Time Bandits

This article is about the 1981 motion picture. For the Dutch band from the 1980s, see Time Bandits (band).

Time Bandits
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Terry Gilliam
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 Warner
Music by	Mike Moran Songs by George Harrison
Cinematography	Peter Biziou
Editing by	Julian Doyle
Studio	HandMade Films Janus Films
Distributed by	Avco Embassy Pictures (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Release date(s)	6 November 1981 (1981-11-06)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Box office	$42,365,581

Time Bandits is a 1981 British fantasy film produced and directed by Terry Gilliam.

Terry 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 was backed in part by former Beatle George Harrison, who wrote and performed the closing credits song "Dream Away" especially for this film, and is credited as being one of the executive producers of the film.

Plot

Kevin is an 11-year-old boy whose parents 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 that has appeared in place of his bedroom wall. When Kevin looks back around, though, he finds his room returned to normal. The next night, he urges his parents to let him go to bed early; he is again awakened by sounds from the wardrobe, but this time six dwarves stumble out. The dwarves seem to be on a mission and they initially mistake Kevin for someone from whom they have stolen a map. After realising Kevin is only a little boy, they discover that they can push his bedroom wall as if on wheels and they slide it to the end of a long hallway. A luminous, disembodied face - referred to by the dwarves as the Supreme Being - materializes suddenly, urges them to relinquish the map to avoid great danger, and chases them down this hall. The corridor ends abruptly in a black abyss through which Kevin and the dwarves fall, beginning their adventure through time and space.

Kevin learns that the dwarves, named Randall (the self-proclaimed leader), Fidgit, Strutter, Og, Wally, and Vermin, were employees of the Supreme Being, the creator of "all the big stuff" in the universe, while it was the regular job of the dwarves to create small bushes and trees. After designing a particularly foul-smelling tree, the dwarves were demoted to the job of repairing holes in the spacetime fabric. Instead, however, they spitefully stole the map of the holes' locations, which they are now using to travel around, stealing treasures from across history. Meanwhile, in secret, this journey is being observed via mystical powers by a malevolent sorcerer, known simply as Evil, who seeks the map for himself to recreate the universe to his liking.

Kevin and the dwarves travel to several (largely mythical) places and time-periods, meeting Napoleon Bonaparte and Robin Hood. Kevin takes photographs of his travels and becomes separated from the group in Mycenaean Greece, where he meets King Agamemnon. After inadvertently helping Agamemnon slay a minotaur, Kevin is welcomed to Agamemnon's royal court and treated like a son. Reflecting on his own life and family, Kevin wishes he can stay with the king forever. However, the dwarves catch up with Kevin, steal the king's valuables, and drag him away through another time hole for a brief stint on the RMS Titanic, which they do not realise will soon sink. Kevin becomes angry with them for ruining his happy respite.

Evil, meanwhile, begins to manipulate the adventure with his magical influence, so that Kevin and the dwarves end up in the Time of Legends. Here, circumstances become even more fantastical and the travelers barely escape a ship adorning the head of a giant. The dwarves believe an epic treasure, "The Most Fabulous Object in the World," awaits in this time-period within the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, where Evil himself resides. Meeting an invisible wall, the dwarves begin to fight and dissent from Randall's authority, when they accidentally destroy the wall by smashing through it like a pane of glass. They step through the jagged opening to behold Evil's fortress lying ominous on the other side. Once inside, the dwarves are immediately deceived by Evil's shapeshifting abilities into handing over the map. Evil imprisons them and Kevin in one of many cages hanging over a bottomless void, but the group undoes the lock and swings from cage to cage until they are back within the fortress hall. They are able to use a photograph of the map Kevin had taken earlier to identify holes they can use to recruit help and recover the map. The dwarves begin putting their plan into action.

The dwarves accumulate soldiers and equipment from across time to build a small army against Evil just as he corners Kevin, who has stayed behind to divert Evil's attention all the while. Though the dwarves reveal gun-toting cowboys, medieval knights on horseback, Greek archers, a futuristic fighter jet, and a military tank, Evil uses magic to effortlessly defeat them all. As Evil is about to unleash his ultimate power, he is suddenly turned to cinder by the Supreme Being, now appearing as an elderly, well-dressed gentleman. The dwarves humbly apologize to the Supreme Being, who acknowledges that their act of rebellion was all part of his plan and he takes back the map. He orders them to remove all of the remaining cinders of "concentrated evil" from the area. Kevin is left behind as the Supreme Being disappears with the dwarves. Kevin finds that a piece of Evil has been left, but his vision goes dim as the smoke emanating from the chunk of black rock overwhelms him.

Kevin wakes up in his own room which is filled with smoke as the house is on fire. A firefighter breaks in and rescues him. The firefighters find that a toaster oven was the source of the fire, and hand the unit over to Kevin's parents. Kevin, upon seeing a fireman who exactly resembles Agamemnon, discovers the photographs of his travels still in his satchel. When his parents open the toaster oven to reveal a piece of concentrated Evil, Kevin warns them not to touch it, but they do anyway and the two promptly explode, leaving Kevin alone and bewildered. The camera zooms out from the town, the world, and the galaxy to reveal its location on the Supreme Being's map. The Supreme Being's hands then roll up the map, ending the film.

Cast

• Craig Warnock as Kevin
• David Rappaport as Randall
• Kenny Baker as Fidgit
• Malcolm 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 (voice) as the Supreme Being
• Terence Bayler as Lucien
• Preston Lockwood as Neguy
• Derrick O'Connor as Redgrave
• Neil McCarthy as Marion
• Ian Muir as the Giant

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. Critical reception since it came out in theatres has been positive overall, and it still enjoys a good reputation on DVD. The film has received a 95% rating based on percentage of critics reviews which were positive at the review aggregating website Rotten Tomatoes.

Legacy

Robert Hewison, in his book Monty Python: The Case Against, describes the dwarfs as a comment on the Monty Python troupe, with Fidgit (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.

External links

• Time Bandits at the Internet Movie Database
• Time Bandits at AllRovi
• Time Bandits at Box Office Mojo
• Time Bandits at Rotten Tomatoes
• Time Bandits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Criterion Collection essay by Bruce Eder
• Time Bandits II Script Review
• The boat used in the film is now a tour boat on Big Bear Lake in Big Bear Lake, CA