Director Report Card: Ridley Scott (1985)

4. Legend

While making “The Duellists,” Ridley Scott had an idea for a film inspired by fairy tales. He consumed as many classical stories, including those by the Brothers Grimm, in preparation. He reached out to novelist William Hjortsberg to further develop the idea and the two birthed an epic screenplay that would've been impossible to film. Scott was so fascinated with the premise that unicorns even worked their way into “Blade Runner,” which he was filming at the same time. Over the course of fifteen drafts, they pared the story down to something manageable. “Legend” would enter principal photography in 1984. Production was difficult, with a fire consuming the sets ten days before filming was due to end. Post-production was worst, as unfavorable test screenings led to alternate cuts, and the movie did poorly at the box office. In time, however, “Legend” would become a cult classic and one of the defining fantasy films of the eighties. 

Princess Lili shirks her royal responsibilities to spend time in the woods with Jack, the boy she loves. One day, he shows her the unicorns, the guardians of light who are attracted to innocence. Unbeknownst to either, the Lord of Darkness has sent his goblin Blix to kill the unicorns, to plunge the world into eternal night and allow him to rule over it again. As the stallion's horn is severed, a wintry freeze grips the forest. Blix abducts the mare and Lili, dragging them to Darkness' subterranean lair. Jack must team up with a troop of fairies and elves to descend into the underworld, rescue Lili, retrieve the unicorn, defeat Darkness, and bring light back to the world.

In “The Duellist,” Ridley Scott re-created baroque paintings among real fields and locations. In “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” he created whole entire worlds on sound stages. The director combines these two instincts with “Legend.” Inspired by the redwood forest of Yosemite, Scott sought to recreate cascading forest on a sound stage. Realism was not a concern. The few live animals we see, a bear here or a fox there, seem almost hilariously out of place. The painterly quality of “The Duellists” is obvious in shots of the blue sky, of Lili walking through a field of flowers. Of pink petals blowing through the wind as Blix approaches the unicorn or a unicorn standing in a ray of light amidst a blowing snow storm. The world here is not as immersive as the one in “Blade Runner” or “Alien,” simply because it's not as deliberately real. Yet it's still an impressive achievement. 

“Legend” is most fascinating for the way it synthesizes so many ideas and themes from classical fairy tales and mythology. Jack has elements of “Peter Pan” to him, a boy who is closer to nature than the royal princess, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. The other Pan-ian elements are gifted to Gump, who is even more of a trickster. Gump also has a Tinkerbell-like companion, a glowing sprite named Oona. She harbors a crush on Jack, another parallel to Peter and Tinkerbell. Jack has the most archetypal of heroic names, recalling Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Killer. Oona leads him to a horde of magical weapons. A golden armor brings the Golden Fleece to mind, a reflective shield is taken from the story of Perseus, and a shining blade recalls Beowulf and Grendel's mother.

These are far from the only stories that “Legend” willingly invokes. While traveling a bog, Jack and his friends encounter Meg Mucklebones. An archetypal bog witch, in the mold of Jenny Greenteeth, Jack trying to trick the cannibalistic she-beast also recalls legendary encounters with Baba Yaga. In the film's final reel, Jack awakens a sleeping Lili with a kiss, pulled directly from “Sleeping Beauty.” The stories of these two innocents, frolicking in an idyllic forest, can't help but remind you of the Garden of Eden as well. Especially once a single mistake the girl makes – attempting to touch the unicorns, in this case – brings chaos into their realm. Later, the Lord of Darkness even temps Lili with an apple. Along with a pile of gold and a decadent feast, which brings “Hansel and Gretel,” “Goblin Market,” and other traditional fairy tales to mind.

The Lord of Darkness doesn't merely abduct Lili. He aims to seduce her as well, having become so enchanted with her innocent soul. This is seemingly another deliberate allusion to Greek mythology, to the story of Hades and Persephone. The Lord cuts a clearly Luciferian figure, the spitting image of a classical devil who speaks of animal nature, of sin and being damned, of influencing man through dreams. Yet he also has beastly hooves and bull-like horns. The Beauty and the Beast parallels become all the more apparent when he emerges from a mirror, a shout-out to Jean Cocteau's “Beauty and the Beast.” (An acknowledged influence on the film.) If Darkness represents beastly masculine sexuality, seductive and animalistic, than Lili eventually out-thinking him makes her something of a “Little Red Riding Hood” figure too, who survives and defeats the man who desires to gobble her up.

With its blatantly Satanic villain and adventure through a underworld in the second half, “Legend” rides the line between fantasy and horror. Images of masked torturers chopping up bound victims against fiery pits are certainly hellish. Images of horned imps and winged demons leaping around recall silent horror films like “Haxan” and “L'inferno.” There's certainly plenty of horror-like ambiance in many other scenes. Such as when Jack and the elves are crossing Meg Mucklebone's swamp, fog dancing over the water as shadows of trees shaped like bat wings are cast overhead. This is also true when Darkness is vamping in his lair, dramatically gesturing from another bat-shaped throne. 

The element linking “Legend” most strongly with the horror genre are its incredible practical creature effects. Created by Rob Bottin, right off “The Thing” and at the peak of his power, the latex and rubber beasts here are some of the best in all of the fantasy genre. Blix, with his curling nose and pointed ears and seemingly always dripping skin, is the archetypal fantasy goblin brought to life. He's joined by the perfectly pig-like Pox. The dwarf-like figures accompanying Jack and Gump on their quest, with names like Screwball and Brown Tom, seem to have stepped right out of the Rankin-Bass “Hobbit.” Meg Mucklebones is similarly the ideal swamp witch, green and warty and covered with slime. Darkness is an unforgettable visual too, towering and muscular with an enormous pair of horns. The effects are so good that they transcend special effects. You accept each of these characters as flesh and blood, living beings. 

