We're watching the oddest movie.
Feb. 25th, 2012 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingWatching Time Bandits. It's basically "Monty Python does The Neverending Story crossbred with Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure". It's extremely British.
Sample dialog:
Evil[1]: "God isn't interested in technology. He cares nothing for the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how he spends his time, forty-three species of parrots! Nipples for men!"
Robert[2]: "Slugs."
Evil: "Slugs! HE created slugs! They can't hear. They can't speak. They can't operate machinery. Are we not in the hands of a lunatic?"
[1]: Yes, the personification of evil. That's him - literally, evil incarnate. He's a character!
[2]: A servant of Evil.
Sample dialog:
Evil[1]: "God isn't interested in technology. He cares nothing for the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how he spends his time, forty-three species of parrots! Nipples for men!"
Robert[2]: "Slugs."
Evil: "Slugs! HE created slugs! They can't hear. They can't speak. They can't operate machinery. Are we not in the hands of a lunatic?"
[1]: Yes, the personification of evil. That's him - literally, evil incarnate. He's a character!
[2]: A servant of Evil.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 03:42 am (UTC)I watched that movie a billion times as a kid. I wanted to grow up to be Evil.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 03:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 04:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 04:24 am (UTC)(But seriously, YOU CAN TELL which parts where written by Michael Palin. The horse-skull-head scythe minions making horsey noises? Gilliam. Kevin's parents and God? PALIN. Nobody writes "horrible people with one-track minds being hilarious" like Michael Palin.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 09:20 am (UTC)TB also has the rare distinction of being one of the few movies where Sean Connery doesn't annoy me.
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Date: 2012-02-26 03:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 04:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 07:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 07:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 04:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 03:00 pm (UTC)Apparently the test screening they did was really poor quality with the sound too loud and made it an absolutely hellish experience. Everyone who was there hated the whole thing. This meant that on the questionairre at the end when saying which bit of the film they liked best, nearly everyone ticked "the end" because it meant they could get the hell out of there.
So when the producers were raising questions about the ending, Gilliam and his team could point to this questionairre and say "the one thing test audiences like was the ending, so we've GOT to keep that." LOL!
SPOILERS FOR ENDING
Okay, so he loses his parents and then Sean Connery says goodbye and drives off. Finally he's all alone going "mum? dad?" as the camera zooms out, so that we're leaving him all alone too! Gilliam claims that the moral is "listen to your kids". If your child says "don't touch it, it's evil" going right ahead and touching it might be a bad idea...
END OF SPOILERS FOR ENDING OF TIME BANDITS.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 08:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 09:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 10:18 pm (UTC)Also:
http://www.metropolisgrafix.com/html/TB.html
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-26 11:16 pm (UTC)Also, I met Terry Gillian in Dublin and was able to tell him that, to his face.
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Date: 2012-02-26 11:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 03:14 pm (UTC)My favourite film of 1981:
http://fatpie42.livejournal.com/84444.html
Mad Max 2? Nah!
An American Werewolf in London?? Nah!
Raiders of the Lost Ark??? Nah!
Time frikkin' Bandits! Oh yeah!!! ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 02:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 04:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 06:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 06:30 pm (UTC)I mean, seriously, nobody ever makes references to this movie, nobody ever mentions it on "lists of classic movies" or "my favourite movies from when I was a kid" - and no, I really *haven't* gone through and watched The Compleat Terry Gilliam, ever.
So what's supposed to have made me pick some random 30-year-old kids movie and watch it, before now?
(The reason we did watch it: A friend got a gift copy of the DVD and already had a copy, and was gushing about how this was a great movie that she'd loved as a kid. Which gave us incentive to watch it that we don't have, for, say, The Wizard, or any other early-80s kid flicks.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 06:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 06:55 pm (UTC)This, again, is one of those "and so?" situations. Time Bandits never comes up when people talk about classic movies that everyone has to see, either. Nobody ever included it on a list of options to watch for a group movie night, it never showed up at the classic-cinema movie theatre...
I mean, it was a very good movie, and one I would have liked to have seen 20 years ago, okay - but I don't get where the shock is coming from, because *nobody ever talks about it* and *nobody ever includes it on lists of great underrated movies*. I missed it in the theatre. How am I *supposed* to have heard of it?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 07:00 pm (UTC)Seriously? That's beyond pedantic, man.
Done here.
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Date: 2012-02-27 07:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 07:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 07:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-27 07:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-28 12:18 pm (UTC)That isn't quite the same expression of astonishment but is close enough for me to sympathise with the irritation.
Time Bandits is a film I'd been aware of since I was a teen - general awareness of Python-related stuff among Brits, perhaps - but I hadn't seen it until about five years ago. It is utterly brilliant. Thanks for the reminder - I think I shall rewatch it soon.