Time Bandits (1981)
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.
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There are more dwarves here than in any film since The Wizard of Oz.
Add to that subversive concept the notion that the boy's excursion through a time hole (chased by the Supreme Being) is predicated by a disgust in the blinding conformity of modern-day capitalist consumption, and you get a children's film that may unsettle parents a great deal more than its conversative model, The Wizard of Oz.
However, these stretches are bound to disappoint those of us who prefer Monty Python comedy to Monty Python fantasy on the order of ''Jason and the Argonauts,'' even when it's as well done as it is done here.
After his years with Monty Python and getting little chances to direct here and there with Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python and the Meaning of Life , Terry Gilliam made his real directorial debut in 1981 with Time Bandits (not counting, of course, the Python-esque Jabberwocky ).
John Cleese appears as Robin Hood in a sequence hilariously reminiscent of Monty Python and the Holy Grail .
The two Terrys, Jones and Gilliam, moved into directing with The Holy Grail (Jones would eventually helm the other two Python movies; Gilliam did Time Bandits and Brazil, amongst others).
Still, the individual setpieces are often giddy good fun, midway between Monty Python sketches and a longer-form story; Gilliam was still learning how to streamline here, and while some bits stand out more than others, Time Bandits feels more of a single piece than his pure Python films, Monty Python And The Holy Grail and The Meaning Of Life.