Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 15-February-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Time Bandits (1981)

In movies like "Brazil" and "The Fisher King," Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam indulges in too much grotesquery for my taste; his story (and his message, if there is one) gets swallowed up by all the madness. But in "Time Bandits" his flights of fancy make sense, because they're firmly rooted in familiar places and characters that already exist in the realm of fairy tale and legend. The film is less mind trip than trip down memory lane, less nightmare than bedtime story; consequently, it's an adventure I have enjoyed revisiting for over twenty years.

"Time Bandits" tells the tale of young Kevin (Craig Warnock, who looks astonishingly like David Letterman), a dreamy British lad whose dull parents spend their lives watching game shows and discussing the latest appliances. One night, Kevin discovers that the wardrobe in his bedroom contains some kind of portal to other worlds, and after determining to investigate its mystery, he ends up being swept back in time with a group of dwarves fleeing a terrifying apparition. During their stay with Napoleon in the late 18th century, Kevin learns that the dwarves are time-hopping thieves; later, when they have jumped into the middle ages, he finds out that they have stolen a map from their former employer, the Supreme Being, who wants it back. Kevin feels rather uncomfortable with this situation until he travels alone to ancient Greece, where he meets one of his favorite heroes, Agamemnon (Sean Connery, never more gorgeous), and decides to settle there permanently.

But as in most fairy tales, the kid doesn't get off so easily. Not only is Kevin tracked down by the dwarves, whose leader (David Rappaport) wants to keep him as a partner, but they are all pursued by Evil (David Warner), who wants to get his hands on the map. Consequently, the gang's brief stopover on the Titanic leads to the Time of Legends and the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, where they must rely on ingenuity, bravery, and loyalty (not to mention a little help from the Supreme Being) to save the world from Evil's evil plan.

As myriad books and movies will attest, there's something undeniably cool about the notion of traveling through time; and as any 1-900 spiritualist will attest, it's even cooler when you're involved with somebody famous. "Time Bandits" has this going for it, but also a great mixture of the serious and the silly. John Cleese and Michael Palin (who penned the script with Gilliam) drop in for broad comedic cameos, and the scenes with Napoleon, an ogre, and Evil consist mostly of farce. (Of course, dwarves running around smacking each other, dancing, eating rats, etc. are naturally funny as well.) But behind the laughs lurks a biting sort of melancholy, which is a hallmark of truly good fantasy tales. It's sad that Kevin must leave his proper home to find things worth fighting for, and a tad bit eerie that Evil wants to rebuild the world using the type of technology that has turned Kevin's parents into zombies. (This movie came out just before computers did, in fact, take over the world.) The age of fairy tales and heroes has past, "Time Bandits" seems to say, so that while Kevin's adventure ends happily (I think), from here on out it may not continue happily, ever after.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.