Terry Gilliam’s 1981 fantasy classic Time Bandits is not officially a Monty Python production, but it involves most of the team, and much of the humour is obviously “Pythonesque”.
Well done! I have recently been thinking of Monty Python, I discovered them when I was about 11 and memorized all the skits like other nerdy aspies of the time. You can’t go home again and I jettisoned the idea of rewatching as “ I don’t find their humor funny anymore”. ( my father in his 70’s used those words when my husband, thinking to please him, put a Three Stooges movie on.) it must be getting old, or in this case, disgusted with the easy breezy destruction of so much that was superior to what we’ve got. WWI may have been a nightmarish disaster resulting in an orgy of destructive condemnation that has lasted for four generations but the mid- Victorians did a lot of good without sawing off the branch on which civilization rested.
I hunt down those few tables that show people born at the end of 1961 as not being boomers at all…it is an ever present shame.
I have never realized that Terry Gilliam was doing a type of penance by trying to highlight the emptiness of disenchantment, the futile and insatiable materialism that is left once you’ve coolly destroyed the sacred cows which were already tottering and sclerotic.
The Fisher King in particular - the wonderful shot in Grand Central Station when we see Lydia in Perry's minds eye and the commuters are then waltzing with each other as she crosses the concourse....
Great review as always! The culture war often plays out as a clash between utilitarian transhumanists and reactionaries with mystical inclinations. While this broadly maps onto the left-right divide, reality is a bit messier.
The left isn’t just Harari-style rationalists—it’s also Hindu hippies, Reiki healers, tarot aunts and self-styled druids. Reenchantment is happening on both sides. San Francisco millennials are knee-deep in spiritualism, divination, even channeling Merlin.
Sooner or later, the secular dam of the tech bros will be flooded by this wave of mysticism. It looks like Terry Gilliam was an early adopter of this shift.
I think the main difference is that we root ourselves in folkish tradition, while they lean toward solitary shamanism. We value kin and loyalty; they favour fluid, self-chosen ties.
In the long run, group cohesion outlasts atomisation—but a synthesis seems inevitable, especially since the new right has its own transhumanist bugmen (Thiel, Elon, etc.)
I'm reminded of The Beach and the early 2000s fascination for backpacking in exotic locales, commodifying spiritual experience. The same people, including me at the time, would regard attending mass as the ultimate cringe.
They're still highly contemptuous of organised religion and any form of belonging that does not maximise 'finding your true self'. This is their biggest blind spot.
A lot of Masses are cringy, Fr. Bill in his polyester chausable with pictures of multicultural children on it, kitschy and wrong on SO many levels. The traditional Latin Mass, an Orthodox liturgy, or even as I’ve heard, a few enclaves where they still use the old Book of Common Prayer, now that is something else entirely. You get the distinct feeling that everyone is there for a Reason. Monsignor Hugh Benson’s Religion of the Plain Man recommended Catholicism (then all Latin all the time) for just this sense of anonymity. Modern parishes which face the congregation and fuss over the individual rather than the Creator have forgotten this. The point is to forget yourself in something much bigger.
I used to attend Latin Masses in a highly conservative Catholic congregation; they went under fire when the current pope tried to outright prohibit traditional Mass.
This is what ended the latin mass in St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne Australia last year. I went once on a trip to the city; it was like stepping into another time or country, and with the late afternoon sun slanting in through the amber lead-light windows and singing of the service, beautiful and moving. I also find many masses painful and embarrassing, especially the anodyne and cheesy 'Jesus is my boyfriend' music.
I am sorry for that, this pope has done all he can to destroy the future of the church. He is the archetypal baby boomer. There are bishops who have either just ignored the pope or found a loophole, not really a parish, mission churches, etc. to continue them. In many cities the downtown churches are completely supported by the Latin Mass congregations. It is the only growth part of the church with large young families in attendance.
Originally a lover of Python, I avoided Time Bandits when it came out because, in contrast to the main team's satire (which, in my infinite wisdom as a teenager, I considered well directed) I found Gilliam's off-shoot 'absurdism' gratuitous and artless. Now I look back and think the main team's satire was gratuitous and artless too! Not all of it, a small portion of it is still very clever. Interestingly, Michael Palin felt the same, looking back. He is quoted as saying so much of Python is just plain not very funny. And he's right. Ironically, your analysis of the movie tempts me to watch time Bandits, Morgoth....
