Time Bandits
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| Time Bandits | |
 Time Bandits film poster |
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| Directed by | Terry Gilliam |
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| Produced by | Terry Gilliam George Harrison Denis O'Brien |
| Written by | Terry Gilliam Michael Palin |
| Starring | John Cleese Sean Connery Shelley Duvall Ralph Richardson Katherine Helmond Ian Holm Michael Palin David Rappaport Craig Warnock |
| Music by | Mike Moran Songs by George Harrison |
| Cinematography | Peter Biziou |
| Editing by | Julian Doyle |
| Distributed by | Handmade Films Janus Films Embassy Pictures |
| Release date(s) | United Kingdom: 13 July 1981 United States: 6 November 1981 |
| Running time | 116 min. / USA:110 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $42,365,581 |
Time Bandits is a 1981 fantasy film, produced and directed by Terry Gilliam.
Gilliam wrote the screenplay with fellow Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin, who appears with Shelley Duvall in the small, recurring roles of Vincent and Pansy. The film is one of the most famous of more than 30 theatrical features produced by Handmade Films, the London-based independent company backed in part by former Beatle George Harrison.
Gilliam would work with many of this film's cast again in 1985's Brazil, including Jim Broadbent, Ian Holm, Peter Vaughan, Katherine Helmond, Michael Palin and Jack Purvis.
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[edit] Plot summary
Kevin is an 11-year-old son of two parents who constantly ignore him in favour of keeping up with the neighbours by purchasing all the latest gadgets. Without their attention, Kevin has become a history buff, particularly of the Ancient Greek period. One night, Kevin is awakened from his sleep by a knight on horseback bursting through his wardrobe and riding off into a forest setting that has appeared in place of his bedroom wall, but when Kevin investigates, he finds nothing amiss in his room, the forest setting being just one of the pictures that adorns his wall. He prepares for the next night by packing a satchel with a torch and a Polaroid camera, before going to bed. Again, he is woken by sounds from the wardrobe, but this time six dwarves stumble out. They are initially scared by Kevin's flashlight, thinking him to be the "Supreme Being," but when they discover he is a kid, they ignore him and try to find an exit from the room using a large worn map. The dwarves discover the bedroom wall can be physically moved, and as the dwarves push it along down a long hallway, the disembodied head of the Supreme Being shows up behind them and chases them down. Kevin is caught up with the dwarves in their mad dash to escape, as the hallway ends and they fall into the blackness of space.
When Kevin regains his senses, he learns that the dwarves are employees of the Supreme Being, and were supposed to be using the map, which shows the locations of holes in time and space, to repair the space-time continuum. Instead, they have ended up in a labour dispute with the Supreme Being and are using the map to travel through time and steal treasures from across history. However, at the same time, they are being watched by the Evil Genius (and his rather dimwitted minions), who, while brooding in his fortress prison, is seeking to get the map himself to recreate the universe to his liking. The dwarves, along with Kevin, travel through several time periods, meeting Napoleon Bonaparte and Robin Hood. Kevin becomes separated from the group while travelling through one hole and ends up in ancient Greece, where he meets Agamemnon, who treats Kevin like his son. However, the dwarves manage to catch up with Kevin and drag him away through another time hole, causing Kevin to become angry with them for ruining his happy respite.
After the group lands on the Titanic and survives its sinking, Evil brings Kevin and the dwarves into his realm, the "Time of Legends." The dwarves make their way to Evil's Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, believing there to be an epic treasure, "The Most Fabulous Object in the World," inside. However, the treasure turns out to be a trap set by Evil, and the dwarves are forced to hand over the map. Trapped in a cage hanging over a bottomless void, the group discovers that one of the photographs Kevin has taken over the course of their travels includes a shot of the map, and they are able to identify holes they can use to recruit help and recover the map. The dwarves make a daring escape and put their plan into action, bringing soldiers and equipment from across time to face down Evil, but Evil is able to conquer them all. As Evil is about to unleash his ultimate power, he is suddenly turned to stone by The Supreme Being, now appearing as an elderly gentleman. The dwarves apologize to the Supreme Being, but he acknowledges that it was part of his plan, and thanks the dwarves for returning the map while instructing them to remove all the rubble of "concentrated Evil" from the area, as it would be hazardous to anyone left. The Supreme Being thanks Kevin for his help, and then leaves him behind as he disappears with the dwarves. Kevin quickly discovers a piece of Evil has been missed, and his vision goes dim as the smoke emanating from the chunk of black rock overwhelms him.
