The real stars of Time Bandits, despite the opening credits and advertising materials, are the little bandits themselves. Gilliam recalled that he decided to use actors who would be roughly the same size as the young boy and that the small men were tirelessly pushing themselves past their limits to the point that one even broke his arm near the end of the shoot. Their characters are refreshingly normal as opposed to some sort of freakish portrayal as we’ve seen in numerous other films and television shows. I particularly liked the scenes with Napoleon, who was of course quite diminutive himself, and his love for all things little. The small stature of the men is never a burden and they even use their size as assets for their rescue from the Evil Genius.
After the screening, Terry Gilliam commented that the small studio that released the film was, understandably, hesitant of the darkly comic ending and wanted it changed. A preview screening was held in Fresno, California and the audio suffered from technical difficulties. By the time the film was over and the audience was asked to select their favorite part of the strange fable they’d just seen, the most popular choice was “the end.” Even if the responses were intended to mean that the audience was happiest once the picture was over and not how it ended, Gilliam was able to keep his demise of Kevin’s parents as scripted.
Overall, I was really delighted at how much I enjoyed Time Bandits. The original poster and DVD cover art both left me uninterested in seeing it and I wrongly inferred that the story was primarily set on a boat. Not surprisingly, the water scenes with the Titanic, the ogre or the giant were the ones I found to be the weakest, but there were so many other sequences that I didn’t mind those a bit.
Apparently, the Criterion Collection’s DVD was one of their earliest efforts and surpassed by Anchor Bay’s release in terms of picture quality. While the Criterion version does have a commentary by Gilliam, Palin, and others, it’s also non-anamorphic and a possible candidate for a new release either on DVD or perhaps on HD format somewhere down the line.
Article comments
1 - Bob MacKenzie
One of my favourite movies. A classic! And an excellent review.
2 - Nancy
You're absolutely right: "Evil" has all the very best lines! I still howl every time he accidently destroys one of his minions & then casually says, "oops - sorry...." The segment with Agamemnon was wonderfully done, the setting, costumes, and props were all archeologically correct; a great invocation of a vanished culture and how the 'real' minotaur legend might have come about. I also appreciated that the actors weren't played down to. Randall came across as smooth and conniving, altho not as smart has HE imagined he was, and I thoroughly enjoyed all the acting. IMO they should have won some kind of awards for such o/s performances.
3 - Jet in Columbus
And let's not skip over Beatle's George Harrison's briliant soundtrack music, especially how the end credits were realized.
KIll me mosta Kill me!