Director Terry Gilliam was once quoted as saying, “Reality and fantasy—we need both to survive. If we don’t have fantasy, dreams, and all those things, what’s the point of carrying on? And you need to watch out for reality because buses come.” It’s a great little quote because it can embody some of the themes of his feature film, Time Bandits. Released in 1981, the film hits the ground running in the first few minutes, about a boy named Kevin who believes six dwarfs are in his closet. He ends up being right, and they take him on a trip through the fabric of time and space.

As the decade went on and the 1980s went into full swing with the iconic films it would be known for, it’s easy to forget that Time Bandits may have kicked off the fantastical storytelling the era was known for. Time Bandits can feel, to some, like an outrageously silly movie. What do you expect from one of the members of Monty Python? Yet, if you really soak up the world it’s in, it grabs you by the hand and makes you live out a ton of childhood fantasies for two whole hours. So if you haven’t seen it yet, let this article be a pre-game speech to give it a try.

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Set Design and Miniatures

One thing we think about when we rewatch films is the evolving technology of the early 1980s. Miniature sets are still being used at this time and are still highly effective. Time Bandits is a prime example of that. Miniatures don’t look like they did in the 1960s during Godzilla movies, as they do in the films of the 1980s.

There’s a fun element about the set design of Time Bandits; you spot the staging of the scenes, but you don’t care; if anything, it feels like a Monty Python film at times. As much as you laugh at what the bandits are doing and saying or the giant roaming the beaches, you also notice the near-perfect production and costume design to match the time periods that the group is in. Credit goes to production designer Milly Burns for letting the style of the movie live and breathe while also making it feel historically accurate.

Related: 4 Times The Set Influenced The Acting

A Fantastical Fever Dream

Many fantasy films of the 1980s have a throughline or a plot that is incredibly easy to follow. Time Bandits is more of what you call a fever dream. The first hour consists of Kevin and the Bandits jumping from one historical event to another as you get to know them. All of it kind of feels like vignettes with these characters, where there is no real plot to the movie. It’s here that we remember one thing about the timing of this film.

Time Bandits came out in 1981, just a few years removed from the 1970s, an era of cinema where many films were not so much plot-driven as they were character-driven. Many films and their filmmakers were products of the 1960s, where they were known for, well, experimenting, so to speak. Terry Gilliam is definitely a filmmaker who came up through that era, and it shows in Time Bandits and most of his films to follow.

Related: Terry Gilliam’s Best Movies Ranked

Terry Gilliam Isn’t Always for Everybody

There are message boards floating around out there saying that Terry Gilliam is the least funny member of the comedy group Monty Python. However, he may have had the most longevity in his career, as he is a highly respected filmmaker. Gilliam makes comedies and even satires that challenge the audience. You enjoy the dimwit humor of Time Bandits, but there’s something about the movie that tests you as you try to figure it out. If you’re seeking out fantasy films from the 1980s that comfort you, Time Bandits may not be your first pick. If you are a hard-nosed cinephile, maybe you will want to pop it on and explore the vastness of the universe that the film is trying to convey to you.

One of Gilliam’s major criticisms of his work is that he is so darn talented, but he dives way too far in his indulgences, and you can see it on screen, and it hurts his movies. He has also had some wars waged against him online for his comments about Marvel movies and the Me Too movement. Some just don’t get his movies, or maybe some just don’t want to be challenged by them.

Time Bandits Set a Trend
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There were only a few films in the early 1980s capturing this essence of fantasy in movies, and one of them was Excalibur; the other may have just been Time Bandits. Think of all the films about kids going to their room, and encountering something out of this world, and transporting them to a different realm. Time Bandits wasn’t the first movie like this, but it sure deserves some more respect for its name. It is loaded with set design that feels homey, humor that only Gilliam could pull off in his films, and a tale of how good can prevail over evil.

With it being a trend setter for the decade, Time Bandits often gets overlooked now. It sits in the shadows of Willow, Labyrinth, and many other fantasy films that defined the decade. Even films that are not fantasy per se take the spotlight from it a bit. Just look what Steven Spielberg did in that decade with films that utilized deep imagination; Time Bandits has all of that, so if you slept on it then, don’t go scroll past it when you see it streaming again.