TIME BANDITS' misunderstood ending - The Empowered Child
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2024
- Exploding parents aren't the typical ending for a kids' movie, but Time Bandits isn't your typical movie. This film analysis explores a positive symbolic interpretation of the ending which fits with with the larger structure and themes of the movie. Written, edited & narrated by Rob Ager. For more film analysis ...
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The one thing I will say, is the Ogre and his wife oddly seem like the only couple with any genuine affection for each other.
Glad someone pointed that out.
They lived alone in isolation. They were free to be who they were and accepted one another for who they were, without having to conform to the influence of society and the outside world. The other couples' downfalls were their superficial pursuits of materialism and their lives were ruled by what was acceptable to society instead of being true to themselves and each other. The king was on the right path but, was dragged down by his wifes' lust for material wealth and power.
@@wirelesmike73 king aganemnon was harassed by the queen because she hated him with all her heat because he sacrificed their daughter to the gods, in order to get wind so they could sail to Troy to fight.
Had nothing to do with her materialism.
Agenamnon, was a Dick
Watch Troy, that’s the real Aganemon.
They did! Their interaction and chemistry reminded me completely of my grandparents.
Great point! What a good catch! Good ol' Peter Vaughn!
I'm surprised that Rob missed that the parents kept their furniture wrapped in plastic, and when they eventually met Evil in the palace, his henchman and own furniture and book shelves are covered in plastic. A very definitive connection.
ohhhh, good observation. I always noticed it, but didn't make the connection.
Geez. This is my fav flick of all time, watched 200 times and never consciously noticed that.
Maybe they're all are his parents. Just as the fireman is a reincarnation of the past king, maybe his parents aren't destroyed at all, maybe they are continuously reincarnated, twisted into forms where their inner evil can be seen outwardly. Perhaps that's why the God character seemed so callous about death, because he knows that nothing ever dies, it just winds up reamalgamated. Good reincarnates into itself while evil reincarnates into lesser and lesser beings. The king eventually becomes a fireman. No matter the incarnation, he's always a savior. The parents, no matter the incarnation, are always hideously evil.
@OnideusMadHatter - Oh, I like this interpretation! Nice one! 👍
@@OnideusMadHatter That's what I always thought. All those couples throughout the movie were a representation of his parents. It's been awhile since I've watched this movie, but I remember a part when his father told him to go to bed, on the wall, he made all those pictures of what will happen in the movie or characters he will meet. I have to rewatch this to confirm this.
I watched this film as a child and remembering how lucky I was having my parents and how lucky the protagonist was that his parents blew up.
I love that the parents do not even hesitate to touch evil - it’s their first instinct.
Yes , and the irony is they DISOBEYED their son's urgent warning , whereas the dad was always after Kevin for seemingly not following his orders. . . . out of the mouths of babes
They weren’t necessarily even inclined to touch it until Kevin shouted not to. They’re both dopes.
It's another touch of irony. The kid has sense, while the parents do not. It's a phenomenal metaphor. Children CAN have wisdom. They make more observations without presuppositions or prejudices, whereas parents are colorized so much by their years of living. The really clever thing is... it plants a seed. Gilliam wants to send a message to bad, or ignorant parents. He sure does!
Mum...Dad, don’t touch it, it’s EVIL...BOOM! Never forget seeing that as a 6 year old back in the early 80s. 😱
It brings to mind a scene from Mom and Dad Save the World as a patrol of Emperor Todd Spengo's soldiers stumbled across a weapon. "All right, no one touch the light grenade." "What light grenade?" The officer picks it up... "THIS light grenade..." *ZAP* "What happened?" "He picked this up..." *ZAP*
No shit! I was 14 and this movie was, as we say in the Army, a significant emotional event!
yup absolutely
Parents should care more about their kids OVER merchandise this is what happens you're dead at the end.
"If you'd been half a man you'd have gone in after the blender!"
I remember Kevin going through his photos, and his parents exploding thinking that with the photo of the map he is free to roam through space/time. But I’m still glad there were no sequels, no rebooting the movie remains pure, and timeless
Allegedly "Brazil" is the sequel.
I always figured that the photo of the map was supposed be his key to escaping through time, too.
@@blackbarnz Brazil is the second part of the trilogy that ends with Baron Munchausen, but there was supposed to be a Time Bandits sequel. It didn't happen because one midget died, and another was paralyzed.
@@bibsma3401 The movies are about imagination and learning to break free from society's methods of life Time Bandits is a child Brazil a adult and Baron Munchausen a old senior.
Shut up, don't give the cultural Marxists ideas!
When you think about it, if after all Kevin passed thru, he returned to live with his parents, that would have been the real "bad" ending.
Yep
I always thought of the ending as he was still dreaming
My parents were like Kevin's. But still, they were the only parents I knew and I would've been absolutely devastated if I lost them at that age or any age.
@@robzilla730 Mine were the same. All things considered, they weren't as terrible as some.
