Disturbing Images
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.