As for we Boomers: it's understandably and (imho) to a degree justifiably believed that our indiscriminately destructive pseudo-liberal attitudes (we didn't really understand liberty at all in any depth) helped cause the current cultural crisis. We did, indeed, spray satire's machine gun in all directions, not caring whom or what we hit. In our defence, we emerged as kids out of the blood and fog of two world wars to see post-war PMs like Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home behaving as if nothing had happened. It just wasn't acceptable. Plus, they looked and sounded like stupid old sexless toffs. As for our attitudes to sexuality itself: well, as we know, the youth of every new generation thinks it's discovered sex for the human race as some sort of divine revelation!
In this context, though, Morgoth, I disagree that we Boomers were "gleefully and ignorantly hacking away at the foundations of Western Civilisation, unknowingly and uncaringly stacking up civilisational losses that would have to be dealt with by generations to come. " - On the contrary, we felt that in rebelling against a culture of authoritarian 'your country needs you!" militarism - what you yourself have rightly referred to as bulldog jingoism - we were actually standing up for our culture, or should I say the finer authentic aesthetic aspect of it.
That said, it undoubtedly all went to shit. The baby went out with the bathwater. A sincere interest in a more mystical approach to culture got sidetracked by drugs and easy sex - not difficult when young women were all suddenly on the pill and no-one had to worry about pregnancy or fatherhood or marriage or...anything grown-up! - The rest is (an increasingly tragic) history.
Don't get me wrong: I carry no flag for Boomers. We were lamentably superficial in our approach to serious issues (as you point out). That said, what generation would want to see their fathers butchered in two world wars only for their sons to be asked to march off to Korea and Vietnam without at least saying 'hang on a minute!'? No doubt soft times create soft men, etc.
Incidentally, Jim Goad, a fellow Boomer, and cancelled commedian Owen Benjamin (both of whom Lana of Red Ice has interviewed) have a real 'set-to' about this whole issue (available on Bitchute). it's not very savoury watching as both guys get angry with each other and start throwing painful insults around. But their polemic does still point up that the issue is not quite as clear as many on the dissident right would like to think.
I would say I'm one of the more ''liberal'' and forgiving on the Boomer Question among the DR network mainly because I have a quite deterministic view of history and tend not to grant much agency to any groups or generational epochs.
Agreed. I’m coming to accept that the sweep of history is far more immense than I had realised, and that the best one can do - and it IS a very worthy way to live, I am convinced - is (as far as one is able) to carry the torch for the deeper truths one reverences, keep their flame alive so that they’re still burning when the heroes of future generations come looking for them… just as The Renaissance was partly fired up by the rediscovery of Neoplatonic philosophy from the texts recovered from Byzantium… Well, all continuing power to your pen(sword)arm, MG. 🔥
I do appreciate the fact that you, as a Boomer, were able to take an article about a movie and turn it into an opportunity to talk about yourself. Well done.
Wow! Morgoth this is brilliant. You should make some dough by selling, "I Choose Kevin", t-shirts. I will be the first to pre-order. Not joking here. Absolutely brilliant essay. Cue standing ovation.
Never gave Time Bandits a chance as a young lad in the 80’s due to the fact our English teacher would stick it on at the end of every term and expect us to watch and enjoy. Being a contrarian dickhead I decided there and then to dislike it.
I will give it a watch now after reading this - maybe the old bastard was actually trying to teach us something more useful than the curriculum.
Congratulations to Mr. Morgoth on what feels to me like a triumphant and glorious return to cultural criticism after delving in the nether regions of politics. I only watched the beginning of "Time Bandits" decades ago and did not realize until reading this piece that the movie addressed such profound topics. Now I feel like I should watch the entire movie.
Come to think of it, what about Monty Python´s "The Meaning of Life"? I watched it once a long time ago and paid scant attention. Perhaps because of that I did not register any philosophical musings, but with that title one would assume that at least some philosophy should be in it.
I suppose a certain degree of subversion in Monty Python´s work can´t be denied. And yet, as a non-Brit I feel compelled to rush to Monty Python´s defense by pointing out that they have plenty of very funny jokes (according to my taste, at least) in which I do not recognize anything subversive, really. Perhaps my all time favorite is the king in "Holy Grail" trying to give instructions to his guards. And I can´t help but smile every time I think of "Flying Circus"´s cheese shop sketch or book shop sketch.
