Legend (1985)

reviewed by
Serdar Yegulalp


Legend (1985)
A movie review by Serdar Yegulalp
(C) 1997 by Serdar Yegulalp

[NB: This review is designed to cover the European edition of the film, not the American version.]

CAPSULE: Gorgeous but leaden fairytale with (literally) a heart of darkness.

LEGEND is a strange example of a lot of energy and effort gone somewhat awry -- a huge, ambitious production mounted in search of a script that seemed to only be half there. It's a stunning film to watch, but when it's over, it leaves nothing behind except an aftertaste.

Ridley Scott, director of ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER, likes to make movies that enclose the viewer visually, even if they're not spellbinding storytelling (which those two movies were, but not this one). He gives us a fantasyland that looks like a Frank Frazetta painting come to life. In it are two characters: Princess Lili (Mia Sara), lively and innocent, and Jack (Tom Cruise), a wild-child of the forest. The two of them are in love, and you know how stupidly people act when they fall in love... and Jack's transgression is to take Lili to where the unicorns dwell.

They're not the only ones here. There is also Darkness (a very intimidating Tim Curry). What's interesting is that Darkness is not so much evil as he is simply an embodiment of lusts -- something everyone has -- so he seems less like a villain and more like a tragic figure gone horribly wrong. There's much potential here, but the movie develops it stumblingly.

The plot centers around Darkness's attempts to have the unicorns destroyed, which will plunge the world back into eternal night once more. Jack winds up being drafted by a small army of magical creatures to fight Darkness; the most striking of the gang played by William Bennent, the child actor who intimidated the audience with his unearthly eyes in THE TIN DRUM. Here he's also effective, projecting a sense that not all things that enchant are also neccesarily benevolent. Tom Cruise and Mia Sara are also both fine in the movie, and they make their characters quick and appealing.

I didn't hate LEGEND; in fact, it grew on me as I watched it, not only because of the look and feel, but the psychological undertones of the story. But at the same time I had to admit that there was not enough of the story on the screen; I was responding to my own projections and assumptions about the movie, not the movie itself. Too bad. The movie's also very dark in places -- it might scare smaller children, and it saddened me to think that the only person who could really access a fairytale with attempts at sophisticated undertones was an adult.

LEGEND had a troubled production history. One of the sound stages burned to the ground during production, and the remainder of the movie was filmed on hastily constructed sets. It was also savagely re-edited by Universal when released in the USA, and even the European edition of the movie (which uses a Jerry Goldsmith score to much better effect than the Tangerine Dream soundtrack plastered over the US version) is patchy-looking. I suspect a good deal of the movie's virtues were ruined in the ham-handed editing, but at the same time, I suspect the movie's basic flaws can only be corrected by so much.

Two and a half out of four horns.
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