MovieChat Forums > Time Bandits (1981) Discussion > Disturbing Images

Disturbing Images

posted 14 years ago by SteveM-1
33 replies | jump to latest

A lot of people have noted how disturbing the very end of the movie is, but I think there were a lot of disturbing and problematic images.

I was 10 when this movie came out. I know that today, 10 year olds are probably used to much stronger stuff, but when I was 10 there were a few things that bothered me.

I'll try to list them in order.

1. the TV Game Show - I don't remember specifically, but I think that the contestants on the Game Show would lose Family Members if they failed to complete a task.

2. The Little Person named "Vermin" is trying to eat Live Animals throughout the film like chickens and rats.

3. In Napoleon's time, several people get shot and killed with no remorse.

4. In Robin Hood's time, there are a couple of criminals Arm Wrestling and one of the wrestlers gets his arm yanked off at the shoulder.

5. When Aggamemnon is fighting the Minotaur, he rips the monster's head off after killing him.

6. In the Ogre's ship, there are lots of human body parts hanging in the kitchen / galley.

7. The Colossus (giant wearing the Ogre's Ship as a hat), steps on a house of some inhuman creatures and flattens them all (including a baby if I remember correctly). Then, the gang decides to put the Giant to sleep by taking a Fireplace Bellows, filling it with sleeping potion and then ramming the very blunt bellows into the Giant's Bald Scalp under the hull of the ship. The scene of ramming that into a giant mound of flesh kind of bothered me.

8. Og is turned into a Pig-Man (don't know why, but that just bothered me).

9. Evil Genius is constantly blowing up his henchmen just by pointing at them. Makes it worse because you actually see body parts flying. One henchman was operating a machine at the time and after he exploded, his arm was still attached to the machine's lever.

10. When the "Reinforcements" come in from other time periods to fight Evil Genius, they meet their end in some gruesome ways.

11. The Cowboys rope the Evil Genius, he spins like a carousel, a knife comes up from a lid in his skull and cuts the ropes loose. The knife coming up out of his head bothered me.

12. Exploding Dog. Goes without saying.

13. Fidgit's Death. Yes, the Supreme Being brought him back to life, but the Death was still unsettling. Especially how it effected Wally and the other members of the group.

14. And of course, finally, the Parents blowing up after touching the chunk of Evil in the toaster oven. Granted, they weren't really good parents, but don't really see how they deserved to Blow Up and how Kevin deserved to be an Orphan with everybody (including the Agammemnon Look-Alike Fireman) desserting him at the end. The House was on Fire, so now the kid has no home and no parents. Wonderful ending.

Like I said, these aren't bad nowadays, but these images were kind of disturbing to a 10 year old back in the day.

What's also odd is that I then got a Time Bandit's Comic Book after seeing the movie. Told the entire story in one Comic Book. Those scenes mentioned above were reproduced in the Comic Book in about the same detail. So, bad enough that the movie disturbed me, but that Comic Book kind of disturbed me too. Although I still kept it.

Anybody else think that some of the images were a little far for a kid to watch? I'm sure the movie wasn't made for Kids at all, but still.

Oh well, at least they didn't go as far as they did in "Brother's Grimm". That movie had a little girl losing her eyes and face and also a Kitten Homicide.

Yeah, Gilliam's a little warped.

[–] lostboy87 14 years ago

I agree that the ending with his mum and dad blowing up was a bit too much.I felt the same as you watching that part.
I bought the time bandits comic from ebay at the weekend and got it today! I wasnt expecting half the stuff you mentioned to be in it but it was...strange!

"I mean i just wanted to leave,you know my apartment,meet a nice girl and now ive gotta die for it"

[–] megArnold 14 years ago

Read Grimm's fairy tales. Very disturbing stuff, too. People get killed, tortured, mutilated, eaten, shoved into ovens all the time.

So, we should have legions of disturbed people around because they had "Little Red Riding Hood" or "Hansel and Gretel" read to them as children?

That's what fairy tales are. Eli Roth stories for children. Only fairy tales actually serve a purpose.

[–] louiseculmer 7 years ago

but most fairy tales end with the hero or heroine getting what they want. hansel and Gretel ends with the children being reunited with their father for instance (he has repented of trying to lose the children in the forest). even red Riding Hood (in the Grimm version) ends with Red Riding hood and Granny being saved.