@@robzilla730 That´s why psychologically it´s so important that the Connery father figure reappears at this point, it easily distracts from and already kind of heals the horror the loss of even the worst parents triggers deep inside.
I think the way that Gilliam addresses Evil in his "children's" movie Time Bandits is pretty consistent with his "grown up" movie Brazil. Evil is unquenchably cruel, and can be resisted with bravery and intelligence, but it can't every be destroyed or escaped from, no matter how good your imagination is.
2 years later this is the comment man. God bless you sir from the past 🙏
Both movies show me that sometimes normal life isn't what the media and our education system wants you to believe.
I fucking LOVE this movie! As far as the ending goes, as a child and now, I just figured Kevin would go live with Sean Connery.
That's what my parents told me to soothe my anxiety. :-)
I loved the ending! What looked like a classic 'it was all a dream' cop-out suddenly became VERY real. : )
@@sullyb23511 Man, that part where Kevin and the Bandits are imprisoned, chained in cages over that endless, black pit freaked me the hell out...
With a copy of the map, Kevin could go anywhere he wanted, any time he wanted (literally). There's no reason he couldn't go back to Agamemnon.
@@sullyb23511 that exactly what mine did!
As someone raised by neglectful parents I always saw the ending as a happy ending. Kevin's options were few while his parents were around. Without them, all roads are open.
I had a similar reation to it as a child, on one hand he was alone and vulnerable but on the other he was free.
You didn't deserve that upbringing
@@bluetoad2668 how condescending of you. great job
Bingo. it's a little scary but still, such is life. It's mostly good.
@@erikred8217 I didn't deserve that reply either
A formative Gen-X film, complete with neglectful parents.
Based
ha yes
Agreed
The Key Latch Kids.
He mentioned Watership Down as having a rough ending as well. No wonder we turned out like this!
The thing that always got me about this movie, among so many others, was the giant wearing the ship for a hat in the age of legends. There's something just so familiar about it, it feels like a memory of a tale told or myth or legend, but I've never found any references for it.
It's quite iconic, as are many other scenes in this movie, such as the parents blowing up because they touched concentrated evil.
I always wanted a copy of the map.
Gulliver's Travels!
Polyphemus? Patagonian giants? Terry Gilliam in the commentary, mentions the movie “The Thief of Bagdad”, a 1940 movie. Maybe he just got the inspiration from that movie?
Time Bandits was a fantastic flick with a number of actors who are sadly no longer with us.
Ian Holm, David Warner, Sean Connery, David Rappaport, Ralph Richardson, Katherine Helmond, Kenny Baker, Tiny Ross, and Jack Purvis.
Everyone dies, let go of your fear.
@@DixiePokerAceDon't forget Shelley Duvall also 😅
Tbh when l was a child and first saw this, the ending for me was actually happy, due to the fact that the parents were total arseholes. Better alone than raised by them.
I always loved that he had his pictures still. That meant it was real AND he could keep exploring time holes
I never saw it as a bad ending. Kevin's "parents" were selfish jerks, and he was clearly better off without them. Even he knew better than to mess with "evil", and they didn't. The fact that Sean Connery's character was there at the end made it all the more positive and uplifting.
Huh? What kid is better off without parents even if they are selfish? As long as they’re not abusing him…
Yeah, when I first saw it, I felt that way, right up until he just winked and drove off... He was there at the end, giving me hope he'd take him in or at least give him a final piece of good advice or some kind of help to fix things and let him live happily ever after... Especially because as Agamemnon he was a definite strong father figure and positive role model, but then as the fireman at the end, he was like 'Okay, your parents are dead, your home is destroyed, and you're standing there homeless and alone on the street... Welp, guess my job here's done... see ya!"
I wonder if Kevin had any relatives outside the parents sometimes most relatives Uncles, Aunts and grandparents,take care of you as well.
@@Thespeedrap One would hope so, I remember wondering that myself when I first saw this movie. Like, surely he must have? I always preferred to think the firefighter adopted him, since the king wanted to.
Great analysis. I always thought of his three dreamlike films as a trilogy: TB, Brazil, and Baron Munchausen.
TB - the dreams of a child, travelling through time looking for better role models
Brazil - the dreams of middle-age, freedom from work and bureaucracy
BM - the dreams of an old man, they don’t make things like they used to
Good point I like all 3 movies and I would put 12 Monkeys and Fisher King as well.
@Daniel Cooper that's actually what Terry Gilliam has stated. He calls it his "Trilogy of Imagination"
I think all three films were set up simply to introduce the world to Uma Thurman.
@@richardm3023 How so? and where do you come up with that conclusion.
Fascinating interpretation.
I was lucky to see this movie as a teenager when it came out in theaters forty years ago. I always believed the fireman was, a time traveling King Agamemnon. Not to get all religious, but Kevin did actually meet the supreme being, who while acting like a typical pompous and uncaring English bureaucrat, actually rewarded Kevin with a way back to ancient Greece, via the Polaroid photo of the map that Kevin still had in his robe pocket. The fireman's wink lets Kevin know that he can go back anytime he wants and spend his life with the father figure he deserved.
