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ladymidathBecause of the length of this post and the fact there will be spoilers, I am putting this under a
I have been meaning to post this for a while now, but RL and my daughter-in-law and granddaughters visiting have not left me with much time. But here we go...
I sat down to watch Time Bandits the other week on Foxtel. I had not seen this movie in a long time, a couple of year in fact and as I watched it, I found myself falling in love with it all over again.
Time Bandits is a 1981 British fantasy film produced and directed by Terry Gilliam. The film stars Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, Ralph Richardson, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, David Warner, and Craig Warnock. George Harrison wrote and performed the closing credits song "Dream Away"
Time Bandits is part of Terry Gilliam's Dream Trilogy which consists of, Time Bandits, (childhood) Brazil, (adulthood) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, (old age)
Time Bandits is a wonderful dreamlike adventure involving a gang of irrepressible dwarfs with a battered looking map and a young boy called Kevin.
The eleven-year-old lad has a vivid imagination and is fascinated by history, particularly of Ancient Greece; his parents ignore his activities, having become more obsessed with buying the latest household gadgets to keep up with their neighbours. One night, as Kevin is sleeping, an armoured knight on a horse bursts forth from his wardrobe. Kevin is scared and hides as the knight rides off into a forest setting where once his bedroom wall was; when Kevin looks back out, the room is back to normal, and he finds one of his photos on the wall similar to the forest he saw. He prepares a satchel with supplies and Polaroid camera for the next night. He is surprised when six dwarfs spill out of the wardrobe. Kevin quickly learns the group has stolen a large, worn map, and are looking for an exit in Kevin's room before they are discovered. They find that Kevin's bedroom wall can be pushed revealing a long hallway. Kevin is hesitant to join until the visage of a menacing head – the Supreme Being – appears behind them, demanding the return of the map. Kevin and the dwarfs fall into an empty void at the end of the hallway.
That's where the adventure begins. Time Bandits is a film that manages to capture the excitement and imagination of childhood. Kevin's adventures through time with the six wannabe bandits is beautifully captured. Their encounters with Napoleon, Agamemnon and Robin Hood are funny and in many ways, somewhat thought provoking, especially Kevin's time spent with Agamemnon. After the dwarfs rescue Kevin against his will, they arrive on the ill-fated RMS Titanic; after it sinks, they are forced to tread water while they argue amongst each other. Unknown to them Evil, an evil sorcerer, played beautifully by David Warner, has been watching them. He manipulates the group and transports them to his lair.
To say that this film is about good vs evil is too simplistic. Time Bandits is a multi layered film that needs to be watched a couple of times to be able to appreciate all the subtle nuances.
The film was made in 1981 and still holds up today. All the actors were excellent but I have to say that watching David Warner, one of my favourite actors as Evil was so much fun.
The Vincent and Pansy scenes were very funny as well. All up, Time Bandits is one of Terry Gilliam's
best films. Brazil which is the second in the Dream Trilogy was excellent as well, but much grimmer and grounded in a bleak reality of a dystopian future.
Now to the next part After watching Time Bandits, it got me thinking about other older films that don't seem to get much of an airing anymore. (Well in Australia at least.)
I am fortunate enough to have many older movie, some colour and some in black and white. Well known ones such as Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, a southern gothic thriller starring Bette Davis to the more obscure like Spider Baby starring Lon Chaney Jr.
It is a shame that here in Australia it is so hard to get the older films like Fool Killer with Anthony Perkins and Mama's Gone A'Hunting. I find that many of the older movies were excellent and the fact that the directors and writer often ran up against a stiff censorship code really bring it home how difficult making a truly frightening film could be. The Hays Code made it particularly difficult and filmmakers had to navigate their way around it.
This led to some very clever filmmaking and some of the best horror films ever made. They were frightening, not because of what you saw, bit because of what you didn't see.
Even though many of the movies I am about to list were made after the Hays Code ended, they were still subjected to censorship, depending on the country where the film was to be shown.
The Black Cat: 1934 horror film by Edgar G. Ulmer
Freaks: 1932 a horror film by Tod Browning
The Night Of The Hunter: 1955 thriller film by Charles Laughton
Tarantula:1955 science fiction film by Jack Arnold
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte:1964 thriller film by Robert Aldrich
Spider Baby: 1968 black comedy horror film by Jack Hill.
The Fool Killer: 1965 a thriller by Servando González
I did not mention Dracula, Frankenstein or The Wolfman as I plan to do deeper reviews on them.
There are many more films worth mentioning and I promise I will explore them in another post. If there are any horror, sci-fi, fantasy or any other movie or book that you love, let me know. I would love to hear about your favourite book or film or anything at all. :-)
Also posted to my LJ
I have been meaning to post this for a while now, but RL and my daughter-in-law and granddaughters visiting have not left me with much time. But here we go...