Kevin suddenly wakes up in his own bed, his room filled with smoke and the house on fire. A firefighter breaks into the room and rescues him. As the fire is extinguished, the firefighters find that a microwave was the source of the fire, and hand the unit over to Kevin's parents. Seeing a firefighter that resembles Agamemnon, Kevin realises he is still carrying his satchel. Inside it, he discovers the photographs he took during his journey. When his parents open the microwave to reveal a piece of concentrated Evil, Kevin tries to warn them not to touch it, but they do, and promptly explode. Kevin is left alone.
[edit] Themes
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As might be expected, given the participation of half of the Monty Python troupe, the film's sense of humour is irreverent and dark. It also was the first film in which Gilliam's unique visual style was fully extant: he would go on to develop the style further in his subsequent fantasy films Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen.
Students of Gilliam's films have dubbed these three movies the "Trilogy of the Imagination" and Gilliam himself refers to it as a "trilogy about the ages of Man and the subordination of magic to realism."[1] The connecting link shared by each film is the fact that each celebrates the spirit of imagination, and is anchored by a quixotic central character whose imagination is suppressed by forces not of his own choosing or design (in this case, Kevin). In each film, the character must undergo a fantastic journey that will allow his imagination to be given its freedom as God (here called the Supreme Being) had originally intended. What binds these three together is that in Time Bandits the dreamer is a boy, in Brazil a man, and in Baron Munchausen an old man.
The film once more uses Gilliam's motif of bureaucracy and technology hurting imagination and creativity. This was further expanded upon in Brazil.
[edit] Production
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The film's script was broken down into two tasks, with Gilliam mostly devising the story and Palin mostly writing the dialogue. Gilliam has said of writing dialogue that it "doesn't come as easily as it should."
Time Bandits was filmed at Lee International Studios, Shepperton, Middlesex, England, and on location in England, Wales and Morocco.
Originally Craig Warnock's brother auditioned for the lead in the film, but Gilliam thought his performance was too cute and artificial, and was instead drawn to the more sedate Craig, who had only tagged along and hadn't planned to audition at all. Sean Connery appears in the film as Agamemnon; this casting choice derives from a joke Michael Palin included in the script, in which he describes the character as being "Sean Connery (or someone of equal, but cheaper, stature)"[2]. The film is unusual in featuring large roles for dwarf actors; Gilliam has commented that it offered a rare chance for these actors to create detailed characters, instead of doing stunt work or playing one-dimensional costumed monsters.
According to the commentary on the Criterion Collection DVD, Gilliam kept the camera angle rather low throughout the film, in order to give audiences a child's or dwarf's point of view.
The Supreme Being was originally intended to manifest in Kevin's bedroom at the beginning of the film in the form of a sinister, shadowy figure with long, scraggly, wind-blown hair and glowing eyes. Thinking this was ineffective, Gilliam redid the scene with the Supreme Being as an enormous, floating head. A photo of the character's original appearance is shown in the published screenplay.
Gilliam and Palin were nervous about the long sequence in Greece, because they had never written a scene that long without any jokes.
Katherine Helmond's character, the ogre's wife, was originally planned as a comic crone, but Gilliam was delighted when Helmond gave an unexpectedly sexy spin to lines like, "Leer at them... you know, the way you used to..?" Helmond also came up with the idea of her character appearing as a normal human, and not a female version of her ogre husband.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Terry Jones pointed out that a Brian Froud book published before this film was released featured an image of a giant with a boat on his head; Jones jokingly accused Gilliam of "pinching" (stealing) the image for his film. For the scene with the giant, Gilliam originally planned to use an enormously tall actor, but later realized that a short, extremely stout person produced a more effective impression of gigantism. The actor chosen was a British wrestler, Ian Muir.
