Legend (1985)

Legend (1985)
"What is light without dark?" — Darkness
Genre: Dark Fantasy Adventure Romance Directed by: Ridley Scott Produced by: Arnon Milchan Written by: William Hjortsberg Starring: Tom Cruise Mia Sara Tim Curry David Bennent Alice Playten Billy Barty Cork Hubbert Annabelle Lanyon Cinematography: Alex Thomson Editing: Terry Rawlings Music by: Jerry Goldsmith (European version and director's cut) Tangerine Dream (US version) Production company: Universal Pictures Embassy International Pictures N.V. Legend Production Company Distributed by: Universal Pictures (North America) 20th Century Fox (International) Release date: August 28, 1985 (France) April 18, 1986 (United States) Runtime: 89 minutes (theatrical cut) 93 minutes (international cut) 114 minutes (director's cut) Country: United States Language: English Budget: $25 million Box office: $23.5 million

Legend is a 1985 American epic dark fantasy adventure film directed and conceived by Ridley Scott, and starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry, David Bennent, Alice Playten, Billy Barty, Cork Hubbert, and Annabelle Lanyon.

Despite being panned by critics and a box office failure, the film won the British Society of Cinematographers Award for Best Cinematography in 1985, as well as being nominated for multiple awards. Since its premiere, reinforced by the 2002 release of the unrated Director's Cut, the film has been called a cult classic.

Synopsis

The film revolves around Jack, who must stop the Lord of Darkness who plots to cover the world with eternal night.

Legendary Qualities

1. Fantastic make-up and costume designs, especially the one for Darkness.
2. Excellent cinematography, courtesy of Alex Thomson.
3. Terrific music through and through, with notable examples being Tangerine Dream's version of the unicorn theme song and its rare, extended version, both of which has a perfect 80's vibe (as expected from a movie made in the 1980s).
4. Eye-catching special visual effects, especially the glittery effects.
5. While somewhat clichéd, the storyline is very reminiscent of various fairytale stories.
6. Brilliant direction by Ridley Scott, who's best known for his direction of films such as Blade Runner and Alien before this one.
7. Darkness is an intimidating and memorable antagonist. And it helps that his costume design made him all the more convincing, even for villain standards.
8. The dance scene near the end is rather mesmerizing to behold.
9. Great casting, including Tom Cruise and Tim Curry (who also played Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the titular character in the It miniseries, Wadsworth in Clue, Thaddeus E. Klang in TaleSpin, Taurus Bulba in Darkwing Duck, Hexxus in FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Maestro Forte in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, King Chicken in Duckman, Mouse King in Barbie in the Nutcracker, Von Talon in Valiant, Ben Ravencroft in Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, Simon Doonan in the 1996 TV movie Titanic, Evil Manta in The Little Mermaid TV series, El Maléfico in ¡Mucha Lucha!: The Return of El Maléfico, Cardinal Richelieu in the 1993 film adaptation of The Three Musketeers, Farley Claymore in The Shadow, Drake in The Pebble and the Penguin, Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, Big Brother in Johnny Bravo, Dr. Anton Sevarius in Gargoyles, Billy Flynn in Criminal Minds, Rooster St. Regis in Annie, Dr. Slicer in Recess, Slagar the Cruel in Redwall, Scarlet Fever and Nick O' Teen in Ozzy & Drix, Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck in Monk, Belial in The Legend of Atlantis, Anatoly Cherdenko in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Philippe in Barbie and the Three Musketeers, Kilokahn in Super Human Samurai Syber-Squad).
10. Memorable quotes, such as this one from Darkness: "You think you have won! What is light without dark? What are you without me? I am a part of you all. You can never defeat me. We are brothers eternal!"
11. While still dark-toned, the film has some funny and lighthearted moments, like with Screwball and Brown Tom.
12. Good ending in the European theatrical version and especially in the Director's Cut version.

Bad Qualities

1. The story has a somewhat dull rescue-the-princess cliché we've seen and heard a few times before (mind you, this film came out even before Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda came out on the NES in the same year and 1986 respectively). But at least it's not poorly written.
2. Some dark, disturbing scenes for a PG-rated film, such as
   • In one scene, a peasant family (including a baby) seemingly froze to death from a winter curse.
   • A scene in which a unicorn stallion gets his horn chopped off by the goblins and dies.
   • A scene where Jack decapitates Meg Mucklebones.
   • A scene in which the ogres were chopping up one of their prisoners to cook.
3. Despite the great special effects, the film occasionally has flashing lights in some scenes, which can cause a seizure.
4. Minor plot hole: In the scene where Jack first met Honeythorn Gump, where did all the bubbles come from?
5. Bad Ending (only in the US theatrical version): Just as Jack and Lili are having a happy ending, Darkness is watching them from a void while laughing menacingly, implying that he somehow survived and is plotting revenge, which feels like a blatant sequel bait. And speaking of which...
6. Just like The Black Cauldron (another cult classic dark fantasy film that came out in the same year), due to its poor box office performance, it never got a sequel nor a remake as of 2024.

Comments

Loading comments...