Legend is an epic fantasy tale that caught the hearts and imaginations of an entire generation. It's about lightness and darkness and the battle for one to rule over the other. This is on my list of favorite Tim Curry films because his role as The Darkness is so memorable, so captivating, that I'd go back and just watch scenes with him in it. Of course, like many Tim Curry fans, I could just listen to him talk all day long. He has such a rich and magnetic voice that I can't help but be drawn to it and I know I'm not the only one. As The Darkness he is huge, imposing. A massive red demon with equally large obsidian black horns, he takes hold of a scene and commands your attention. He has a plot to bring darkness to the world eternally, by taking the lives of the two unicorns that keep the light cycling through every day.
If you've never seen the movie before, then you really should consider checking out this film. Acting beside Tim Curry is Tom Cruise and Mia Sara. Ridley Scott directed this film, the same director from the Alien franchise and Blade Runner, so that shows you the caliber of film this really is. There are fae folk and goblins on either side of the battle of good and evil in this film. There's moments of pure fantasy where things glisten and sparkle in the light and the beings of our imaginations are perfectly rendered and brought to life. The dramatic designs of the sets and characters really emphasize the difference between light and dark, as well. I can only imagine that the special effects make up artists, costume designers and set designers had a field day with this project. Creating all of the things their minds had ever visualized in dreams and nightmares must have been the best thing someone in their field could have ever been asked to create. There were so many well thought out characters that their scenes have been etched into my mind as if they had actually happened, making each of the characters real to me.
What blows my mind is that this film only has a 40% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. It's like they have no idea how to rate this film or something. The audience rating, on the other hand, is 73% which makes much more sense. It may not be a perfect film, but I can't imagine it being much better than it already is. I watched this film first as a child, and though there were scenes that frightened me, I was able to work through my fear to see the parts I loved most. It may be what colors my perception of it, even now, but I truly stand by this being a good film and I know I'm not alone in that. Time to watch it all over again and see if I find any new moments to enjoy or things I have forgotten.
This really is such a fantastical movie. It's the epitome of a fairy tale. Heroes, innocent princesses to be rescued, the fae folk, goblins and true evil to overcome... It has it all. It's kind of amazing that, although you hear his voice, Tim Curry isn't actually seen until the last bit of the movie. He's heard talking to his underlings, but you don't actually see him until he reveals himself to Princess Lily, and what a grand entrance it is! The make-up crew truly outdid themselves when creating the image you see for The Darkness. Everything you could have ever imagined a demon looking like, they did it. He was incredibly tall standing on hooves instead of feet, his horns stretched up another foot or so off of his head, and completely red skinned all over with claws that look vicious and deadly. It's kind of amazing that I could watch this movie as a child, but not have nightmares from it. Maybe it was enough that the hero overcomes the evil villain, but maybe it was because there was just enough fantasy for me to understand that I wasn't in danger in this reality. I'm pretty sure the darkness scared me as a child, but apparently not enough to be scarring. Sometimes we need a movie like this to teach children how to experience fear so they can learn methods to cope with it. This is a safe place for them to experience fear through other's experiences so it's not their own fear from a real situation.
I've always felt that children deserve much more credit than they're given because they are capable of dealing with situations more than most adults give them credit for. If we hide them from all the bad things, how will they ever learn to deal with them? If a family member is sick and dying, how will they ever understand the cycle of life if you don't trust that they can visit that person to see them in a sickened state? I know that I have multiple times in my life where I was either given the chance to deal with bad things at a young age and times where I was sheltered from them. Seeing a family member dealing with cancer and visiting him at the end wasn't easy on me, but I learned that life was precious and we had to spend time with the ones we love while we have the time with them. On the other hand, knowing my grandfather looked sick because he was yellow, but being told that nothing was wrong only left me reeling when he finally passed because I had no idea that I should be cherishing the time that we had left. With another family member, I wasn't given the opportunity to go to the funeral so I could grieve with the rest of my family. It was on a school day and they didn't realize that I wanted to go so I could be there with everyone saying my own goodbyes to my great-grandfather. I was so upset about not being able to go because I felt that it was a part of the process and it was important to pay my respects to the man I loved, who helped to create the family that I was born into. We don't always realize that kids need those lessons, even at a young age, because it gives them better tools to cope when they get older. Trust them to be able to adapt and give them the chance to learn from every experience in life, not just the positive ones. They can handle far more than we give them credit for.