[–] Syndog 14 years ago

I agree, the scenes you mentioned were very over-the-top in their delivery. Clearly, Gilliam doesn't believe in pulling his punches with this sort of thing in his films.

That being said, there is a lot of metaphor to be found in many of these examples you cite, if you look for it, much like the horrible things we include in our fairy tales. I also think the (seemingly) nonsensical nature of them add to the general "feel" of the film that would otherwise be absent.

It could be said that Time Bandits is making a statement about a "half-baked" universe that was thrown together in only seven days. Not only do the time holes exist as a consequence, but there are so many things in this film that make absolutely no sense whatsoever, yet are either taken in stride or merely shrugged off by the characters. The symbolism there escaped me as a kid, but the older I get, the more convinced I am that mankind does exactly the same thing in the real world -- albeit in subtler ways than the film exhibits.

Only Kevin seems to be the stalwart voice of reason (with the arguable exception of King Agamemnon), as he alone gapes in wonder and confusion at the things he encounters during his journey through time. He's something of a parallel to Alice going through an admittedly darker and more cynical Wonderland of his own. All normalcy has been abandoned in favor of the fantastic.

It's as if Gilliam removed our glasses through which we've learned to see the whole of creation all our lives, and given us leave to see it from a more stark, objective perspective. In this fashion, we come to find that most of our worldly views are subject to learned supposition and expectation that, once removed, reveals how base, befuddling and often outright cruel life really is, and how nothing and no one is quite what we're accustomed to. Even the Supreme Being himself seems to march to the beat of his own drum, granting us glimpses of his wisdom in the scraps of offhanded dialogue he tosses Kevin's way near the end.

Either that, or Gilliam's just a bat$#!^ nutter who needs to be put away.

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I am not an atomic playboy!

[–] Noir-It-All 14 years ago

You know, the only thing I remember is Randall!

Usually the scenes listed above would have really, really upset me but I must have been out of it when I saw it in the theater! Some of the items above reminded me of The Brothers Grimm which, fortunately, I saw on DVD so I could stop it and not finish.

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

[–] cstu11 10 years ago

It could be said that Time Bandits is making a statement about a "half-baked" universe that was thrown together in only seven days. Not only do the time holes exist as a consequence, but there are so many things in this film that make absolutely no sense whatsoever, yet are either taken in stride or merely shrugged off by the characters. The symbolism there escaped me as a kid, but the older I get, the more convinced I am that mankind does exactly the same thing in the real world -- albeit in subtler ways than the film exhibits.

Well said.

[–] cwell510 14 years ago

Yeah I think you pretty much covered all of the disturbing images that I can remember from this film.

[–] virgiltx 12 years ago

A scene I find disturbing is when they're on the Titanic and Randall is brandishing an apparently lit cigar very near Kevin's face, even grazing his hair with it.
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[–] Mia_Fey 12 years ago

You lot are weird. My mum let me watch this when I was definitely under 10, I didn't find anything disturbing, I just saw it as an adventure film and used to watch it a lot. Aged 26 now I still like it, didn't grow up to be a mentalist so disturbing, no it is not.

And that's why..... you always leave a note!

[–] raythorne2005 11 years ago

Kevin was even coughing at that! LOL

It could be God, the Devil, Buddha, an Alien...or it could be a kid playing a video game. - onn1320

[–] cberbes 11 years ago

I swear I'm the only person on the planet (other than my Daughter) who understands that what you see in the movies and TV is 100% "make believe".

I see a lot of people talking about how disturbing or horrifying movies are, and I just don't get it. I saw Time Bandits at the theater, which would make me 7 at the time. I walked out knowing the entire movie was fake, nothing "bothered me", and I didn't grow up with any traumatic issues because of the movies and TV shows I watched as a child.

Wearing helmets to ride bikes, nobody can play outside by themselves any more, no more monkey bars and dodge ball....no "picking teams" in schools. We are raising a bunch of soft, sissy kids. There is a reason large companies are now hiring consultants because the younger people entering the work force can't deal with "real life", they have been coddled for so long they get upset when a boss confronts them for doing poorly. Nobody can take criticism.

If Time Bandits is "disturbing", I can only imagine what you would think of the nightly news.

