Time Bandits is a 1981 British fantasy adventure film co-written, produced, and directed by Terry Gilliam. The film stars Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, Ralph Richardson, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Peter Vaughan, and David Warner. The film follows Kevin a young boy who is taken on an adventure through time with a band of thieves to steal treasures from various points in history. Time Bandits is a fun entertaining film that acts as a surreal trip for both children and adults.
The direction in the film is good. The character of Kevin is set up as a child whose parents are ultimately disinterested by. Kevin’s call to adventure starts when a knight on a horse burst through the cupboard into a forest that becomes part of the bedroom, that then becomes a picture on the wall. Kevin’s parents a portrayed as surficial, trapped in a loveless marriage that do not care for their son as technology and keeping up appearances have consumed their lives. When the time bandits come through the portal in Kevin’s wardrobe at first it is portrayed as frightening but very quickly the tone becomes funny. Time Bandits is veery subversive for a kid’s film, when the bandits arrive, they attack Kevin as they don’t act like his the chosen one but instead try to attack him. The creator of the universe is shown as a genuine threatening force within the film and gives the movie a sense of tension. Time Bandits is a historical film. The film has a great gritty look and feel to it despite it being a kid’s movie. Again, time bandits is a very subversive film, the time bandits are robbers, when they go to the times a napoleon he is a goof watching punch and Judy and the time bandits are ultimately thieves that steal form napoleon they are not good people, time bandits is about breaking down the generally held believes within the traditionally safe structure of a children’s film.
This subversion is continued when the time bandits meet robin hood and don’t want to give up their treasures to help the poor again, they are not good people. A lot of the characters in the film are great. Evil the villain has a genuine presence in the film and is funny, Kevin and Agamemnon the Greek emperor have a good father son dynamic and demonstrates Kevin need for a father figure. This idea of a need for a strong male role model is shown throughout the film, with Randel trying to act as a sort of father figure to Kevin, and the monster and wife characters in the film with the wife looking after the monster and both being seemly in a better relationship than Kevin’s parents. In the climax of the film the fortress of evil becomes a labyrinth becomes a game shown with Kevin’s parents trying to trick him. This symbolises that in the real-world Kevin’s parents are the evil in that they have destroyed his freedom, adventure, and his humanity. Once they steal the map from evil, they run through his castle with nightmarish monsters chasing after them. Time Bandits ultimately try and stop evil by collecting all the different parts of history to battle him but are defeated. Throughout time bandits there is an idea of technology being used for evil as the bandits try and use technology to defeat evil but evil controls it, causing one of the time bandits to die.
At the end of the film, it turns out that Kevin is in a house fire and that the events in the film were supposedly just a dream as indicated by his toys on the floor are all people form the film, all on a chess board like the floor of evils lair, this chess board metaphor relates to the climax of the story as the characters are all but pawns in god’s plan. Outside the house it turns out that his parents don’t care about Kevin and instead are seen arguing over which appliances to save. Agamemnon is reincarnated as a fireman or at least shown to be a relative of him as a guardian watching over Kevin. Kevin then produces a picture from his pocket proving that everything was real. He tells his parents not to touch the last piece of evil, but they do anyway leave him alone but free of his parents. The film ends with the camera zooming out to a map of the universe that is then rolled up by the supreme being, he is like a father figure watching over Kevin by killing his parents and giving him the reincarnation/relative of Agamemnon as a sort of comic gist to him as guardians watching over him.
The acting in the film is good. Craig Warnock does a good job as Kevin as a young wide eyed boy seeking adventure. David Daker does a good job as Kevin’s father playing a disinterred man wrapped up in himself. Shelia Fearn does a good job as Kevin’s mother a woman wrapped up materialism and aching high status. David Rappaport does a good job as Randall the leader of the time bandits that acts as a sort of father figure to Kevin. The rest of the time bandits include Kenny Baker as Fidget, Malcom Dixon as Strutter, Mike Edmonds as Og, Jack Purvis as Wally and Tiny Ross as Vermin all do a great job as the time bandits. Ian Holm does a good job as Napoleon a hilarious, childlike at no at all serious portrayal of the character. John Cleese does a. good job as Robin Hood a charming but somewhat easily annoyed individual that breaks the facade of the Robin hood persona. Michael Palin does a good job a Vincent a character that wants to confess his love to his girl but is interrupted by the time bandits exposing a flaw within him. Shelley Duvall does a good job as Pansy the innocent woman who is in love with Vincent until she sees the flaw within him. David Warner does a great job as evil as an over the top, funny, charismatic but also genuinely formidable villain. Sean Connery does a great Job as Agamemnon and the firefighter at the ned of the film ass a father figure to Kevin who truly cares for him.
