The first part of his Trilogy of Imagination, Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits is fun, gross, and supremely fucked up. The story of a small boy who gets whisked away by a gang of thieving dwarves, the film bounces between different periods of time before winding up in the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, where they do battle with a Skeletor-looking Evil. Different members of Gilliam's old Monty Python gang pop up, and while the standard Python vibe of mayhem is present throughout, this film solidifies the look and feel of Gilliam's style going forward and makes his previous film Jabberwocky seem even more like a false start.
The film is held together with a thin connecting plot: the bandits jump through time with a stolen map, and they rip off every historical figure they encounter. They are being chased both by Evil and by the Supreme Being, both who want the map and hound the bandits throughout. Really, this is just an excuse to see Gilliam play around with historical figures, with Ian Holm playing a goofy, size-obsessed Napoleon, John Cleese as an arrogant, dickhead Robin Hood, and Sean Connery as the charming Agamemnon. Even though film shoots are typically hellish (unless you're working on an Adam Sandler film), the cast radiates a joy in playing these roles, with everyone seeming to be having a great time. The biggest strength of this film is that the entire cast is fantastic, and even Keven, the little boy who is really the lead of this film, is played by Craig Warnock as both confused, excited, and sad over what happens throughout.
The best part of the movie for me was Kevin's relationship with Agamemnon, who decides to adopt him after Kevin helps him kill the Minotaur. Before the adventure begins Kevin's homelife can best be described as "shit." His mom and dad ignore him and are more interested in the newest technology, and force him to stop reading his books and go to bed before he disappears with the dwarves. The storyline drops away for the first few adventures, but comes back up with he develops a friendship with Agamemnon. For the first time in this film Kevin seems happy; before he was having fun robbing people with the dwarves, but when he's with Agamemnon he finally has a father figure who wants to look after him. It's telling that before arriving here he only took a couple of photos with his Polaroid, but here he can't stop snapping photos of the scenery. His joy is ruined when a show is put on in the main hall and the dwarves reappear and kidnap Kevin. It's a truly heartbreaking scene, even though you still like the dwarves and know that it wasn't done for vindictive reasons.
Evil is a great character in this film, and I love how his story ties in with Kevin's parents. Evil is obsessed with technology as well, and he doesn't see the point in a supreme being who creates countless forms of insect life before creating the computer. As much as I disagree with it (I'm obviously typing and posting this on a computer), I love the technophobia aspect to this film. This film seems to take a stance that technology and life are at opposing ends, and while I do think the consumerism being mocked in the early scenes with Kevin's parents do a great job at spoofing the technology = happiness philosophy, at times it feels like an old man shaking his fist at progress. It's refreshing to see something like this when you're living in a time where people line up for hours to buy a phone that's going to be obsolete in half a year.
I've been a Terry Gilliam fan for years, but surprisingly I came to Time Bandits later than his other works. I haven't seen Brazil in years, but Time Bandits its a fantasy masterpiece that seems to combine all of his tastes and aesthetics perfectly into something that doesn't feel overly niche. It's a movie that kids and adults can love, and has that crossover appeal that's so rarely present in his work. That said, I'm still shocked at how dark the ending is. The film ends with Kevin waking up and being rescued by firemen. Apparently his parents left something cooking in a toaster oven, which started the fire. When they open the oven Kevin notices that there's a leftover chunk of evil inside and tells his parents not to touch it. They ignore him of course, and when they touch it both of them explode, leaving Kevin alone, walking in front of his burned-down house, with no family. That's how the film ends. Even though you see Agamemnon as a fireman, there's no hint that he's coming back to adopt him. The film just ends with this boy walking alone with no family and no home. Cut to closing credits and a cheerful George Harrison song. Look, I know his parents were assholes, but still. Give us some hope here, Terry!
It seems like the running theme this week has been movies knocking other entries out of the top ten, and Time Bandits threatened to be another instance of this. It's one of the great fantasy films, and more importantly, it holds up and improves on repeated viewings. I'm finding that Shock Corridor seems to be the border that I'm using for these films, and I'm starting to wonder if I've possibly overrated that film. As much as I loved it I'm not looking back on it as fondly as I have with Sid and Nancy and Walkabout. Regardless, Time Bandits is an amazing film, and is a welcomed light-hearted entry in the collection. I'm going to put it at #11, between High and Low and Shock Corridor. As much as I love this movie, I just can't rank it higher than High and Low.
The List
Next time: I am very, very excited to dive into Seijun Suzuki's yakuza film Branded to Kill.
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