I got the idea that over the course of the film, through his adventures, Kevin gains an absurd understanding of good & evil. The exploding parents indicate that he can no longer 'go home'
It's a rather oddball ending. Defeat Ultimate Evil, debate God, and in the end... your parents explode and your house burns down. But somehow it fits. Kevin doesn't want to go home. He wants adventure. And he's still got a photo of the map. The mind boggles at the possibilities.
Seen this movie hundreds of times, never thought it was an unhappy ending ever.
Don Bluth, famed animator of classics like American Tail and Land Before Time, once said you can put anything in a kids film as long as there is a happy ending, and this philosophy is how he was able to get away with some darker concepts, images and ideas in his filmography.
I remember finding The Secret of Nimh scary as a toddler. I think I also came down with fever and hot ears at the time which made the experience more intense.
He did the dying parent scene before Lion King. His movies inspired me. Love Don Bluth!
@@Picassoturtlenumba5 and Bambi did it way earlier.
@@poppers7317 oh yeah that’s right....come to think of it Don Bluth worked at Disney. Still he did a good one. Not as iconic as Bambi though, you got me there.
The Land Before Time.. jeeeze that takes me back..
One of the most eye opening moments of my life was when I was living away from home for the first time. I left the United States and ventured to Germany. Well, on the last few days I was to be there, my friend said, "Okay, it's your last few days here. What do YOU want to do?" I realized no one ever actually asked me that before. That's because every time I expressed an interest in doing something, I was given a million reasons why not that mostly centered around my mother fearing that my interests would interfer with her own interests. Every time I expressed a lack of interest in something, I was reamed as being a "quitter." Even my trip to Germany was a bit of a conformist decision, though it turned out to be anything but with that one single question, "What do you want to do..."
Kevin was doomed to a life where he would be forced to compromise his own wants and needs so much, that he would eventually compromise them out of existence. And his parents would probably be more than happy if he did. Today, I basically ignore advise my parents give. "Don't hike alone." Nope, I hike alone all the time. Just text my sister in law, tell her what I'm doing and when I'll be back. If I didn't hike alone, when would I go? Never! Oh, you want to come join the martial arts school with me? Sorry. It's MY thing.
What did you choose to do on your last few days in Germany?
This movie shaped me as a child. That ending is frozen in my brain
Additionally, the plastic-coated furniture is "child-proof", protecting it from the messy child, further showing their greater interest in their things than the child.
I have to disagree with your assessment of the Ogre and his Wife in the Time of Legends. They are the only working/functional male-female couple in the entire film. They show genuine affection for each other in word and deed. Their scene opens up with loving words one to the other, she's making him a medicinal drink and she's curing him of his aches and illnesses. They clearly love each other. Sure, they are "monstrous" and have feet hanging from hooks in the kitchen (they are ogres, and I would assume that would be delicious as an ogre) and live in a dusty/dirty old ship, but they are in the Time of Legends, a place the dwarves and kid enter by falling UP into the water, a sort of backwards/upside-down entry into a world where things might be the opposite of what they seem (he complains about all the prawns and the lack of cans in his catch, for ex). So what we have in these two, "monstrous" as they are, are the exact opposite of the kid's biological parents...monstrous instead of clean and nice looking, they live in a dusty old ship instead of a sparkling clean house, but as well they love each other truly instead of not even really being able to stand each other. Even when he's wrong about something (Eh, you mean eat their boots?) she gently corrects him (No, dear, I mean eat all of them) and they work as a team as they have for what seems a very long time.
So, I side with the Ogre and his Wife. As a kid, I was instinctively drawn to them and the love and care they showed towards each other. It was genuine. Didn't matter how monstrous they were; they loved each other and it showed.
Those are excellent points. Thank you :)
@@collativelearning Thank you for your stimulating videos!
I always saw it as a warning that outward appearances are used to hide the true character. Like Kevin's parents being neglectful social-climbers hiding behind a middle class veneer of respectability.
I do appreciate that. The portrayal of loving couples is sorely lacking in our society and it leaves people to figure things out on their own.
I'd rather have a couple of loving Ogres than the examples of what marriage is that I've seen in my family.
Thankfully, after years of suffering, I found someone who truly loves me, and whom I can love with all my heart.
to me, the ending was a reversal . when you tell a child; "Don't touch it." what do you think the child would do?
OMGosh, yes. I was a school librarian, with Apple IIe's and 5" floppy disks, and every time I did a lesson with Kindergartners about not touching the disk some kid would. No matter how I reframed that little lesson, every time.
Yes! I forgot that aspect in my general comment! Evil involves a spirit of rebellion, and children are prone to it without divine influence. Those parents had none.
From the book 'Very Naughty Boys: The Amazing True Story of Handmade Films"
"When Denis O'Brien began interfering during editing "You can't blow up parents at the end of a children's film!" Gilliam said "The audience is kids and every kid has this fantasy about getting rid of their parents." After a test screening for kids one kid was asked what his favourite part was ... "The parents been blown up!" He whooped with delight..."
