It’s hard being a Terry Gilliam
fan. When someone asks “Who’s that?” I rattle off what they might know, if they’re
in their 30’s or older I say “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. And they’ll
shout out “It’s only a flesh wound.” Any
younger, and I just say “12 Monkeys”. If
they don’t know that one, I usually give up. His messages can be over the top, his humor
very layered, but his style is unmistakable.
Whether it’s “Brazil” which took me years to wrap my head around (not
really sure if I’m all the way there yet either) or “The Adventures of Baron
Munchausen” the subject of a later Flashback Corner, you can usually tell when
you’re watching a Terry Gilliam film.
His not talked
about enough but still my favorite is “Time Bandits”. Aside from maybe “The Fisher King” it is his
most accessible film, at least it was to me back in in the 198o’s when I
watched it on video over and over. The
story follows a young boy named Kevin, which as any writer of young adult
fiction will tell you, “You want kids to follow you on an adventure, make your
main character a kid”. Kevin is stuck in
a British suburb with a materialistic mother and a father who only wants ‘quiet’. One night six dwarves come out of his closet,
they take him away through a time portal where he has a series of adventures
during the Napoleonic Wars, the Middle Ages where he meets the hilarious John
Cleese as Robin Hood, to Greece where he meets King Agamemnon played by the still
dashing at this time Sean Connery. The whole
time Kevin and his new friends, the self-proclaimed “international robbers” are
bouncing around in time they are being secretly watched by Evil played by the
always brilliant David Warner, who looks to acquire the map that they stole
from God, which allows them to jump from time to time.
What makes
the film memorable is the dwarves like Fidgit played by Kenny Baker who was R2-D2
in all six Star Wars films, Randall played by David Rappaport, who was in a fun
80’s series called “The Wizard” and was in a great episode of “Amazing Stories”
with Mark Hamill. While all of them
bring the funny, some nail the serious moments, they really make the movie as
does the script which is clever for an adult, and fun for a child who like Ian
Holm’s Napoleon in the film likes to see “Little thing’s hitting each other!”
Also when the character of Evil has to give exposition he does it as he kills
off his minions. Hilarious. There are some great set pieces and some move
along better than others, I do remember being captivated as a kid watching the
group try to escape a series of hanging cages.
Watching now
I can say it drags a little at times, some of the jokes are dated, and the
effects are on the cheap even if they were funded by former Beatle George
Harrison who was an executive producer on the film. However it’s still a fantastic little film
that dreams big and I still love the climactic end battle where Evil has to
face off against the dwarves, cowboys, knights, tanks, and spaceships. It still pulled me in and is still one of the
best time-travel movies of all time.
--Robert L.
Castillo
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