Well done! I have recently been thinking of Monty Python, I discovered them when I was about 11 and memorized all the skits like other nerdy aspies of the time. You can’t go home again and I jettisoned the idea of rewatching as “ I don’t find their humor funny anymore”. ( my father in his 70’s used those words when my husband, thinking to please him, put a Three Stooges movie on.) it must be getting old, or in this case, disgusted with the easy breezy destruction of so much that was superior to what we’ve got. WWI may have been a nightmarish disaster resulting in an orgy of destructive condemnation that has lasted for four generations but the mid- Victorians did a lot of good without sawing off the branch on which civilization rested.
I hunt down those few tables that show people born at the end of 1961 as not being boomers at all…it is an ever present shame.
I have never realized that Terry Gilliam was doing a type of penance by trying to highlight the emptiness of disenchantment, the futile and insatiable materialism that is left once you’ve coolly destroyed the sacred cows which were already tottering and sclerotic.
There's a clear pattern too, especially in Baron Von Munchausen.
The Fisher King in particular - the wonderful shot in Grand Central Station when we see Lydia in Perry's minds eye and the commuters are then waltzing with each other as she crosses the concourse....
Great review as always! The culture war often plays out as a clash between utilitarian transhumanists and reactionaries with mystical inclinations. While this broadly maps onto the left-right divide, reality is a bit messier.
The left isn’t just Harari-style rationalists—it’s also Hindu hippies, Reiki healers, tarot aunts and self-styled druids. Reenchantment is happening on both sides. San Francisco millennials are knee-deep in spiritualism, divination, even channeling Merlin.
Sooner or later, the secular dam of the tech bros will be flooded by this wave of mysticism. It looks like Terry Gilliam was an early adopter of this shift.
I think the main difference is that we root ourselves in folkish tradition, while they lean toward solitary shamanism. We value kin and loyalty; they favour fluid, self-chosen ties.
In the long run, group cohesion outlasts atomisation—but a synthesis seems inevitable, especially since the new right has its own transhumanist bugmen (Thiel, Elon, etc.)
Thanks.
I'm reminded of The Beach and the early 2000s fascination for backpacking in exotic locales, commodifying spiritual experience. The same people, including me at the time, would regard attending mass as the ultimate cringe.
They're still highly contemptuous of organised religion and any form of belonging that does not maximise 'finding your true self'. This is their biggest blind spot.
A lot of Masses are cringy, Fr. Bill in his polyester chausable with pictures of multicultural children on it, kitschy and wrong on SO many levels. The traditional Latin Mass, an Orthodox liturgy, or even as I’ve heard, a few enclaves where they still use the old Book of Common Prayer, now that is something else entirely. You get the distinct feeling that everyone is there for a Reason. Monsignor Hugh Benson’s Religion of the Plain Man recommended Catholicism (then all Latin all the time) for just this sense of anonymity. Modern parishes which face the congregation and fuss over the individual rather than the Creator have forgotten this. The point is to forget yourself in something much bigger.
I used to attend Latin Masses in a highly conservative Catholic congregation; they went under fire when the current pope tried to outright prohibit traditional Mass.
This is what ended the latin mass in St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne Australia last year. I went once on a trip to the city; it was like stepping into another time or country, and with the late afternoon sun slanting in through the amber lead-light windows and singing of the service, beautiful and moving. I also find many masses painful and embarrassing, especially the anodyne and cheesy 'Jesus is my boyfriend' music.
I am sorry for that, this pope has done all he can to destroy the future of the church. He is the archetypal baby boomer. There are bishops who have either just ignored the pope or found a loophole, not really a parish, mission churches, etc. to continue them. In many cities the downtown churches are completely supported by the Latin Mass congregations. It is the only growth part of the church with large young families in attendance.
Yes exactly, I saw lots of young families with lots of children attending.
Originally a lover of Python, I avoided Time Bandits when it came out because, in contrast to the main team's satire (which, in my infinite wisdom as a teenager, I considered well directed) I found Gilliam's off-shoot 'absurdism' gratuitous and artless. Now I look back and think the main team's satire was gratuitous and artless too! Not all of it, a small portion of it is still very clever. Interestingly, Michael Palin felt the same, looking back. He is quoted as saying so much of Python is just plain not very funny. And he's right. Ironically, your analysis of the movie tempts me to watch time Bandits, Morgoth....