Also it was Sean Connery's idea to return in the end of the film as the fireman! RIP! 🙌
🤣🤣🤣
Its an absolutely fascinating book about the movie industry back then. 😮🙌
Curious findings, thanks!
Got the book on my shopping list, thanks, dude! Time Bandits was incredibly well made, and they did some very smart special effects tricks, my fav being of set designers creating and positioning the hanging prison cages of different sizes and texture quality along the same line to create the illusion of a much larger diagonal visual space.
@@jocaerbannog9052 you wont be disappointed! 🙌🤣 yes i think this was a Terry Gilliam masterpiece and could have been way bigger at the time 😮🙌
Excellent
considering the kid warned his parents not to touch the rock and had a confused / alarmed look on his face while calling out for his parents, I don't think that explanation holds
Gilliam and Michael Palin did a script called THE MINOTAUR but sadly studios were too dumb to realise it would have been one of the most incredible films of all time.
I was horrified to the core when I saw the ending in the cinema. But that made the film original and solidified it in my imagination. Plus, the world of the film tells us that adults are not to be trusted (except for the paternal/masculine Agamemnon/fireman).
I remember watching with my family when I was a kid. My mom was horrified. My dad... no idea... I don't think I ever knew what my dad was thinking. I was happy to see the parents explode. I think I was hoping for a sequel where Sean Connery and Kevin went adventuring.
Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter in order to get the winds to sail toward Troy. This really pushed Clytemnestra's buttons and so, she plotted with her lover to kill Agamemnon. I've never seen Agamemnon as an actually good guy in any of the poems and plays that he was in.
Oh yeah, same with the issue of him fighting the Minitour, it was Theseus who fought him (at least that's the historical Thesis). Seems Gilliam, Palin and others really took liberties with the original mythology.
Wow, wasn't aware of that one!
Let’s be fair: he agreed to sacrifice the first living thing he saw upon his return.... which just happened to be his loving daughter. Greek myths are full of this kind of stuff, beware the Pythia!
@@kelvincasing5265 _"An oath or a pledge, and ruin is near."_ -Chilon
Agamemnon is an arrogant, a-hole in all the plays and poems. Fittingly he is told that he will return from Troy, unlike the other kings, and be killed. The Ancient Greeks in myths didn't like being married, which was a political and economic need to gain prestige and support from the other powerful families. It was the men who demanded girls as sex slaves, raped and killed in either order the conquered women, and constantly womanizing or tricking women into humiliating situations in order to aggrandized themselves. They don't like women or the institution of marriage, yet they sell their daughters as brides and veiled their women. Sacrifying teen girls in order to gain the favor of the gods, that's small potatoes. For a 30 year old woman seeing her oldest child being sacrificed by the old man she was forced to marry, made her snap and break the Social Rules, where women are supposed to be meek, revere their husband and follow the rule of men. All plays are about the Greek moral code, she of course has to be punished, regardless of the injustices done to women before and after her, because men are the Prime in Greek society. At the end of the play, a Queen has been foiled, all women killed and the male order restored. I forgot, all the actors were men, women were not allowed to read, unless they were high end courtesan, whose professional lack of modesty allowed them into the world of the learned, symposiums, libraries and lectures. Even Greek philosophers complained about having to parent and support their families, it was more fun to frolic with young male disciples.
At least, some Roman women did learn to read and write and had egalitarian marriages, but Egyptian women were scandalous, arranging their own marriage contracts and terms, owning and managing small and big businesses on their own, being scientists and highly respected priests, enjoying pleasurable relationships inside and outside marriage arrangements, worshipping a mother goddess who is a warrior for her husband and son.
Thanks for reminding me how much Monty Python disliked women (outside casual one sided sex relations). They portraited shitty relationships and women because that's all the knew and sought.
I remember a sense of recognition watching that ending as a kid. Kevin was more grounded, deeper, braver, and a better human being, while his parents were rigid, preoccupied with appearances and material things, and failed in their most important tasks as parents by ignoring their child’s unique, emerging self. Just like most of my generation seemed when compared to our parents who were raised in the Leave it to Beaver 1950’s. We were going to have to parent ourselves or find mentors to parent us intermittently where we could.
My God does this take me back. I was a child who was affected by that ending. I was scared for Kevin and my father assured me that Agamemnon would come back and take care of him. OMG the memories!
Wow, my Dad told me the exact same thing XD
When my twin brother and I saw it after renting it (we weren’t born when it came out in theaters), we figured Agamemnon would probably do just that.
On the basis of this analysis, that's a dad who absolutely understood the movie
I had the same concern, I guess, but nobody talked about the movie or asked me anything. My parents weren't really good at that. I was left to process things on my own.
I remember seeing this movie when I was very young (maybe 6 or 7) and feeling nothing when the parents died. The people he met along his adventures were better suited as parents than his own.
Did you notice that the smoke from the two steaming piles from his parents looks like it is in reverse at the very end when it pans out. As if time is starting to go backwards.
