Time Bandits
Directed by Terry Gilliam
- family
- fantasy
- science fiction
- adventure
- comedy
The story
Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.
What it’s like
Chaotic, storybook-bright and gleefully scruffy, Time Bandits lives in saturated primary colours, cluttered sets and the wobble of practical sets that look built rather than found: a bedroom closet that opens onto a void, a Napoleonic battlefield full of tin soldiers and dust, a Titanic-sized liner tilting into the frame. Terry Gilliam's camera pushes in and cranes around crowded, deliberately awkward compositions, with hard, flat daylight in some scenes and murky, candlelit gloom in others, and the grain and seams of 1981 effects work give it a handmade, tactile feel. Its sound is brass-and-percussion whimsy with dry Python-style jokes, a warm mock-heroic comedy pulse rather than anything tense. Pacing is brisk and episodic, hopping from one set piece to the next, and the register is cheerfully irreverent with a sweet, sincere streak underneath: a lonely, imaginative boy finding a kind of family among misfits. Violence is cartoonish and mostly slapstick, with a few brief, sudden frights and one bleak, sour turn near the end, so it reads as mild rather than frightening. It suits a sleepy Saturday, a comfort rewatch with family, or anyone who likes their fantasy messy, bold and a little bit silly, and who wants history turned into a playground.
More films like Time Bandits
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved Time Bandits and we’ll explain which ones fit you.
