem to barely get out of the messes they created. Almost like a watching pint sized Three Stooges really. It is entertaining to watch, I especially liked the Napoleon scene.

After traveling and meeting all sorts of odd manifestations of historic figures (with plenty of Monty Python alumni cameos), Terry takes us on a strange turn. They end up in the hands of Terry’s version of Satan. Or as he is called, The Evil Genius, played by David Warner. He always makes for a great bad guy, like his role in Tron as Sark. Some of the best lines of the film come from him. “If I were creating the world I wouldn’t mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o’clock, Day One!” As a kid I was really scared by this guy. Watching him now is just hilarious. So this little rag tag band ends trying to fight this guy, and pretty much getting their butts kicked until their boss steps in, the “Supreme Being” (Ralph Richardson). It’s a wild ride.

There are several incarnations of this movie on DVD already. I haven’t seen the others but this edition boasts an all new transfer, calling it Divimax. The sound and video are decent, but its still a bit grainy. The film stock used was probably not as good because this was such a low budget film to begin with and it hasn’t aged well in twenty some odd years.

This is a two disc set, and on the other are some lengthy extra featurettes. There’s an interesting chat with Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam about how this movie came about and also another filmography of Terry’s film career. Very interesting stuff, but that’s about it. The rest is the usual trailers and still photos used as filler on most DVD’s.

It was great to revisit this movie again after so many long years since my childhood. It didn’t creep me out so much this time around I’m glad to say. It’s a different movie, but on that is worth checking out if you’ve never seen it. I myself will gladly put this one on the shelf.

Reviewer’s Opinion: BUY IT!!