DVD Reviews

Time Bandits – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Aug 31, 2010, 13:29 GMT

Young Kevin\'s daydreams burst into astonishing and hilarious life when a band of time-traveling little men come crashing through his bedroom wardrobe and carry him off on an unbelievable crime spree, weaving through the greatest and strangest moments of history. The pint-sized plunderers filch from a neurotic Napoleon (Ian Holm), a dim-witted Robin Hood (John Cleese) and a heroic King Agamemnon (Sean Connery), leading to a showdown with the dark ...more

Terry Gilliam’s success may be built upon the backs of some short people.  The adventures of some time traveling dwarves was his first successful feature, but its high definition debut is not without its troubles.  

Kevin (Craig Warnock) is an 11-year-old boy whose parents (David Daker and Sheila Fearn) are more concerned with the latest kitchen gadget than the lad. 

He’s into the usual boy things, Greek mythology, etc., but gets an odd visitation one night when a knight on horseback bursts through his closet.  It’s gone as quick as it happens. The next night, Kevin is prepared for another intrusion but this one is even odder than the first.

A group of dwarves, Randall (David Rappaport), Fidgit (Kenny Baker), Strutter (Malcolm Dixon), Og (Mike Edmonds), Wally (Jack Purvis), and Vermin (Tiny Ross), emerge from the closet.  Kevin’s flashlight is mistaken for their pursuer so they’re subdued, it’s not until they realize that it’s a little boy that they overpower him. 

It turns out that the little people work for the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson) making trees and shrubbery and they’ve stolen his map to the holes in the universe.  Such time traveling holes exist because the creation was a seven day patch job.  The gang has tired of their menial jobs and has decided to use the holes, one of which comes out in Kevin’s closet, to enrich themselves. 

Though the Supreme Being is soon in pursuit of them and Kevin is dragged along for the ride.  Along the way they’ll encounter Napoleon (Ian Holm), Robin Hood (John Cleese), King Agamemnon (Sean Connery), an Ogre (Peter Vaughn) and his wife (Katherine Helmond), and eventually the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness that houses Evil (David Warner) himself.  

Time Bandits was the first successful feature for director Terry Gilliam since his Monty Python days.  He attempted it with Jabberwocky (1977) but that failed to gel into a success.  It did star fellow Python alum Michael Palin and the two would go on to write Time Bandits (as well as Palin and Shelley Duvall popping up in cameo bits) in 1981. 

It would be Gilliam’s first international success since it was made for 5 million and made 40 million.  The critical and box office successes of films thereafter would raise Gilliam from supporting Python player to world renowned director.  It would all start with six dwarves, speculated to correspond with the Pythons themselves.

It’s a fun film and certainly has Gilliam’s twisted touch.  Only Gilliam would think to cast little people in the showy roles of God’s shrubbery makers on the run.  He also populates the mad landscape with some grad star turns (Connery, Holm, Warner) and old pals (Cleese, Palin).  Wonderful stuff is the film, but the controversy may arise from the Blu-ray. 

It has long been wished for and has had several DVD releases.  The first from Criterion that featured a star-studded commentary track, but it was also non-anamorphic.  Anchor Bay released an anamorphic version, added some more special features, but didn’t purchase the commentary from Criterion. 

Handmade Films, George Harrison’s production company and the studio behind Time Bandits, has since moved over to Image Entertainment and they’re the ones releasing it onto Blu-ray.  However, they also appear to be using whatever old masters are lying about. 

So we get a 1080i (interlaced) version instead of a 1080p (progressive scan) version.  It also looks like the print could using some cleaning and restoration (there is a nasty splice in there), but it seems that Image is out for the cash grab of a release instead of spending it on restoring the films they’ve just gotten. 

Too bad as Gilliam and company might’ve contributed some more special features and they could’ve turned this release into an “event” instead of something to complain about. 

That bitchin’ aside, the film does look pretty good and has moments of clarity and definition, but we image that a proper restoration could make it look even better.  Maybe one day.

Time Bandits is presented in a 1080i high definition transfer (1.85:1).  Special features include an 18 minute interview with Gilliam and the 3 minute theatrical trailer, both in standard definition.  

It’s great to have Time Bandits on Blu-ray, but it seems a half-hearted effort.  Much better is deserved for such a great little film.  If only we had the map to go and rob Napoleon we might have given the loot to Image to properly restore the film. 

Until the day that the Supreme Being commissions that restoration, we do get the film looking better than it did on DVD and some middling extras. 

Please note: the final rating is more based on the Blu-ray than on the film.  Buy accordingly though, as the disc and be found rather cheaply online.  

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