The writing in the film is good. The parents of Kevin are portrayed as caring more about having the latest technology than their son and ultimately have a disinterest towards him. There is great foreshadowing in the film as a lot of the toys in his room come back as elements in the story. Technology plays a big part in the film. Kevin’s parents care about having the latest flashy gadget to seem like he perfect family, and to them Kevin is just another one of these gadgets. The time bandits come through a portal in Kevin’s wardrobe. What makes the film so good is how subversive it is the time bandits are not good people, they outright attack Kevin when they first meet him and are criminals. Kevin ends up following the time bandits through the portal, they explain that they stole the creators time traveling map and have gone back in time to steal artifacts again adding a subversive element to the story. This subversion in shown with Napoleon being a goof watching punch and Judy. The time bandits then get dragged into performing for napoleon, as they end up stealing form him again showing that they are not good people as they are chased by napoleons guards and disappear through the time portal. They then interrupt a lord and lady riding in a carriage as the man steals some gold and runs away.
It turns out that the Time Bandits stole the map belonging to the supreme being to repair holes in the spacetime fabric, but they realise that they can use the map to steal the riches then disappear into space time. They are workers who were sacked from God and decided to steal the map as revenge. They then come across Robin Hood and his band of verry men, however the time bandits don’t want to give these treasures to the poor as they are not good people. Within the film Evil is literally the bad guy, throughout the film there is this theme that technology is evil which is ultimately linked to Kevin’s parents and both evil and his parents use technology making Evil a metaphor for Kevin’s parents. Evil manipulates one of the bandits however he doesn’t succeed as Kevin stops them and as the supreme being finds them, they diaper through another portal. Kevin then escapes to ancient Greece and meets Agamemnon who acts like a father figure to Kevin. There is something sad about the idea that even at such a young age Kevin does not ever want to see his parents ever again. From this Agamemnon decides to adopt Kevin as his own, as the time bandits then take Kevin back against his will.
The lives of the characters of Pansy and Vincent constantly get interrupted by the time bandits as their existence is a sort of cosmic joke, this idea of a cosmic joke is further illustrated when the time bandits end up on board the titanic as a sort of cosmic evil manipulates them. The film is full of microcosms to Kevin’s parents with the monster and his wife as Kevin becomes more adventurous and manipulates the monster to throw himself overboard as well as a giant flattening a family with a child. Throughout the film fantasy and reality blur as Kevin sees the objects his parents want on TV manifested in this fantasy world, it then tuns out the game show is a trick, and they get trapped. Kevin then uses his photo of a map to find a whole directly below them and use the rope that is used to hang them form the cage to escape. Again, Time Bandits is a subservice film in the sense that Kevin is the only wants to defeat evil, but the Time Bandits just wants to escape and don’t care about being hero’s and saving the universe.
Evil is meant to be the embodiment of that term in that he does not care about his minions by destroying them. Evil takes the map from the Bandits, and all seems to be lost until God destroys evil. In the film god is presented as an old man acting like a strict authority figure. He explains that he let the bandits steal the map to test then and that he made evil. Kevin ultimately confronts and challenges God on the nature of death, good and evil and free will. God acts like a boss of a business and believes in Kevin; he sends him back to earth to carry on the fight against evil.
The cinematography in the film is good. There are great effects in the film such as the begging of the film were a knight on a horse burst through his wardrobe and gallops into a forest that has become part of the bedroom. The film has a good use of lighting with the dark lighting making the time bandits seem sinister. Throughout the film there is a good use of lighting such as a building being on fire and scenes being lit by candlelight. In the film Evils. Base just down right looks cool. The film has a great dirty and gritty look to it especially for a kid’s film. The film also has interesting visuals such as a negative filter being used. The film has good epic feeling cinematography showing the breath in which they have travelled. Evil’s fortress looks foreboding, dark, and massive, with a particularly great sequence where the time bandits are in a cage surrounded by darkness. When they run of stealing the map from evil, they run through the castle with monsters chasing after them, this showcases that throughout the film there is a great unchanged disturbing imagery throughout the film.
The special effects in the film are good. In the begging of the film Kevin’s wall moves and becomes a long passageway when he and the time bandits push it which is impressive. There is also a good effect in this scene were head off the creator is shown against smoke and lightning. There is lots of good costumes in the film with the minotaur’s costume. Another great effect is the boat ending up on the giant’s head. There is another good effect where they slam into an invisible wall only for the glass to shatter revealing a fortress. Evil’s skull faced cloaked minions look great another brilliant design in Evil’s lair being made from Lego linking to the idea that this might possibly be a dream.
Time Bandits is a fun entraining film. The film is incredibly impressive in its imagination and visuals creating a unique experience unlike any other kids film ever made.