Legend - Director's Cut (1985)

Legend is director Ridley Scott’s attempt at the fantasy genre. There are various versions of this film, but the best version to see is the 113 minute directors cut. The US theatrical version of the film is only 89 minutes long and features a different score by a group called Tangerine Dream, which resembles more generic 80s music because that’s exactly what it is. The director’s cut contains some notable differences and with the added running time is just better put together. As far as changes go, aside from some extended scenes and altered ending, the pacing and editing in general shows improvement and the original score by Jerry Goldsmith is much more suited to the tone and look of the film.

The story follows a young and adventurous Princess named Lily played by Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) who loves visiting a farm and exploring the forest with her friend Jack. Jack is a wild “forest child” (played by a young, pre-braces Tom Cruise) who can do front-flips and communicate with animals. Although Lily is a Princess, her castle and kingdom is never shown (and for the sake of the story, the world outside this particular forest is never explained or even described). Jack takes Lily to see the last two Unicorns and she decides to touch one of them, despite Jack’s warnings. Even though she meant no harm, by distracting one of the Unicorns, it gives plenty of time for a Goblin to shoot it with a poison-dart so that he may steal its horn for his master, the Lord of Darkness. The idea behind this is that with both unicorns dead, the sun will never rise again and the earth will be plunged into an eternal night. With this, the Lord of Darkness can rule the world with the power of the unicorn horns. After taking the horn of one of the unicorns, the goblins end up capturing the princess along with the other. This leads to Jack teaming up with the an Elf named Gump (David Bennet), a couple of dwarves, and a fairy in order to rescue the Princess, the Unicorn, and restore the world back to normal.

There are a few plot-holes that if dwelled on can significantly hurt the flow of the film. One is that when the first Unicorn’s horn is chopped off the world is turned into a dark frozen land of death. While this is all fine, it begs the question: why didn’t Princess Lily freeze to death? When she runs back to the farm she finds that the inhabitants, including the baby in a crib, are completely frozen. She was outside running around and she didn’t freeze solid. Why not? Jack didn’t freeze either, but he was swimming under water (which spared him, oddly enough). The other major plot-hole is the remaining Unicorn. The goblins killed the first Unicorn on sight, yet the other one they decided to capture and bring back to their Master unharmed. The bad guys could have won before the story even began, but they didn’t. But the biggest shortcoming of this film is the characters (or lack thereof). The story relies heavily on arch-types; the naïve princess, a mystical forest dweller, an elf, dwarves, a Demon, etc. The characters all serve their purposes well enough in terms of plot, but there isn’t a whole lot under the surface. This same problem is echoed in other fantasy films of the time like The Dark Crystal, Dragonslayer, and Krull. This seems to be a problem for fantasy films of that period and sadly the result is a spectacle that is lacking in an emotional attachment to the characters. Even more than the obvious plot holes; this is what hurts the film the most: the lack of compelling characters. In the entire film there is only one character that truly stands out, but we’ll get to that later.

What this film lacks in character depth, it attempts to make up for in the visuals and atmosphere. The magic forest is lush and full of vibrant colors. The entire thing was built as a massive set and uses no CG whatsoever. Even more impressive is the Domain of Darkness. The Lord of Darkness lives in what looks to be a colossal dead tree. But inside it is a labyrinth that goes down for miles and displays rooms with enormous pillars, dank dungeons, and pits of fire. The enormity of the castle of Darkness is evident in every room. There are scenes where the camera follows characters running through a gigantic room, weaving around the columns and it really gives a sense of the scale of the place. Dead bodies and skeletons are scattered in nearly every hallway; some rooms seem like they belong in the pits of hell. The inside of the castle is as varied as the forest outside of it. Like the forest is full of fog and mist, the different rooms of the castle are shrouded in smoke and webs. Ridley Scott maintains a dramatic and mysterious sense of wonder throughout the entire film.

Yet even with some of these spectacular sets, there is one aspect of the film that dwarfs nearly everything else and that is the villain. His name is simply Darkness and he is an 8-foot tall, giant-horned, red-skinned demon. Underneath the impressive make-up is Tim Curry who brings the character to life. The only part of him that can actually be seen is his mouth, but the way that his lips curl as he snarls every line makes the frequent close-ups engaging. The first appearance of this character is extremely memorable: Lily is being seduced by his attempts to play to her vanity; a new dress, shining jewels. As she looks at herself in the enlarged mirror, he literally enters the room through her reflection; everything evil or wrong in a human being physically embodied in an enormous and grotesque form, complete with hooves for feet. It’s quite an entrance.

There is not a whole lot of action in this film. It’s much more reliant on the atmosphere and look of the sets and characters. There isn’t really a journey in this film either as Darkness’s domain is literally about a mile from where the plot starts. But the scenes with Darkness attempting to seduce and charm the princess are as interesting as watching a duel. There is a great scene where he tries to convince her to sit down at the enormous dinner table he has laid out for her. The chair he asks her to sit in is somehow linked to him, though exactly how is ambiguous. As she approaches it, it literally begins to throb as it waits for her to sit down. The chair is some kind of sexual object to him and she realizes this and teases him with the idea of her sitting on it. When she finally doesn’t he loses his temper and the control of their discussion shifts in her favor and she actually begins manipulating him. It’s a really fascinating engagement as he is so dominated by his lust that she is able to use it to her advantage and reverse the control of power in the room. Legend has its share of problems and is by no means a great film. It’s mildly entertaining and visually striking, but it doesn’t really offer much outside of its villain and set design to warrant a recommendation.