Time Bandits 1981
B+
I had definitely seen Time Bandits at some point, but it had been a while. Criterion put out a blu-ray of the movie in 2014 and I wound up picking it up during a sale. I had watched The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, made by Terry Gilliam seven years after this one, for the first time fairly recently and was not overly impressed. This is definitely the better movie, with a better narrative and a good central group of characters played by the titular bandits and a kid they pick up along the way. The effects are still a little bit low budget, but are well done generally. Again there isn't a ton of outright comedy, just cute and clever scenes. The focus is more on the adventure and imaginative setups, which is as it should be, but some good, silly comedy would be welcome given the Monty Python pedigree. A couple of things at the end were a little disappointing, which I will put in a spoiler, though it is such an old movie that it shouldn't matter.
I was disappointed with the extras included on the Criterion disc. There is a long interview with Terry Gilliam from a film festival panel which I got about halfway through, plus a nice piece about the set designers, and then a brief interview with Shelley Duvall by Tom Snyder at the time of the movie's premeier which isn't that good. There is also a commentary track. There isn't even really a booklet. They have a folded up mockup of the map (with no details) from the movie with a short essay printed on the back.
spoilers
The Supreme Being, who shows up at the end is a good character, but Ralph Richardson, a legendary British actor at the end of his career, doesn't do a great job with the part. Also the bandits accidentally leave a piece of evil behind, which seems it could be a complete disaster. And it is, but on a very personal level as the only impact seems to be that it kills the kid's parents. It was a good idea to leave evil behind on Earth, but it might have been better for the audience to just know it is out there somewhere waiting for its chance rather than showing an immediate impact.
Written: 05 Jul 2023
Owned on: Blu-ray