Time Bandits

• Co-Written, Produced, and Directed by Terry Gilliam
• July 2, 1981

A young boy goes on an adventure through time with a group of thieves plundering treasure from throughout history.

I saw Time Bandits maybe twice (definitely once) in my youth on television. Something about it captured the child in me and never quite let go. Maybe because it’s fun and fanciful. Maybe it is because it’s a great adventure. Or maybe it’s because it’s just an all-around great story. It is a film as much for kids as it is adults.

It is a fun heist film involving a young boy named Kevin (Craig Warnok) fascinated with history who finds himself in the company of a group of dwarves-David Rappaport as Randall, Kenny “R2-D2” Baker as Fidgit, Malcolm Dixon as Strutter, Mike Edmonds as Og, Jack Purvis as Wally, and Tiny Ross as Vermin-who worked for the Supreme Being (Tony Jay voice when just a head/Ralph Richardson as a physical form) repairing holes in the universe until they stole a map to plunder time using those holes. You see the universe was a rush job since they only had seven days.

Too often time travel movies take the concept seriously but fail to create a solid logic to govern said concept. Time Bandits skips that. It has fun with it by engaging in anachronisms and generally inverting expectations. Gone are concerns of damaging the timeline. The issue here is the villain using the stolen map to remake reality in the silliest of ways.

It was not until I got older and was able to take this in as an adult that I knew just how stacked with talent Time Bandits was. Most amount to glorified or extended cameos. Sean Connery is King Agamemnon as well as a fireman. David Warner is the villain of the story known as Evil. Shelley Duvall is Pansy and Michael Palin is her love Vincent. Ian Holm is Napoleon. Katherine Helmond is Mrs. Ogre. John Cleese is Robin Hood as only he could play him. Jim Broadbent is Compere. I miss the era when you could get talent like this together with them needing to indulge their egos. They work to bring to life a story that balances deftly the serious and the silly.

I had seen Time After Time but this solidified my fandom of David Warner. This is not a serious movie and he delivers the right amount of mostly goofy evil. He’s a threat that you could believe could be successful, but not so maniacal evil that he doesn’t fit with the whole movie.

Not every bit is for kids yet those parts are not so overt that a kid would get that something else is being said. It is filled with that off kilter dry British humor. And that’s what makes it so funny often. The silly is taken seriously. Part of the movie takes place in the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness which has several crumbled areas like all evil fortresses do. To me it looked like some of the debris were giant Legos. A joke? And were the two henchmen named Robert and Benson (Derek Deadman and Jerold Wells respectively) some kind of Robbie Benson joke? People would’ve known more easily who that was back then. As weird as this movie was I can believe that such was the intent.

It dives headfirst into the fantasy elements. Miniatures and creative composite shots are used to bring this to life. We have giants and ogres and knights like a child would envision. As an adult you might notice some blatant historical inaccuracies (most notably the sinking of the Titanic in the daylight) but that is reflective of this being from the POV of a child.

One could assume Time Bandits would be a story about some growth over/dealing with distant parents. Kevin’s father and mother are more interested in the latest gadgets and keeping up with the Joneses to the point they barely know he exists. Yet it never gets there as a story. The finale kinda makes the reality of events we have seen questionable and then it doesn’t leaving me curious what the point of it all was. And maybe that WAS the point.

Equally witty and thrilling, Time Bandits is a wild ride. There is a distinct feel to a Terry Gilliam film. It is an ephemeral thing some directors can do-give a vibe to a presentation so that you know a movie was done by them even if you are not aware they are the director. It is a magic few have but can boost a movie that fits a particular director’s magic.

Time Bandits is a fun adventure that is as much for kids as it is adults. It is a classic that is as good today as when it came out.