I noticed that too so I thought the shot was just in reverse but Kevin is walking forward. It makes it seem like it's on purpose. I like the theory of time going backwards, especially after the theory of King Agamemnon waiting for another time door to open and goes through to find Kevin.
It's an optical illusion caused by the zoom out. The smoke is actually rising, it's just we as the camera's POV are rising much faster
@@jackalope2302 Really? Is that part of why a dolly zoom looks the way it does?
I had noticed the effect, too, and it didn't look like they shot it with people walking backwards or anything. (Or else all the actors did a thunderously good job of it.)
@@stevejordan7275 In camera optical illusions like that happen. Alfred Hitchcock invented that technique (I think). Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson used in Jaws and Fellowship of the Ring.
No, I think they zoomed in from an aerial shot, and so to get the zoom out they reversed it. Similar use of footage shows up in Return of the King when the Aragorn and Theoden return to Edoras (It’s a reverse of a previous shot moving out from Eowen before Aragorn arrives in the previous movie, but after she’s gone out to get some air after being sexually harassed by Wormtongue.
It's funny to think Shelly Duvall went from recording The Shining straight to Time Bandits the very next year lol. She's actually quite hilarious in the small roles she has here.
I thought she played perfectly and popeye too
The ending is like a flip of the sentiments expressed in the ending of Pan's Labyrinth.
The King is repaying the debt. Ke- saved his life when they first met 😉
As a kid I did have this almost traumatic feeling of "oh no, now he's alone". I've always loved it for that to be honest, it's what made it live with me.
I wasn't sad that his asshole parents died, but that the gang and the supreme being had just ditched him. Then the king's reincarnation/relative is there and he also just leaves! If Connery had told him to jump on the back of the truck then I wouldn't have given two shits that his parents were dead.
Yeah, i know what you mean, but I think that's sort of the point. If he just hitched up with a new parent figure that wouldn't be a step forward for him. He wants to be a man and that means having the guts to go it alone.
@@collativelearning Oh yeah I totally agree with your analysis, and additional things you picked up that I never thought of before, it's what makes the movie so great. I'm just remembering that as a kid it was a bit of a gut punch to see him left all alone. Gilliam thought kids would find the parents being blown up hilarious (it was), but it was being left by everyone else before and after their death that gives the ending a real sense of melancholy as a kid, not just the demise of the parents.
This is exactly how I felt when I first watched it aged about 13. I really wanted the fireman to tell Kevin to climb aboard.
Just watched the movie and i'm glad i wasn't the only one
I dont give a single thing about the parents dying
I just felt bad for the kid cause he is now alone and probably left alone by the small guys due to their jobs
Same with the firefighter guy
Like man
It almost made me a little bit traumatic ngl but after watching the video
I am now fine and ok and understood some of them^^
I agree Mad George, when i saw it as a kid...i felt so bad for poor Kevin...every one left him....it was the only movie i had ever seen that had an ending like that...one of the reasons its stayed with me as well...
This movie, especially the ending, blew my mind as a 7 year old in the theatre. When I saw it again as an adult, I realized how much of the movie's details went over my head as such a young kid, but the ending still brought back that awful feeling I had, seeing his parents blow up.
I don't know what happened to the mother but the father didn't explode but actually went back in time and became a bandit called Irongron. That's chronicled in Doctor Who - The Time Warrior.
One of the best stories and characters in the show. They nailed Doctor Who during the entire Pertwee era
Then got killed by Linx at the end of that story anyway?
I thought he was catapulted forward in time and became a starliner captain named Rigg who got hooked on a nasty narcotic. 😏 😕
Seeing this as a kid in the theater, I was horrified by the parents blowing up and then relieved by the presence of Agamemnon. I assumed, as you did, that Kevin would seek him out.
The trolls on the beach, the reason he looks like a wierd elephant is because it's the same head from Monty Pythons "Fishy, Fishy, oohhhh" scene in The Meaning of Life.
Did they ever find that fish? Did they try looking in the drawers of the bureau?
The trolls immediately reminded me of Monty Pythons.
100% correct! The elephant head creeps me the hell out, for some reason. Think it's the eyes
@@MrBastilleDay it was a fisheye lens. You were the fish.
@@Crosshair1990 😮
I watched this in heavy rotation as a kid, I didn’t realize what an influence it was on my basic creative DNA until i revisited in my twenties. Thanks for your work and I am Happy to be a new subscriber!
Wow!
My all-time favourite film and I've never (until now) thought too deeply about it that way.
One of the things I love so much about Time Bandits is it's 'open' ending, Kevin can do whatever he wants, he's clever, resourceful, he's got a copy of the map and no shitty parents holding him back now, I've always considered that to be better than a 'happy' ending.
Will you be doing (or have you done) an analysis of Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen?
Think I read somewhere that Gilliam considered these films a sort of trilogy.
He called Time Bandits, Brazil and Baron Munchausen the Imagination or Dream Trilogy. The dreams of the Child, the Adult and the Elderly.
