Movie of the Week: Time Bandits

 "You see, to be quite frank, Kevin, the fabric of the universe is far from perfect. It was a bit of botched job, you see. We only had seven days to make it. And that's where this comes in. This is the only map of all the holes. Well, why repair them? Why not use them to get stinking rich?"- Randall

In Terry Gilliam’s fantastic voyage through time and space, a young boy named Kevin (Craig Warnock) escapes his gadget-obsessed parents to join a band of time-traveling dwarves. Armed with a map stolen from the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson), they plunder treasure from Napoleon (Ian Holm) and Agamemnon (Sean Connery)—but the Evil Genius (David Warner) is watching their every move! Featuring a darkly playful script by Gilliam and costar Michael Palin, Time Bandits is all at once giddy fairy tale, revisionist history lesson, and satire on technology gone awry.

View the trailer here.

Fun Trivia:
This film uses cages identical to the cage Jill is imprisoned in, in the film Brazil (1985).

In the original script, King Agamemnon was introduced as: "The warrior took off his helmet revealing someone that looks exactly like Sean Connery." To Gilliam's surprise the script ended up in Connery's hands, who was interested in the part and his agent approached them for the role.

 
The footage of the Titanic sinking is footage from A Night to Remember (1958) colorized and slowed down.

Mrs. Ogre was originally supposed to have heavy make-up to look like her husband. According to Katherine Helmond, she was completely committed to having to wear the heavy make-up effects job, yet she suggested to Terry Gilliam that she thought it would be funnier if Mrs. Ogre instead looked like an ordinary New England housewife. Gilliam agreed.

The suit worn by Ralph Richardson is his own.

Evil's headpiece is an intentional homage to Giger's Alien face hugger.

In one scene, Evil turns himself into a pincushion to avoid the pain of arrows. For this scene, Gilliam inserted a huge thimble and a cotton reel into the shot. "Unfortunately, not many people seem to notice that. I suppose it's because I edited it as a quick wide shot. Some people think that instead of a pincushion, Evil has turned into a giant tomato!"

Fun Quotes:
Supreme Being: Dead? No excuse for laying off work.

Evil: If I were creating the world I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, Day One!

Evil: God isn't interested in technology. He cares nothing for the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how he spends his time, forty-three species of parrots! Nipples for men! Robert: Slugs.
Evil: Slugs! HE created slugs! They can't hear. They can't speak. They can't operate machinery. Are we not in the hands of a lunatic?

Vincent: Oh no. The problem. The problem, Pansy, it's started again! Oh! Oh! I must have fruit!

 Robin Hood: The poor are going to be absolutely thrilled. Have you met them at all?
Randall: Who?
Robin Hood: The poor.
Randall: The poor?
Robin Hood: Oh, you must meet them. I just know you'll like them. Charming people. Of course, they haven't got two pennies to rub together, but then, that's because they're poor.

Kevin: Why does there have to be evil?
Supreme Being : I think it has something to do with free will.

Kevin: Mom! Dad! It's evil! Don't touch it!

My Time Bandits Wallpaper:



Great movie! Classic movie. Four outta four, you must check it out.

Becca