Upon release, “Legend” was frequently criticized for its perceived lack of depth in the characters. This seems to overlook that the movie is obviously trafficking in archetypes. Tom Cruise, looking fresh-faced and sprightly, stars as Jack. The youthfulness of this long-since-established star works in “Legend's” favor, making Jack seem even more like an innocent boy who is going on his first quest. Cruise's strange breed of movie star charisma also helps sells Jack's luck and daring. Mia Sara, in her first role, has a similar quality as Lili. She projects complete innocence and naivety as the young princess, while also making it believable that Lili can out-scheme the Lord of Darkness as the end of the film.

Speaking of which... If people remember nothing else from “Legend,” they remember Tim Curry as Darkness. Despite being completely buried under make-up for all his screen-time, Curry never lets you forget who is playing this devil. The unforgettably perverse sensuality that made Dr. Frank-N-Furter a cult icon is well on display here. There is something seductive about Darkness, who seems utterly sincere in his desire to possess Lili's heart and soul. Curry, of course, also had a legendary ability to go gloriously over-the-top. Playing the literal devil provides lots of opportunity for that too. Darkness bellows and growls. He makes condescending comments to his enemies and grandiose speeches in his attempts to seduce Lili. It's the kind of villainous performance any other eighties fantasy flick would've killed for.

As much as I admire it, “Legend” is still a flawed film. It's greatest weakness is that, for a fantasy adventure movie, its adventure elements are frequently underwhelming. The first time Jack swings his magical sword, against Meg Mucklebones, the results are not horribly clear in any of the versions of the film. An encounter with the pair of over-sized torturers in the underworld is more lumbering than exciting. Jack's confrontation with Darkness is probably the most kinetic action sequence in the film. And even that has the rather cheesy effect of Darkness spurting fire from his fingertips, which is never convincing. Certainly nothing here compares to the exciting sword fights Scott created in “The Duellists.” It's these moments that “Legend” seems the most dated.

Of course, “Legend” isn't really an action movie so maybe it's not a big deal if those scenes are weak. Despite being dark and weird, one gets the distinct impression that this was Ridley Scott's best honest attempt at making a children's movie. This is most apparent in the movie's attempt at comic relief. The goblins are frequently farcical creatures. Blix uses the magical unicorn horn to blow up chairs and eggs in a cottage, bickering with his partners. Later, Glum's companions comically attempt to deflects arrows with a frying pan. The following scene, where the same dwarf mistakenly believe himself to be fatally wounded, goes on for much too long. This kind of broad comic relief, which even includes someone's ass getting caught on fire, is badly at odds with the rest of the movie's tone. 

Once again, we must ask which version of a Ridley Scott movie we are watching. At least three versions of “Legend” exist with two cuts – the 1984 U.S. Theatrical Cut and the 2002 Director's Cut – being the most widely available. In hopes of making the movie more commercial, the theatrical cut clipped twenty minutes out of the movie, rendering it a slim 89 minutes. The material added to the director's cut is mostly for the better. More time is devoted to setting up the heroic plot used to defeat Darkness. The encounter with Meg Mucklebones is much longer, a definite improvement over the brief sequence in the theatrical cut. We see more of Jack and Lili's relationship, of her singing to him. Jack and Glum's first meeting and Darkness' seduction of Lili are also expanded. Over all, the director's cut is a more coherent film than the truncated U.S. version.

Having said that, the theatrical cut is the version of “Legend” I had on VHS as a kid. It's the “Legend” I grew up watching. There are certain elements to this version that I do like. In Scott's preferred cut, Darkness does not actually appear on-screen until an hour into the film. This excises a wonderfully creepy sequence at the film's beginning, where he sits on his throne and monologues about his scheme, his eyes and nails glowing in the dark. The theatrical cut's ending also implies that Darkness isn't so easily defeated, that there is some truth to his words that the light cannot exist without the dark. Which I like. And certain elements are the same across both versions. One of the villain's goblin henchman randomly changing sides and becoming a good guy is equally unexplained in every version of the film. 

The most obvious difference between the two cuts is the music. Scott's preferred version has a traditional orchestral score provided by Jerry Goldsmith, which was also maintained in the original European cut. Goldsmith's score is certainly very good. It's full of lovely melodies, such as the romantic themes for Lili and Jack. The goblins are given a creepy theme all their own. It's  a fittingly pastoral and mystical score and one worth listening to. The U.S. cut, meanwhile, has an electronic score from Tangerine Dream, full of strange noises and pulsating synth melodies. It provides a totally different energy for the film, creating a much more dream-like and off-beat feeling experience. And while the addition of Jon Anderon's “Loved by the Song” over the ending is a slice of pure cheese, Bryon Ferry's “Is Your Love Strong Enough?” is a fantastic pop song to close the movie on. In short: Both scores result in a totally different feeling “Legend” - one a traditional fantasy film, the other an eighties cult oddity – and I like them both. 

“Legend” would more-or-less flop in theaters in 1985, failing to attract an audience. Cable television and video is where the movie would attract an audience. That's certainly where I found it. Along side other eighties fantasy classics like “Labyrinth,” ”Willow,” and “The Dark Crystal,” it was a frequent presence in my childhood VHS player. I imagine this is true for a lot of fans. In time, “Legend” would beget special edition DVDs and merchandise, cementing its cult status. Though critics remain divided on the movie's merits, Scott has always defended the movie as a favorite of his own. Undeniably flawed yet still utterly fascinating, “Legend” remains an intoxicating case of fantasy-melding and world-building with an unforgettable villain. [Grade: A-]