The 1980s were a golden age for film in Hollywood, Europe and Japan. I am happy to see that film buffs of a younger generation than mine are discovering those excellent creations; comedies like Tootsie, Victor/Victoria, Hope and Glory, dramas like Babette's Feast, Fanny and Alexander, My Life as a Dog, Valmont, Apartment Zero... I could go on and on.
Terry Gilliam was in his early prime at that time from Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985) to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989). The 1990s gave us a Brazil-esquire Twelve Monkeys (1995) which is going to go down in history as one of the great science fiction films ever, then the disturbing, not very funny but memorable Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (2001) with the frightening, manic performances of Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. In 2005 Gilliam made his much-maligned masterpiece Tideland, but all this is another topic.
The Time Bandits is not a children's movie. Intelligent children will enjoy it but the teletubby crowd won't. I also think that because this film didn't knock 'em dead in America (those British accents, you know) there is a faint mist of failure surrounding this film in the minds of the cinema academics.
All these mists can be dispelled by returning to this movie and watching it like a kid would, wondering what is going to happen next. So much happens in this movie as Kevin and his cohort of dwarfs jump through time warps and have hilarious and, in the case of Sean Connery's hunky Agamemnon, heart-tugging moments.
It helps if the viewer has a fairly educated grasp of history, from ancient times to 1980. If you know who Agamemnon and Clytemnestra were, for instance, the sequences that take place in Greek mythology become 100 times more interesting.
Fear not (loathe not), you don't have to be a degreed history major to enjoy Time Bandits. It is all, historical or not, fantasy, beautifully designed, filmed, scored and edited, not to mention acted. Kevin is no twee tike, he's tough as well as lovable, and his personal path in life is rather sad and an open-ended question as he has such idiotic parents. The dwarfs are a scream and are not demeaned or mocked in any way.
David Warner is wonderful as the Evil Genius with lines like "Why did God make nipples for men!" a great comedic performance. His minions are pure Monty Python and the set designer out did himself as Gilliam's set designers always do. The setting for the Evil Genius's labyrinthine castle is jaw-dropping.
And there are some classic performances on the edge of farce, which is a trait of all Gilliam's movies, with unforgettable turns from Kathryn Hellman and Peter Vaughan as the Ogres and Michael Palin and Shelley Duvall as the young silly lovers who keep recurring together throughout eternity... 'I need fruit!!' (Palin) and countless other lines that mean nothing here but if you know the movie provokes laughter.
Finally Ralph Richardson appears as God in a three-piece grey flannel suit talking about procedure and such business-like things.
Time Bandits actually has an ending which so many movies don't bother with these days. All Terry Gilliam's films are unusual, some of them (Fear and Loathing, Tidelands) are just downright bizarre and upsetting, but they are all finely crafted and don't waste an inch of celluloid on non-essentials. On top of that they entertain, and Time Bandits is Gilliams most entertaining film that will appeal to young and old who possess luminous minds and need more than Sharon Stone boob fests and Sandra Bullock boredom.
Highest Recommendation.
Terry Gilliam was in his early prime at that time from Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985) to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989). The 1990s gave us a Brazil-esquire Twelve Monkeys (1995) which is going to go down in history as one of the great science fiction films ever, then the disturbing, not very funny but memorable Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (2001) with the frightening, manic performances of Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. In 2005 Gilliam made his much-maligned masterpiece Tideland, but all this is another topic.
The Time Bandits is not a children's movie. Intelligent children will enjoy it but the teletubby crowd won't. I also think that because this film didn't knock 'em dead in America (those British accents, you know) there is a faint mist of failure surrounding this film in the minds of the cinema academics.
All these mists can be dispelled by returning to this movie and watching it like a kid would, wondering what is going to happen next. So much happens in this movie as Kevin and his cohort of dwarfs jump through time warps and have hilarious and, in the case of Sean Connery's hunky Agamemnon, heart-tugging moments.
It helps if the viewer has a fairly educated grasp of history, from ancient times to 1980. If you know who Agamemnon and Clytemnestra were, for instance, the sequences that take place in Greek mythology become 100 times more interesting.
Fear not (loathe not), you don't have to be a degreed history major to enjoy Time Bandits. It is all, historical or not, fantasy, beautifully designed, filmed, scored and edited, not to mention acted. Kevin is no twee tike, he's tough as well as lovable, and his personal path in life is rather sad and an open-ended question as he has such idiotic parents. The dwarfs are a scream and are not demeaned or mocked in any way.
David Warner is wonderful as the Evil Genius with lines like "Why did God make nipples for men!" a great comedic performance. His minions are pure Monty Python and the set designer out did himself as Gilliam's set designers always do. The setting for the Evil Genius's labyrinthine castle is jaw-dropping.
And there are some classic performances on the edge of farce, which is a trait of all Gilliam's movies, with unforgettable turns from Kathryn Hellman and Peter Vaughan as the Ogres and Michael Palin and Shelley Duvall as the young silly lovers who keep recurring together throughout eternity... 'I need fruit!!' (Palin) and countless other lines that mean nothing here but if you know the movie provokes laughter.
Finally Ralph Richardson appears as God in a three-piece grey flannel suit talking about procedure and such business-like things.
Time Bandits actually has an ending which so many movies don't bother with these days. All Terry Gilliam's films are unusual, some of them (Fear and Loathing, Tidelands) are just downright bizarre and upsetting, but they are all finely crafted and don't waste an inch of celluloid on non-essentials. On top of that they entertain, and Time Bandits is Gilliams most entertaining film that will appeal to young and old who possess luminous minds and need more than Sharon Stone boob fests and Sandra Bullock boredom.
Highest Recommendation.