7) Robin Hood – Time Bandits
A perennial childhood classic, Time Bandits deserves a place alongside Alice’s Wonderland adventures and Charlie’s escapades in the Chocolate Factory as touchstones of properly subversive family entertainment. Many of the images of Gilliam’s film bore into the consciousness, the suspended cages held by nothing over an equally infinite nothing, pushing the bedroom wall to escape an oncoming shadowy face, the giant with the ship on his head – so many of the moments in Time Bandits are ripe for inclusion on this list.
However it is his Royal inanity the grand prince Robin Hood which takes the biscuit and throws it delightfully hard at the poor. The entire scene below is perfectly played by Cleese, and Gilliam’s understanding of his Python partner’s timing and delivery pays off handsomely as he chooses the exact angle to film the take, getting the most out of a very silly moment in time.