The commentary on parenting and children is absolutely correct and insightful. So many adults have no concept of how to raise a child, which only produces another generation of bad parents, etc.
Maybe what Terry Gilliam was getting at was, Kevin's parent probably had a child because it was expected of them. Not because they actually wanted a child. "It's what one does when one has a family". I think it might be a cultural critique of materialism and "having things". They had a child and did the minimum necessary to maintain the child, not out of any kind of loving relationship, but because "having" is supposed to fulfill. Just like the parents would compare having better appliances than the neighbors or having nice furniture that was perpetually covered in plastic.
We're led with the impression that the actual business of raising a child was an inconvenience that the parents have to bear so they can claim to have one. This is put across by the fact that they never really want to be involved with Kevin. Just eat your food and go to bed. Which was the bare minimum required to maintain their child. When Kevin tried to interact both parents looked at him like he was an appliance that was not working correctly.
I think Terry Gilliam, whether consciously or unconsciously created the scene where Kevin tries to interact with his parents and they treat him much like the appliance that starts malfunctioning. Or maybe I'm seeing something that really isn't there. But I think it was a potshot at consumer society and how having a family is equal to "having things". I mean, I've met people IRL that treat having kids much the same way as having a hobby, they think they can just put the kid of a shelf and only take them down on occasion.
The only thing I can remember about Time Bandits from when I watched it as a kid is that ending and how uncomfortable it made me feel. I can't say that I had positive feelings about this movie overall. "Strange feelings" would be more accurate.
On the other hand, "History doesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes": Repeating characters?
What? Are you George Lucas? 😂
@@zerovalon6243 No. I'm J.J. Abrams... 😁
@@penelopegreene 🤣 even better
The death of Kevin's parents and leaving the dwarfs can also be interpreted as Gilliam (Kevin) emancipating from Monty Python and finally going in all alone in his career as director. So Gilliam is Kevin, the dwarfs are the Pythons with whom he's grown up as a person, and the parents are the studio system.
Nice!
Yeah that was my takeaway at age 8
I suppose we could say the fireman helmet Connery's character wears is like the modern equivalent of Greek helmets. Maybe coincidence. Found it funny and weird that Connery's fireman ignores the parents having blown up (it's like he knew what was going to happen, and he winks). Oh, and the notion of adults being dependant on authority figures paralleling child dependency on parents, well, there is such term as the "Nanny State".
Yeah the wink straight after the exploding parents seemed like a reassurance to Kevin ... like, no big deal lol
Yes, the helmet seemed intentional
I wouldn't change the ending, but I'd add this: after his parents are gone, Kevin stands there for a few minutes, his face a mix of confusion and sadness. Suddenly, he looks at his photos again, particularly the one that included the map. His face lights up with realization, and he quickly goes back into the house. The End.
That would have been awesome!
Oh right , he could go back in time and prevent his parents being idiots
@@Reprodestruxion The heck with his parents!!! I meant he goes off on his OWN odyssey through time!!!
Exactly!
It would have been such a little, lovely thing to add...would it have really deranged Gilliam's vision for the film that much? 🤨 🙁
"Kids have a massive preference for happy endings in their movies."
Uh, so do most adults. "Midnight Cowboy" is a fantastic film, but I couldn't watch it again. 😭
OMG!! "Midnight Cowboy" is a fantastic film, and I enjoy it more every time I watch it, because it's such a great love story. Think "King Kong", "Love Story". All of the best love stories have unhappy endings. And yeah, "Midnight Cowboy" is best thought of as an offbeat kind of love story.
@@donkensler Funny, if not uncanny, that you mentioned _Love Story._ Less than 20-minutes ago, I commented to hubby that I hate that flick...
I might've been able to re-watch it, if Voight hadn't ruined all his films, for me at least. But he was never really all that, anyway, so good riddance.
I have loved 'Time Bandits' since early teens - and you just opened my eyes to some VERY interesting points. Thank you.
The plastic on the furniture really takes me back.
Zactly it never really made sense to me either
As a kid in the 80s myself I remember my Aunt & Uncle w that and they chain smoked cigarettes IN the house all day long.
Omg I haven't that in about 25 Years. My aunt in Staten Island had plastic vyanal on her furniture. In the summer time it was so uncomfortable
One of my favourite films of all time and the end credits song by George Harrison is a firm sentimental favourite. Evil Genius is one of the most underrated film villains ever 😅
I absolutely love this one Rob. Your Time Bandits, Poltergeist and Heaven Help Us analysis are all TOP NOTCH. Congratulations.
"Don't touch it!" Immediately touches it.
I saw this a lot as a kid growing up in the 80s. I'd be lying to claim I didn't find the end dark and actually very 'frightning' because I probably did reflect on my own parents rather than how his are depicted ...but I liked the movie anyways because it was just so fun.
Great video as always! Cheers.
The irony of Agamemnon being a positive father figure has always amuswd me. He murdered his daughter to ger the ships sailing to defend his brother's ego when his wife ran off.