As for we Boomers: it's understandably and (imho) to a degree justifiably believed that our indiscriminately destructive pseudo-liberal attitudes (we didn't really understand liberty at all in any depth) helped cause the current cultural crisis. We did, indeed, spray satire's machine gun in all directions, not caring whom or what we hit. In our defence, we emerged as kids out of the blood and fog of two world wars to see post-war PMs like Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home behaving as if nothing had happened. It just wasn't acceptable. Plus, they looked and sounded like stupid old sexless toffs. As for our attitudes to sexuality itself: well, as we know, the youth of every new generation thinks it's discovered sex for the human race as some sort of divine revelation!
In this context, though, Morgoth, I disagree that we Boomers were "gleefully and ignorantly hacking away at the foundations of Western Civilisation, unknowingly and uncaringly stacking up civilisational losses that would have to be dealt with by generations to come. " - On the contrary, we felt that in rebelling against a culture of authoritarian 'your country needs you!" militarism - what you yourself have rightly referred to as bulldog jingoism - we were actually standing up for our culture, or should I say the finer authentic aesthetic aspect of it.
That said, it undoubtedly all went to shit. The baby went out with the bathwater. A sincere interest in a more mystical approach to culture got sidetracked by drugs and easy sex - not difficult when young women were all suddenly on the pill and no-one had to worry about pregnancy or fatherhood or marriage or...anything grown-up! - The rest is (an increasingly tragic) history.
Don't get me wrong: I carry no flag for Boomers. We were lamentably superficial in our approach to serious issues (as you point out). That said, what generation would want to see their fathers butchered in two world wars only for their sons to be asked to march off to Korea and Vietnam without at least saying 'hang on a minute!'? No doubt soft times create soft men, etc.
Incidentally, Jim Goad, a fellow Boomer, and cancelled commedian Owen Benjamin (both of whom Lana of Red Ice has interviewed) have a real 'set-to' about this whole issue (available on Bitchute). it's not very savoury watching as both guys get angry with each other and start throwing painful insults around. But their polemic does still point up that the issue is not quite as clear as many on the dissident right would like to think.
Nice comment.
I would say I'm one of the more ''liberal'' and forgiving on the Boomer Question among the DR network mainly because I have a quite deterministic view of history and tend not to grant much agency to any groups or generational epochs.
Agreed. I’m coming to accept that the sweep of history is far more immense than I had realised, and that the best one can do - and it IS a very worthy way to live, I am convinced - is (as far as one is able) to carry the torch for the deeper truths one reverences, keep their flame alive so that they’re still burning when the heroes of future generations come looking for them… just as The Renaissance was partly fired up by the rediscovery of Neoplatonic philosophy from the texts recovered from Byzantium… Well, all continuing power to your pen(sword)arm, MG. 🔥
I do appreciate the fact that you, as a Boomer, were able to take an article about a movie and turn it into an opportunity to talk about yourself. Well done.
Always happy to please, sweetie. Anything that makes you feel a little less bitter. 😎
Wow! Morgoth this is brilliant. You should make some dough by selling, "I Choose Kevin", t-shirts. I will be the first to pre-order. Not joking here. Absolutely brilliant essay. Cue standing ovation.
Haha thanks.
Never gave Time Bandits a chance as a young lad in the 80’s due to the fact our English teacher would stick it on at the end of every term and expect us to watch and enjoy. Being a contrarian dickhead I decided there and then to dislike it.
I will give it a watch now after reading this - maybe the old bastard was actually trying to teach us something more useful than the curriculum.
Congratulations to Mr. Morgoth on what feels to me like a triumphant and glorious return to cultural criticism after delving in the nether regions of politics. I only watched the beginning of "Time Bandits" decades ago and did not realize until reading this piece that the movie addressed such profound topics. Now I feel like I should watch the entire movie.
Come to think of it, what about Monty Python´s "The Meaning of Life"? I watched it once a long time ago and paid scant attention. Perhaps because of that I did not register any philosophical musings, but with that title one would assume that at least some philosophy should be in it.
I suppose a certain degree of subversion in Monty Python´s work can´t be denied. And yet, as a non-Brit I feel compelled to rush to Monty Python´s defense by pointing out that they have plenty of very funny jokes (according to my taste, at least) in which I do not recognize anything subversive, really. Perhaps my all time favorite is the king in "Holy Grail" trying to give instructions to his guards. And I can´t help but smile every time I think of "Flying Circus"´s cheese shop sketch or book shop sketch.