Year: 1981
Director: Terry Gilliam
Country: UK
Language: English
Throughout my teens and early adulthood, I didn't have much respect for Terry Gilliam's directing abilities. I didn't like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), was unaffected by Twelve Monkeys (1995) and loathed The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009) I hated Gilliam's use of deep focus and extreme perspective distortion. Some of his scenes looked like we're meant to view them from the perspective of a fish bowl. Alas, I should have watched his earlier works first as I am now deeply impressed.
In Time Bandits a young boy (Criag Warnock) accidently gets caught up in the antics of time travelling dwarves, who are jumping from era to era looking for treasure to steal.
Produced by George Harrison, Time Bandits feels like an elaborate mix of Monty Python and C.S Lewis. It as much a timeless epic, seamlessly inspired by fairy tales of the past, as it is a comedy with a more modern sense of humor. Neither parts undermine one another; rather the comedy gives us a chance to catch our breath throughout this frantically paced odyssey.
Gilliam's unusual directing style works well in Time Bandits, as much of the film is nonsensical and feels like we've been transported into a surreal alternate reality. Much of this picture asks us to suspend our disbelief, but the screenplay is so well written that we don't question the plot for even a second. Time Bandits is a wild and fun film unlike any other.
Throughout the 1980's Hollywood tried to bring families to the theatre with a whole host of movies aimed at appealing to parents and their children (Goonies, ET, Sixteen Candles) but none prove as entertaining an experience as this. You can have your Labyrinth, I'll take my Time Bandits.
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