Time Bandits Blu-ray Review

3rd Sep 2013

Terry Gilliam’s adventure classic gets the Blu-ray treatment from Arrow. Once again Arrow Video have given the spit and polish routine.

Getting the rights to this Fantasy classic hopefully will spell a new direction for Arrow Video from their usual retro horror releases (And if they manage to get more of the Gilliam back catalogue then there is many other treasures to be mined).

Here we find young a young boy, Kevin, being taken on an adventure through time with a rag-tag group of robbers – fully intent on visiting some of the richest parts of the world in time and relieving them of their treasure. All the while they are pursued by the big boss himself, the supreme being, as well as the lord of Evil.

The guest cast list put in the much needed element of surprise (Ian Holm as Napoleon, Sean Connery as Agamemnon, David Warner as Evil to name but a few). But the stylistic tone of the writing (thanks in no small part to Michael Palin) and the visual tone of the film are really what help drive the film. Both the writing and the look of the film have aged very well.

The clean-up job has made the picture detail much clearer, but there is still a lot of screen fuzz that Gilliam-enthusiasts won’t be too keen on seeing. With a visual sense like Gilliam’s – a more expensive restoration is what is needed but perhaps out of Arrow’s budget. But as a restoration featurette shows – a lot of work has gone into upgrading the negative.

Arrow have gone out of their way to provide several new interviews – as per is the norm with their releases. Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, David Warner, the costumes and effects all get interview time and deliver some retrospectives views on the making this very much still a worthy buy for any collector.

This edition is also available in a tin edition and is out now!