The shot of the Titanic sinking was actually re-used footage from A Night to Remember.
The scene with the hanging cages in Evil's castle was quickly thrown together when another, more expensive scene fell through. Shot for little money and with the simplest of sets (some cages against a black backdrop), the scene was widely considered one of the most impressive in the film.[citation needed]
The musical underscoring and orchestrations are credited to Mike Moran, with Ray Cooper, Elton John's longtime percussionist, serving as producer of the musical material, but executive producer George Harrison is also credited with "songs and additional material": Harrison did in fact write songs for the film at the request of co-executive producer Denis O'Brien, but the song score was apparently developed without the participation of Terry Gilliam. As a result, the only song attributed to Harrison is "Dream Away", which the former Beatle performs over the credits. Sometime following the release of Time Bandits, "Dream Away" was included on Harrison's album Gone Troppo, on his own Dark Horse record label. The recording of "Dream Away" was produced by George Harrison and Ray Cooper in collaboration with Phil MacDonald; Mike Moran appeared on keyboards and synthesizers; and Billy Preston, Syreeta and Sarah Ricor joined Harrison as backing vocalists.
[edit] Reception
As discussed in a DVD interview with Palin and Gilliam, the film came out in the fall season (after the blockbuster summer films, but before the hit Christmas season) and became extremely successful at the U.S. box office, making over $40 million.[3] Critical reception since it came out in theatres has been positive overall,[4] and it still enjoys a good reputation on DVD, having gained a 94%[5] at Rotten Tomatoes.
[edit] Sequel
A sequel to Time Bandits has long been rumoured, and in Gilliam on Gilliam, Terry Gilliam once expressed his intention of making one. It was intended to be released before or in 2000. The catalyst was the Supreme Being using the milestone of year 2000 as a time to reflect, and discovering that he was so disappointed with the way the universe turned out that he was going to end it. The time bandits were the only ones that could save the universe, if they could be bothered to.
[edit] Legacy
Robert Hewison, in his book Monty Python: The Case Against, describes the dwarfs as a comment on the Monty Python troupe, with Fidget (the nice one) as Palin, Randall (the self-appointed leader) as John Cleese, Strutter (the acerbic one) as Eric Idle, Og (the quiet one) as Graham Chapman, Wally (the noisy rebel) as Terry Jones and Vermin (the nasty, filth-loving one) as Gilliam himself.
[edit] Cast
- Craig Warnock as Kevin
- David Rappaport as Randall
- Kenny Baker as Fidgit
- Malcom Dixon as Strutter
- Mike Edmonds as Og
- Jack Purvis as Wally
- Tiny Ross as Vermin
- David Warner as Evil
- Derek Deadman as Robert
- Jerold Wells as Benson
- Michael Palin as Vincent
- Shelley Duvall as Pansy
- John Cleese as Robin Hood
- Sean Connery as King Agamemnon/Fireman
- Katherine Helmond as Mrs. Ogre
- Ian Holm as Napoleon
- Ralph Richardson as Supreme Being
- Peter Vaughan as Winston the Ogre
- David Daker as Kevin's Father
- Sheila Fearn as Kevin's Mother
- Jim Broadbent as Compere
- Tony Jay as Voice of the Supreme Being
- Terence Bayler as Lucien
- Preston Lockwood as Neguy
- Derrick O'Connor as Redgrave
- Neil McCarthy as Marion
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Time Bandits |
- Time Bandits at the Internet Movie Database
- Time Bandits at the Internet Movie Database
- Time Bandits at Allmovie
- Time Bandits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- Criterion Collection essay by Bruce Eder
- Time Bandits II Script Review
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