Terry Gilliam was to have the spectre of his old team, Monty Python, follow him around right up to the film where he jettisoned it (Brazil). Not only did he hop back into the chair for Meaning of Life a few years later, he had few problems presenting the kind of high adventure he liked within the absurdist mood of the Pythons. The thing about Time Bandits that gets me is how hard he is working to tear himself free: there are plenty of loopy scenes like John Cleese as a kind of Tory candidate version of Robin Hood or the timid lovers whose personal problem follows them through centuries of recurrent moments but the overall arc of the boy and the bandits is stronger and clearer than even the most articulate Python outing (Life of Brian)
So, decades after watching a knock-off VHS with muddy audio, will I like it as much? Will that strange ending feel better earned that it did the first time? Will Ian Holm as Napoleon be as funny as I remember him? All to be seen in a film meant to be seen.
Come with me.
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