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First, I have to ticket that most of these reviews are for the somewhat disappointing Criterion Edition released in 1999. The version I’ll be reviewing is the considerable improved Divimax (high definition digital transfer) from Anchor Bay. The two DVD edition of Time Bandits from Anchor Bay has isn’t perfect but it’s a stark improvement on the previous no frills version they issued in 1999 and the Criterion Edition from the same time frame.
The high definition transfer and the fact that the film has been enhanced for 16×9 televisions are definitive improvements on the previous edition. The recount is sharper although I did mark some minor edge enhancement and digital compression issues. On the whole, though, the characterize looks pleasurable. The first disc features only the film and it doesn’t have the expansive audio commentary compilation by Gilliam, Michael Palin, David Warner, John Cleese and Craig Warnock. That’s a pity because that would have made this the ultimate edition of the film.
Now the major complaint from some folks regarding the image size. Gilliam shot Time Bandits to be shown theatrically in a 1.85:1 ratio. Time Bandits was probably shot rotund veil (like Kubrick’s films so that they wouldn’t be badly “cropped” when released) . More than likely Gilliam matted the image AFTER the film was shot. The widescreen image IS the intention Gilliam intended the film to be seen) .
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The worst looking DVD was the one establish out by the highly regarded Criterion Company. It featured interlace problems, an unstable relate (perhaps due to a flaw during the telecine transfer) and sound that sound left noteworthy to be desired. The aspect ratio (the dimension of the width and heighth of the film on cloak) is legal here and the beautifully detailed transfer is so spicy that, on occasion, you can even witness the limitations (there’s a hint of wires in some scenes) of Terry Gilliam’s optical effects.
The soundtrack has been remixed for the Dolby Digital EX track although I worthy preferred the more natural sounding 5.1 mix. Since the current source material was designed for stereo and there were some recording limitations at the time the film was made, the tinny sound is smooth a bit of a scrape. That’s not a spot that can be easily solved unfortunately. Level-headed, Anchor Bay does the best they can with the materials at hand.
The second disc contains all the extras. The feaurettes include the suited The Directors: The films of Terry Gilliam with interviews featuring Gilliam, Shelly Duvall, Brad Pitt, Amanda Plummer, Mercedes Ruehl, Madeleine Stowe and David Warner. There’s also an interview with Gilliam and Palin as well as the fresh theatrical trailers for the film. Some of these features duplicate comments heard on the commentary track for the film from Criterion.
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There’s also a Terry Gilliam bio and, most importantly, a DVD-Rom version of the modern screenplay. Both these features are no where else to be found. Anchor Bay includes a fold out Plot of the Universe which also has a background on the film production.
As one would ask of a Criterion release, the DVD of “Time Bandits” is an absolute pleasure, from the natty film transfer to the many delicious added features.
The production scrapbook is a worship, along with the commentary by Gilliam and Palin. These features truly enrich one’s appreciation for the film; not only do they lavish praise on the actors playing the “dwarves” (who, in retrospect, did nothing less than a gallant job), but also narrate many of the clever tricks that allowed them to beget such a sumptuously resplendent film for the cost of Speilberg’s monthly catering bill. Compare this film to expensive clunkers like “Tron” (which came out a year later!) to delight in the extent of Gilliam’s craft. Cleese’s description of his day’s work is howlingly amusing, and David Warner is satisfactory and wryly funny. The now-grown Craig Warnock is not particularly eloquent, however, and it’s hard to content if he’s joking about the film scarring him psychologically!
The trailer is simply abominable, after a promising launch, but it’s indicative of AVCO’s cluelessness about how to market such a recent and fresh film. They tried to pass it off as Python style comedy, marvelous for kiddies and fun for grow-ups. In fact, it’s nothing of the kind – it’s a uncertain and rigorous film that one may wish to support out of the hands of puny children.
Despite it’s vague resemblance to “The Wizard of Oz” told upside down (or inside out? ), “Time Bandits” is not a typical (original) children’s film. It has an outmoded Grimm-ness, with creatures dying harmful, sweaty deaths and even “pleasurable” characters behaving quite badly at times. In short, it is more utterly fair than any fantasy film made since Disney bowdlerized “Snow White.”
Understanding that young people like to be terrified, and taking unique delight in how “unpleasant” his band of dwarf thieves are, Gilliam places a very dependable boy (so accurate, he’s almost humdrum) in an fantastic series of situations, exposing him to dreadful ordeals with only a shifty gang of unreliable and occasionally listless companions to guide and protect him – though mostly they ignore him or egg him on to be more like them (being dwarves, he towers over them, both physically and morally) . At the very moment he feels he’s found the true state to be, they scurry him away with no regard for his wishes or feelings, and ultimately thrust him into conflict with forces neither he nor they can comprehend, let alone master.
Sounds a bit like growing up, doesn’t it?
Along the method, Gilliam tweaks various legendary Substantial and Worthy Figures (Napoleon, Agamemnon, Robin Hood – even Satan [referred to exclusively as "The Rotten Genius"]), not to mention technology and consumerism, to voice the narrow-minded, clumsy, grasping people we grown-ups really are.
The ending remains controversial, although I can remember seeing it in my unhurried teens and feeling utterly liberated by it (what teenage boy doesn’t want his parents to evaporate, at least once in a while? ) . There’s more honesty and meaning in the last five minutes than any patently fallacious “delighted ending” could hope to finish, although young children conditioned to put a question to Pocahontas to live happily ever after with John Smith (which, of course, she didn’t) may acquire it too disturbing.
“Time Bandits” is a triumphant exercise of fantasy to roar truth, of the power of the imagination to accumulate the reality hidden in uninteresting search for (the figures in the final conflict can all be found in the boy’s room in the early scenes) . It’s an unforgettable film, with images and characters that will stop with you for a lifetime, even if you aren’t an impressionable, disaffected, precocious brat (like I was when I first saw it), but especially if you are!
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