I sat down to watch Time Bandits the other week on Foxtel. I had not seen this movie in a long time, a couple of year in fact and as I watched it, I found myself falling in love with it all over again.
Time Bandits is a 1981 British fantasy film produced and directed by Terry Gilliam. The film stars Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, Ralph Richardson, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, David Warner, and Craig Warnock. George Harrison wrote and performed the closing credits song "Dream Away"
Time Bandits is part of Terry Gilliam's Dream Trilogy which consists of, Time Bandits, (childhood) Brazil, (adulthood) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, (old age)
Time Bandits is a wonderful dreamlike adventure involving a gang of irrepressible dwarfs with a battered looking map and a young boy called Kevin.
The eleven-year-old lad has a vivid imagination and is fascinated by history, particularly of Ancient Greece; his parents ignore his activities, having become more obsessed with buying the latest household gadgets to keep up with their neighbours. One night, as Kevin is sleeping, an armoured knight on a horse bursts forth from his wardrobe. Kevin is scared and hides as the knight rides off into a forest setting where once his bedroom wall was; when Kevin looks back out, the room is back to normal, and he finds one of his photos on the wall similar to the forest he saw. He prepares a satchel with supplies and Polaroid camera for the next night. He is surprised when six dwarfs spill out of the wardrobe. Kevin quickly learns the group has stolen a large, worn map, and are looking for an exit in Kevin's room before they are discovered. They find that Kevin's bedroom wall can be pushed revealing a long hallway. Kevin is hesitant to join until the visage of a menacing head – the Supreme Being – appears behind them, demanding the return of the map. Kevin and the dwarfs fall into an empty void at the end of the hallway.
That's where the adventure begins. Time Bandits is a film that manages to capture the excitement and imagination of childhood. Kevin's adventures through time with the six wannabe bandits is beautifully captured. Their encounters with Napoleon, Agamemnon and Robin Hood are funny and in many ways, somewhat thought provoking, especially Kevin's time spent with Agamemnon. After the dwarfs rescue Kevin against his will, they arrive on the ill-fated RMS Titanic; after it sinks, they are forced to tread water while they argue amongst each other. Unknown to them Evil, an evil sorcerer, played beautifully by David Warner, has been watching them. He manipulates the group and transports them to his lair.
To say that this film is about good vs evil is too simplistic. Time Bandits is a multi layered film that needs to be watched a couple of times to be able to appreciate all the subtle nuances.
The film was made in 1981 and still holds up today. All the actors were excellent but I have to say that watching David Warner, one of my favourite actors as Evil was so much fun.
The Vincent and Pansy scenes were very funny as well. All up, Time Bandits is one of Terry Gilliam's
best films. Brazil which is the second in the Dream Trilogy was excellent as well, but much grimmer and grounded in a bleak reality of a dystopian future.
Now to the next part After watching Time Bandits, it got me thinking about other older films that don't seem to get much of an airing anymore. (Well in Australia at least.)
I am fortunate enough to have many older movie, some colour and some in black and white. Well known ones such as Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, a southern gothic thriller starring Bette Davis to the more obscure like Spider Baby starring Lon Chaney Jr.
It is a shame that here in Australia it is so hard to get the older films like Fool Killer with Anthony Perkins and Mama's Gone A'Hunting. I find that many of the older movies were excellent and the fact that the directors and writer often ran up against a stiff censorship code really bring it home how difficult making a truly frightening film could be. The Hays Code made it particularly difficult and filmmakers had to navigate their way around it.
This led to some very clever filmmaking and some of the best horror films ever made. They were frightening, not because of what you saw, bit because of what you didn't see.
Even though many of the movies I am about to list were made after the Hays Code ended, they were still subjected to censorship, depending on the country where the film was to be shown.
The Black Cat: 1934 horror film by Edgar G. Ulmer
Freaks: 1932 a horror film by Tod Browning
The Night Of The Hunter: 1955 thriller film by Charles Laughton
Tarantula:1955 science fiction film by Jack Arnold
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte:1964 thriller film by Robert Aldrich
Spider Baby: 1968 black comedy horror film by Jack Hill.
The Fool Killer: 1965 a thriller by Servando González
I did not mention Dracula, Frankenstein or The Wolfman as I plan to do deeper reviews on them.
There are many more films worth mentioning and I promise I will explore them in another post. If there are any horror, sci-fi, fantasy or any other movie or book that you love, let me know. I would love to hear about your favourite book or film or anything at all. :-)
Also posted to my LJ
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