Terry Gilliam was the often forgotten member of Monty Python. Rarely appearing onscreen, Gilliam instead applied his talent to co-writing much of Python’s material and inventing the ridiculous animated gags that would often open the show.
In the post Python years Gilliam began to illustrate both a talent for film direction and a predilection for darker material. Gilliam’s fascination with the shadowy aspects of human nature and society would be best realised in “Brazil” and then “Twelve Monkeys,” but it was already on display with his 1981 feature, “Time Bandits.”
“Time Bandits” is ostensibly for children, but it’s hard to imagine kids coping easily with the often-uncomfortable blackness that inhabits the film.
Craig Warnock plays Kevin, a history obsessed eight year-old who lives with his vacantly materialistic parents in a dreary English suburb. Each night, while his mother and father sit absorbed in a strangely morbid game show, Kevin flicks through his books, fantasising about a world more meaningful than the one in which he currently lives.
But one night, upon being sent to bed, Kevin’s life gets a lot more interesting. A band of six dwarves appear at his bedside, courtesy of an inter-dimensional portal, and soon Kevin is on the run with them through time. The dwarves have stolen a map of the universe from their former employer, The Supreme Being, and are using it to leap across the centuries, fleecing anybody they come across before leaping headlong into another wormhole.
And so Kevin manages to meet many of the historical figures he’s so in awe of, including a size-obsessed Napoleon Bonaparte (Ian Holm), a fey and friendly Robin Hood (John Cleese), and a sober but kindly Agamemnon (Sean Connery). Unfortunately, things get tricky for both the dwarves and Kevin when they fall foul of the Evil Genius (David Warner), a nefarious being who wants to use the map to destroy the universe.
It’s episodic stuff and “Time Bandits” wears the fashion in which it was written on its sleeve. Gilliam had been busy trying to get the dense and challenging “Brazil” off the ground when in frustration he threw together the idea for “Time Bandits” over a single weekend. His and Michael Palin’s screenplay then came in quick order, and it shows.
The film suffers from the discombobulating jumps between periods, the narrative being given a swift kick in the guts each time a new time period begins. Not helping is the section dealing with Agamemnon: it has a strangely pragmatic tone when compared to the other adventures of Kevin and the dwarves.
So “Time Bandits” is caught between two audiences. It’s too scary for children and too disjointed and narratively weak for adults. Still, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of eye-popping moments along the way.
Ask anybody about the film and they’re likely to throw a bunch of images at you: the massive residence of the Evil Genius; the giant existential cages in which our heroes are at one point held captive; and of course the knight on horse leaping over Kevin’s bed perhaps one of the most impressive set pieces you’re ever likely to see. There’s no doubt it’s a good looking film, and that aspect helps immeasurably in filling the slower paced sequences.
It’s just a shame the care that went into the technical aspects of the picture wasn’t taken during preproduction. As it is, “Time Bandits” is enjoyable enough, and a particularly bracing blast from the past for anybody who saw the film when it was originally released. But one coming to the film for the first time may be disappointed it never quite scales the heights of either Monty Python’s cinematic efforts or indeed those of Gilliam himself later in his career.
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