I love the image of innocence that they portray in this movie with Lili and the unicorns. Only someone truly innocent in their mind and heart could get close enough to the unicorns to be able to touch one and this is exactly what the goblins use to be able to capture one of them. With the stallion standing so still, it allows the head goblin, Blix, to shoot a poisoned dart into it's side. With one unicorn brought down, the world is plunged into darkness and winter. The world freezes in place and Jack (Tom Cruise) has to become the hero to save the last unicorn and the world as a whole. The characters he meets in this journey to right the world and overcome the evil that seeks to rule it are fantastic and diverse. Gump is the leader of the crew that aides Jack on his quest. He seems to be an elfin creature who knows many secrets that a mere mortal would never be exposed to. His ragtag group is quite the mix of fairies and dwarves. Brown Tom and Screwball are fun and energetic, constantly bantering with each other bringing a lightness to a heavy topic. Oona is the epitome of a fairy, one who can be tiny and light with whimsy, but is also tricksy and vengeful. They represent the wildness of a magical place and they balance each other out in an oddball kind of way. The actor who plays Screwball is in another film that will be on my list later this year when I do a month of oddball comedies. He was in UHF with Weird Al Yankovic and plays such a sweet cameraman with a memorable smile. I can't wait to watch that one again, too!
In contrast, the darker elements of the film were perfectly balanced with the light. Blix is perfectly gross, The Darkness is equally terrifying and entrancing and the side characters create visceral reactions for me. One of my favorite characters was Meg Mucklebones. She is this swamp being who preys on anyone travelling through her swamp. She's a towering presence, though she easily succumbs to flattery. She is so unpredictable and kept me on the edge of my seat when I first watched this movie. Now I can watch this scene and just love the performance that the actor gives. I only just found out that the person who took on this role is a guy that I've seen in many other roles, Robert Picardo. The most memorable for me was Dr. Zimmerman in Star Trek: Voyager, but he's done a ton of television and voice acting roles as well. It's so interesting that the best person for a role isn't always the same gender as the role itself. In this film there is another flip of gender roles, the male character of Blix is portrayed by a woman named Alice Playten. Blix is another great character and the performance pulls you into this world in the very first scene. Each one of these dark characters seem so very well fleshed out, leaving you creeped out or grossed out by the attention to detail. From the hog-like character to the chefs in The Darkness' kitchen, each one feels real and fitting in this world.
On that same note, each one of the settings is so completely immersive and well thought out that you truly feel like they've filmed in a place as old as time. The magical forest has trees that are so large that they've had to be there for centuries. Little did I know that these weren't exactly real trees. They so perfectly built a studio to make it into a forest that it literally became a forest. They built up the largest trees and planted smaller ones to look like new growth. They released different birds at varying times and were never able to capture them again, so they just lived up in the trees that they built. So this film studio did so well at their job that they wound up making it real. So crazy to think about it in that way. When you get to The Darkness' castle, each one of the rooms seems to show how things were accumulated over centuries and began to collect dust and grew cobwebs. There's so many little nuances in the background of each of these rooms that you find it hard to focus on just the actors in each scene. It's truly a wonder that they were able to pull all of this off so smoothly.
I've read a few reviews for this movie from people who seemed to miss what this movie had to offer. One of those was Roger Ebert's original 1986 review. He seemed to miss the point and purpose of some of the movie and the characters. He was apparently distracted by Tom Cruise's legs, so I guess I can give him a pass. He didn't even realize that the black dress wasn't a sorceress. The dress was an inanimate object bespelled to entice and seduce the innocent princess. This movie hits all the marks for fantasy, although it doesn't give you much background into the world it's set in. It just drops you in and says, "Enjoy the ride!" It is amazing how much they were able to do with the limited time the movie wound up being. Apparently they cut a large amount of time out of the film to fit into a standard time slot that the 80s movie goers could handle, leaving out parts that Ridley Scott actually wanted to keep in. I've also read that the original script had a few other elements in it that had to be cut. For example, when The Darkness seduces the princess, they apparently didn't stop at a dance. I would love it if they released the original story into a book so everyone could see what the original vision for Legend would have been. I'm sure it would seem even more epic than it already was.
Thanks for stopping by for another movie that I can't get enough of. Stay tuned for my next movie, Congo, starring Dylan Walsh, Laura Linney and Ernie Hudson alongside the legendary Tim Curry. I can't wait to watch this one again!
For more movies, check out my other blog, How Have You Never Seen That?!
