TIME BANDITS

UK, 1981, 113 minutes, Colour.
Craig Warnock, John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Ralph Richardson, Peter Vaughan, David Warner, David Rappaport, Kenny Baker.
Directed by Terry Gilliam.

Time Bandits is one of a number of films at the end of the 1970s on time travel: Somewhere In Time, The Time Machine, The Final Countdown. This is a delightful Boys' Own adventure comedy drama. The hero is a 12-year-old British lad, well versed in history, called Kevin. He falls through time holes following a map, accompanied by six lively dwarfs who are escaping from the Supreme Being to become international robbers. If that sounds puzzling and humorous, the source of the ingenuity is in the Monty Python group. This film is co-authored by Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam. Palin appears in the film and Gilliam directs. John Cleese makes an amusing appearance as Robin Hood (imitating royalty welcoming the dwarfs to the Middle Ages).

There are a number of stars who do very interesting and entertaining turns e.g. Sean Connery as Agamemnon, Ian Holm as Napoleon, Katherine Helmond of 'Soap' as Mrs. Ogre with Peter Vaughan as the ogre. Shelley Duvall is Pansy both in the Middle Ages and on the Titanic. While David Warner is the Evil Genius, Ralph Richardson is a very schoolmastery Supreme Being. Kevin is very well played by Craig Warnock. There is a great deal of satire on the present and a great deal of humorous delight in the past. There are also expeditions into myth and fantasy. There are more profound undertones as the confrontation between evil and God is established. The film is for devotees only, it has constant visual and verbal delight.

1. An entertaining film? The appeal for adults, children? The blend of fantasy, imagination, history? The playing with time travel? Adventure and comedy? The Monty Python touch? The free ranging of the imagination over history and time, drama and adventure? The sense and nonsense of the screenplay? The blend of spoof and insight?

2. The Boys' Own imagination style? The schoolboy and his love for time travel? The audience being able to accept this or not?

3. The stars and their contributions? The writers with their Python background? The director? George Harrison's music?

4. The impact of the sets, decor? The lavish touch with re-creating each period? Special effects? Spectacle?

5. The initial satire on 20th. century parents? The continual watching of the television and the style of the quiz show? The preoccupation with the kitchen? The furniture covered with plastic? Mum and Dad in plastic and in blue and pink? The inanity of family life? Their being taken by the Evil One to symbolise evil and to entice Kevin? Their attitudes towards Kevin and his growing up, meals, behaviour and discipline? Their lack of interest in his study and imagination? The house being burnt down and their bemoaning their loss? Competitiveness with the neighbours?

6. Kevin as the above average schoolboy? The world of the 12-year-old? His reaction to his parents? His room with its books and posters? His imagination and dreams? The impact on Kevin (and on the audience) of the knight riding into his room? His getting himself ready for the next night's visit? The dwarfs and their flurry, their attack? Taking Kevin with them? The challenge and their not being frightened of him? The expanding room and their escape? The pursuit by God speaking? Our wanting to go with Kevin and the dwarfs following the time hole map?

7. The importance of the dwarfs ? their size, style, manners? Friendly? Their role as working for God, their mistake. their taking the map, their fighting, their decision to be international bandits? Their awkwardness? Fuss? Their taking Kevin along? Their shrewdness? Kevin and the audience becoming one of them? Their plans with the holes? Their wanting to succeed? The spoof on their ambitions? Their not being very successful? Their being able to be manipulated by the Evil One?

8. The world of Napoleon ? the Napoleonic wars and their devastation, the atmosphere of 18th. century France? The satire on Napoleon himself? His size and his enjoying puppets and small people? His one-handed clap? His child-like enjoyment of Punch and Judy? and its violence? His disregard of the Generals? The theatre and the manager trying to entertain and his poor choice of tall entertainers? Napoleon liking the dwarfs? their backs? The point of the satire on the Napoleonic period, Napoleon and his ambitions and self-image?

9. The transition to the mediaeval world and its roughness? Vincent and Pansy and their being satirised? Their being robbed? Romance? The violence of the Sherwood Forest robbers? The style of the company ? the arm wrestling competitions and wrenching arms etc.? John Cleese as Robin Hood and his satire on royalty as the met the dwarfs, took their money, murmured inanities? The poor and their being punched to remind themselves of their poverty? Robin Hood taking the wealth? The satire on the grim mediaeval world?

10. Kevin's escape into the world of ancient Greece? The desert landscapes, the fierce battle of Agamemnon and the minotaur? The screenplay relying on knowledge of the classics? The brutality of the fight and Kevin's intervention? ills being taken by the grateful Agamemnon to Mycenae? Clytemnestra and her jealousy? Kevin at home in the city? Agamemnon making him his son? Sean Connery's warmth as Agamemnon? Matters of state, the dinner, the performance and the humour of the dwarfs robbing the Greeks and their not realising it?

11. The transition to the Titanic and the atmosphere of the early 20th. century? Pansy and Vincent and the echoes of their mediaeval romance? Vincent's toupee and Pansy's disgust? The dwarfs enjoying the wealthy leisurely life? The singing of the Titanic and their floating in the water?

12. The Land of Myths - fairytale atmosphere, the ship? The satire on the ogre and Mrs. Ogre? The ogre and his attempts at frightening people, acting like an ogre? His back trouble and the dwarfs helping him? Mrs. Ogre and Katherine Helmond's mimicking of her role in TV's 'Soap'? Her fussing over him? The dwarfs one-upping Mr. & Mrs. Ogre?

13. Their arrival on land, their wandering, the giant and the ship on his head, their escaping from him as he lay down? Their greed? The decisions and the wall of glass? Its being shattered?

14. The Evil One and his laboratory, his assistants and his getting rid of them instantly? The dog? The plastic world and the Evil one covered in plastic? His wanting to destroy the world by technology ? the number of computer jokes? His antagonism towards God? His plan and manipulating the dwarfs to come towards him? The plans of the Evil One?

15. The visual impact of his castle, the special effects, the various traps, the television trick and the reprise of the TV quiz show? The dwarfs and Kevin being trapped in the cage? The ingenuity with the rope and the escape? Kevin and his photos with the map after the Evil one had tricked the dwarfs?

16. The build-up to the battle against the Evil One -? the vast number of resources ? the Romans, the knights, the wild west, the tanks? The Evil one's ingenuity in stopping them ? and the spectacular special effects? The dwarfs and their attack? The dwarf turned into the pig?

17. The arrival of the Supreme Being in the form of Ralph Richardson? His schoolmastery style? The contrast with the vision of his face and voice pursuing the dwarfs in their time-tripping? The inevitability of the Supreme Being winning? His explanation of the predestination plan? The ironic picture of God as a schoolmastery business executive?

18. Kevin's awaking. the fire in the house -? and the pleasant surprise of Sean Connery as the fireman?

19. The visual delight of the film? The verbal humour? The ironic jokes and the insight into past eras via contemporary language and references?

20. Insight into the world of the young boy and of the imagination? His perceiving themes of history, the world, religion, good and evil?