Poster from TMDB
Time Bandits
Sign in to save1981 film directed by Terry Gilliam
OverviewAI-generated
Time Bandits is a 1981 science fiction, fantasy, adventure, and comedy film produced by HandMade Films and Janus Films. Directed by Terry Gilliam, who also served as producer and co-screenwriter alongside Michael Palin, the movie features a cast including John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, and Katherine Helmond. The narrative centers on time travel, with characters such as Napoleon, Robin Hood, and Agamemnon appearing in settings that include the Atlantic Ocean, Ancient Greece, and England.
The film was filmed in Morocco and set on a ship, with cinematography by Peter Biziou and costumes by James Acheson. Michael Moran composed the score for the English-language production. It has been distributed by Embassy Pictures and Netflix, available via video on demand. The runtime varies by source, listed as 112, 116, or 110 minutes.
Critical reception includes a TMDb vote average of 6.627 from 1147 votes and an IMDb rating of 6.9 from 74344 votes. The film had a budget of 5,000,000 and generated revenue of 42,365,581. It has been referenced by 279 other encyclopedia articles.
Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
6.6Young 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.
Cast
- Craig Warnock as Kevin
- David Rappaport as Randall
- Kenny Baker as Fidgit
- Mike Edmonds as Og
- Malcolm Dixon as Strutter
- Tiny Ross as Vermin
Themes
- treasure
- dwarf
- pig
- magic
- map
- titanic
- time travel
- robin hood
- tank
- satire
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Key facts
- Directed by
- Terry Gilliam
- Written by
- Terry Gilliam Michael Palin
- Produced by
- Terry Gilliam
- Starring
- John Cleese Sean Connery Shelley Duvall Katherine Helmond Ian Holm Michael Palin Ralph Richardson Peter Vaughan David Warner David Rappaport Kenny Baker Jack Purvis Mike Edmonds Tiny Ross Craig Warnock
- Cinematography
- Peter Biziou
- Edited by
- Julian Doyle
- Music by
- Mike Moran Songs by George Harrison
- Production company
- HandMade Films
- Distributed by
- HandMade Films (Distributors) Ltd.
- Release date
- 2 July 1981 ( 1981-07-02 )
- Running time
- 116 minutes
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $5 million
- Box office
- $42.4 million
via Wikipedia infobox
~18 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Time Bandits is a 1981 British fantasy adventure film co-written, produced, and directed by Terry Gilliam. It stars David Rappaport, Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, Ralph Richardson, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Peter Vaughan, and David Warner. The film tells the story of a young boy taken on an adventure through time with a band of thieves who plunder treasure from various points in history.
In 1979, Terry Gilliam was unable to set up the film Brazil; therefore, he proposed a family film. Time Bandits was co-written with fellow Monty Python Michael Palin, financed by ex-Beatle George Harrison's HandMade Films and filmed in England, Morocco, and Wales. The film was released in cinemas on 2 July 1981 in the United Kingdom and on 6 November 1981 in the United States. On its initial release, the film received mainly positive reviews from critics; it opened at number one at the weekend box office in the US and Canada, and, by the end of its run, grossed $36 million on a budget of $5 million.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Time Bandits” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.