This man could talk 2 hours about the play station loading logo.
@T 2017 good one :D
An observation. When Kevin's parents are watching tv in the foreground, and Kevin is reading his book in the back ground, Kevin is literally framed amongst the appliances. It is also has two different frames the parents and Kevin. Different worlds. Possibly three, the parents, Kevin then the appliances.
I always thought it was just his imagination dealing with his parents who died in a fire.
I loved this movie, especially the ending music.
I love this Film. I think it's a brilliant movie. The ending never bother me at all. I always thought that Sean Connery's was the same character as the fire fighter, because he seems to know Kevin.
It always bugged me more that Sean Connery's character choose to shut the firetruck door by pulling on its window... but yeah the parents blown up was weird.. but oddly satisfying.
If only there was a scene of Sean Connery announcing "Queen Clytemenstral!" I could reenact it with my wife once a month.
I expect Connery would have been able to pronounce it properly, though.
Growing up in the 80s this was one of my favorite movies. Haven't seen it in 20 or 30 years. Might be time to see if it has withstood the years.
Time bandits, one of my all time favourite movies
Watership down: traumatised as a child, 40 years later i still can't get past "bright eyes", or even listen to the song without bursting into tears - DON'T YOU DARE PLAY IT lol
It's weird I sort of don't want to watch it again either ... made me feel so sad as a kid.
@@collativelearning i avoid it every Christmas lol
I have watched Predator, Terminator 2 and Raiders of Lost Ark with all of their brutality as a kid, but watching Watership Down at age 13... it's a movie that I consciously block out of my memory. But I do have partial respect for it. Did show me the dark sides of the world in a harsh way.
It was the bit where Big Wig got caught in the snare, that fairly traumatized me...
But the fact is that that film had such an impact on me as a six year old that by the time I had a library card when I was nine "Watership Down" was the first novel I borrowed. My first grown up book. I still remember the sense of achievement finishing it. It made me hungry for a lot more books.
@@jocaerbannog9052 i watched the evil dead as a kid and that didn't affect me lol. I have to respect watership down for the impact it had though.
I've loved this film since the 80's and not once, not ever, did I think this film was a children's film.
It came full circle with Kevin being the giant in the other video that you made. The giant unknowingly/accidentally destroys the "foolish trolls" (his own parents) in the middle of his adventure/conquest whom won't pay attention to their child. It's like after his long travel through time, Kevin has dwarfed his "evil" distracted stagnant parents and "stepped on them" accidentally in continuing his adventure.
the troll family couldn't hear the loud ass footsteps (which might as well be him screaming it's pure evil) because they were busy arguing similar to his parents arguing and almost letting their own son die in the fire.
@@Psycho-Complex Very good.
After all these decades, I have closure.
Thanks much.
Great analysis! I'd been wanting to watch it again, and this will make it even more interesting.
Fascinating! I've never thought to analyze this childhood favorite. Well-done!
That ending really traumatized me as a kid
Gilliam might perhaps have meant it to be a happy ending as described here. (Bearing in mind that the development process was kind of chaotic. Agamemnon was originally meant to die in the fight with Evil, but Sean Connery wasn’t available when that sequence was shot. The reprise as fireman was Connery’s own idea, not Gilliam’s, and it was only filmed because Connery was accidentally available.) But if a happy ending was Gilliam’s intention, artistically it fails. It fails because an 11 year old is not ready to embark in life as an adult. An 11 year old does not need a hands-off mentor sidekick and a mission to fight evil. An 11 year old needs parents, even imperfect parents.
This is not to knock the film. It is definitely a _powerful_ ending. (It deeply struck me as a kid and stuck with me for years.) But it is filmed and presented in a way that is calculated to be a deeply disturbing, not reassuring.
As a child, I was quite disturbed by the ending! It filled me with existential dread about what would a child (like myself) do without parents? While I understood the parents were awful and useless and deserved punishment, death seemed a bit much and child without parents was so out of context for my young mind it took me a while to process that ending.
I always thought that somehow Kevin's dreams killed his parents before his parents could kill his dreams. And it's encouraging to think that King Agammemnon, the Time Bandits, and The Supreme Being might somehow return or help out in the future. And I'd forgotten that Kevin still had pictures of "The Map".
Regarding 1:08, six years after "The Time Bandits" was released in 1981, the infamous Goiânia accident occurred on September 13, 1987 in Brazil where a forbidden container was opened and fatal disasters were released.
I grew up watching this movie. As an American it is really rare for me to run into anyone who's ever heard of it. My whole family can pretty much quote the whole movie. Time Bandits, Harry and The Hendersons, The Princess Bride, and Oscar (The Sylvester Stallone comedy) were practically endless loop when I was a kid. Our family had all the films in this strange quadrilogy memorized. We didn't actually own them but we rented them from Blockbuster Video at least once a month.
I consider _Oscar_ to be one of my favorite movies.