[–] raythorne2005 11 years ago

I don't know why you replied to me. Do you think kids should be exposed to smoking in the media? There was just a recent survey that says that media does indeed influence kids. While I think it is mostly the parents fault if a kid picks up smoking, whether the media influences them or not, the facts are undeniable.

We have laws in some states for kids to have helmets on when riding bikes for safety. This isn't a matter of not getting a few scraps, it's about life or death. It was done for a reason. If helmets can prevent even just 1 death, isn't the law worth it? That's why there are safety measures taken in almost every sport. To save lives. Are you the type of person that cried a fit when the NFL required helmets to be worn in football? You going to tell me these football players are soft sissys because they wear helmets?

Kids really shouldn't watch the nightly news either. Sometimes they even say that on the news.

Are you really saying you don't have a problem in taking a kid to see Texas Chainsaw in 3D? LOL

It could be God, the Devil, Buddha, an Alien...or it could be a kid playing a video game. - onn1320

[–] virgiltx 11 years ago

Re helmets to ride bikes:

Are people with brain damage better able to cope?

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[–] Brain_Loop 11 years ago

Beautiful, looks like you "got" the movie :) Thanks for the list I really enjoyed it. Time Bandits is like half terrible and half good, kinda like real life. Gilliam is a genius in making the grotesque real.

[–] Ehrgeiz 11 years ago

The 80ies were definitely the decade in which many pretty dark movies for children and young people were made. It was a little like, "you are going down anyway in an atomic war, so eat this!" Looking back now, Time Bandits was in this mood. But I was not disturbed very much by the aforementioned mutilations etc.
The two scenes that bothered me most were the cage hanging over that dark abyss and Evils transformation into the spinning scene.
While the total finale was, to me, a weak point of the movie and left much open to wish, I think the last scene with his blokes of parents blowing up was and is to me absolutely awesome.
When Kevin stands there wondering what happened, I think this is one of best "WTF?"-moments in movie history.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (9347176) 10 years ago

This is definitely not a "family film" and I can't remember it ever being marketed or categorized as such. The images that you listed from the picture are odd, disturbing, what have you, but they are essential to Gilliam's message about the nature of the world as viewed by a neglected, lower middle class English kid.

Is any of it real, or is it all in Kevin's head? I vote the latter. I've had dreams, even as an adult, that rival the wierdness and gruesome imagery of "TB." In that regard, it's easy for me to believe that the events depicted in the film are a dream.

I've known kids who had such horrible relationships with their parents as adolescents that wanted to see their folks disappear. Nothing odd about that.

-Rod

[–] franzkabuki 10 years ago

Why would it be a dream? After all, there`s MAGIC...

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] SpaceMountainMike 8 years ago

Is any of it real, or is it all in Kevin's head? I vote the latter.

You might be right. It could be like Total Recall where you never really find out.

It's stated in the trivia taht the forces sent by the Supreme Being sent to combat evil are full size versions of the toys in Kevin's room.
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[–] !!!deleted!!! (9347176) 8 years ago

The Supreme Being. Now there's a character from this film that I absolutely hated. God ends up being a stuffy British beaurocrat.

Yeah, lots of the toys on the floor in Kevin's room appear later in the film as live characters. The knight and his steed jumping from Kevin's wardrobe also appears as a poster on Kevin's wall. Yet another bit of evidence that everything Kevin experiences in the film is a dream. His subconscious used familiar objects to fulfill roles being played out in his head. Kevin knew about the Robin Hood, Napoleon and the battle of Castiglione and Agamemnon, as well, prior to his living out scenes belonging to those three time periods. Kevin must've also known a bit about the Titanic, but none of the time travelers seemed aware that they were on the doomed vessel.

-Rod

[–] virgiltx 10 years ago

Nigel_Q: "The MPAA would never allow it."

I'm not sure what you mean by "never allow it". The MPAA does not censor or ban films. They only rate them and publish advisories about them for parents and guardians.

This movie had a PG certification in both the UK and US. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081633/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg#cert ification
The MPAA did not have a rating between PG and R in 1981. They added PG-13 after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984),at Spielberg's own suggestion.

So today the MPAA would simply give it a PG-13 rating. http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/what-each-rating-means

Judge for yourself about which UK rating it would get: http://www.bbfc.co.uk
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