Sadly, I looked through movies of the 1980s that were fantasy/sword-and-sorcery genre and they almost all flopped at the box office, including _The Princess Bride._ Maybe they made money on home video sales? I think only _Conan the Barbarian_ and _The Dark Crystal_ are the only ones that made money, in that the gross box office was more than twice the production costs.
@@sandal_thong8631 Did you ever see Lady Hawk, Dragonslayer, or The Adventures of Baron Munchausen? Some of my personal favorite 80s fantasy films that few people seem to have heard of.
@@KlingonCaptain Of course. Three more box-office bombs that people saw on video tape.
I loved this movie, and still do. As a kid with a strained situation growing up, I would have given anything for King Agamemnon to come rescue me, always loved that ending.
I always liked how it looked like they were going for a "it was all a dream" ending: Kevin's toys were set up like the final battle; the firefighter looked like the King; and Dad leaving something in the microwave made sense as a source of the fire.
But then the pictures are there, and you realize it DID happen. So, in true absurdist fashion, the Evil fragment turns his parents into "hermit crabs" (i would have loved to see that, btw).
And all my life, I wondered what happened to Kevin: no one comes to be with him, he just walks through the debris, staring at the smouldering embers of his parents.
When I begged to see this as an 8 year old in 1981 in the theatre - my Mom and step dad kept whining the whole time and wanted to leave during the movie several times. It was memorable for both the movie and their attitude ! LOL
8:51 Rob, you just described my childhood.
Okay you just went from one of my favorite childhood movies , Time Bandits, straight into referencing another one, Watership Down !
I will say this, I loved that movie as a child but the RED EYES of some of those rabbits TERRIFIED me on a visceral level, and to this day if I see "Eye shine" in the forests when I'm camping , I get a little cold trickle reminding me of back in the 80s clutching onto one of my GI Joes or Fraggles , inside my HE-MAN sleeping bag, on my Grandmother's living room floor,watching these movies, (AND SOOO MANY OTHERS..LOL).
Just found this channel, and I immediately subscribed. You have done a good job on capturing the feel for the movie's essence. Can't wait for more like this!
When I first watched the movie I was around 17 or so and I really enjoyed this ending. They tease the "it was all a dream" trope but then flip it on its head by destroying his old, boring life and showing that the fun adventure will go on
What would you do if you looked at Medusa?
IDK about who you know but that ending depressed the hell out of me as a kid
Honestly as a Child the end did freak me out a bit. Always wondered what would happen to Kevin.
came here looking for an explanation of a bummer movie ending and received a thoroughly interesting and, in my opinion, accurate deep-dive into the psychological and sociological aspects of parenting. you blew me away, man. thanks for sharing!
Cle-eye-tem-nest-ra. And that joke never occurred to me before!
Clytoris-menstrual. ;)
Same here!
@@jocaerbannog9052 Methodist Episcopal.
The ending of this video where you talk about suffering, death, and facing these things is something that should be blasted into the ears of every person on the planet right now.
Back to the future is all just a dream. Change my mind.
First one Marty is dreaming.
Second Jennifer.
Third Doc.
Bollocks
Well I’m convinced....
Wow, I never even considered that Time Bandits was a kids movie. Although I do agree that the minotaur fight was so great that Terry Gillian would surly have been great doing a historical or fantasy epic. Maybe Conan or Lord of the Rings.
Hahahaha! The Titanic as a relation"ship" is a hilarious hidden message. Great job at analyzing the movie as a whole and focusing in to the ending. Always love your work!
Randall's last words following the Titanic scene : " How did I know we were going to hit an Iceberg? "
'SS TITANIC'..! Lol!
I have loved this movie for decades and never really thought about the themes per se, but I was aware of the emotions it stirred and looking at your points, all very clear.
I have a fourth theory about Sean Connery's dual role. Kevin sees heroic character traits in the fireman which he associates with his imaginary Agamemnon friend.
This is more in line with the "it's all dream" theory.
His imagination is so vivid it makes Polaroids.
Fantastic analysis. I've seen this film so many times and your video provided so many new insights, i'm inspired to watch it yet again. Thank you!
I feel like you're misinterpreting the ogre and his wife. They're basically a counterpoint to Kevin's parents, who despite being middle-aged are still reasonably attractive, and live in a nice house full of shiny appliances. But despite all that, they don't love each other and aren't happy. In contrast, the ogre and his wife are less attractive, and they live in a crappy houseboat full of junk. The ogre also has a lot of health problems. But despite all that, it seems like they really do love each other and are actually fairly happy. It shows how outward appearances and inward feelings don't always match.
All of the adults except for the king were corrupted by the temptations of earth. Gadgets, money, fame, power.
Kevin was fighting Evil, the corruption of the child's innocent imagination and desire for adventure.
"The Ogre's wife, who has somehow retained some of her youthful strength" yeah that will be the rejuvenating power of big Ogre ****. No wonder he has back problems.
This was a truly dark and disturbing movie and possibly the most affecting movie of my childhood. I think Ive subconciously looked for similar my whole life since.