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glitter_n_goreSometimes, it takes several viewings and thirty years to find your favorite things. I rewatched the movie Legend recently. One of the lesser-known classics of 1980s fantasy cinema, Legend follows Princess Lily (Mia Sara) as one of her visits to the nearby village in the forest goes terribly wrong. There are goblins tasked with stealing the unicorns' horns for their power, and Lily is the bait because she has an innocent spirit. The death of the first unicorn leads to a cursed winter and darkness that will last forever if the second is killed too. On top of all that, Lily is captured by the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry), who wants to make her his bride. Her childhood friend and sweetheart, Jack (Tom Cruise), joins a band of sprites, fairies, and elves to rescue her. They have to navigate a hellish landscape to find Lily, save the unicorn, and steal back the horn before it’s too late.
GIF - Mia Sara in white dress kneeling in river reaching out to a white unicorn
Source.
For obvious reasons, I used to get this movie mixed up with The Last Unicorn, and so had a hard time tracking it down to watch again. There are still a few movies I can't find because I know so little about them apart from a few half-remembered images. I've mentioned before that, until I sat down and watched the whole thing properly, I was convinced that The Neverending Story was an elaborate dream I'd had. But that’s still a movie I grew up with and know inside out. Legend is in that rare but slowly expanding category of movies that I only kinda remember from my childhood, but have rediscovered as an adult. Allow me to gush over it for a couple thousand words.
For clarity’s sake: I am discussing the 2002 Director’s Cut with the extra 25 minutes and the Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack.
One thing I’ve started to realize about myself as a reviewer and cinephile is that I still watch movies through the lens of wonder and amazement I had as a child. It took work to get back to that point, to remember that this movie-watching thing is supposed to be fun. I think binging the entire Resident Evil series helped, as did going to see A Wrinkle In Time with my mother. Even before that, I retained the ability to get carried away by the movies I loved as a kid, usually without bringing any cynicism to it. Now, there is an analytical part of my brain that I can’t turn off. I still think about things like shot composition, soundtrack, dialogue, and character development, but what I’m always hoping for is to forget that I’m even watching a movie. I want to get lost in it.
That's what I mean by "immersive" magic. Legend is a movie I can get lost in, despite only seeing it from start to finish as an adult. Magic is a fact of this universe, with rules and immediate, palpable consequences. It seeps out of every frame, it hums behind the unsaid dialogue and the silent moments in the soundtrack. It feels like we aren't being told a story, but rather shown a snapshot of a much larger world that's completely unaware of the presence of an audience.
GIF - white unicorn walking through path in the woods in a blizzard of pink cherry blossoms
Source.
This is what "Show, don't tell," looks like when it's done right. What does this scene with the swirling cherry blossoms as thick as a snowstorm mean and why does it feel so ominous? We don't know, but we don't need to, and it is beautiful. Every shot is like this. The frame is filled with detail that brings the world to life in a way that’s hazy and unexplained, but feels like it’s somehow existed for hundreds of years.
But what I keep thinking about, the reason I decided to write this now, is the subtle and brilliant characterization of Lily. This last viewing was only my fourth time watching the movie, and only my second seeing it the whole way through. What I find remarkable is that, contrary to what I had thought up to now, Jack is not the protagonist. All the marketing, including promotional stills, the layout of the DVD cover, the plot summary, and the fact that it's Tom Cruise, seem to indicate that he's the one driving the story. He's not. It's Lily. She's introduced first, it’s her mistake that delivers the unicorns into the clutches of Darkness, it’s her guilt that leads her to track the goblins and pass their plan on to the elves before getting captured, she outsmarts the Lord of Darkness, and she saves the last unicorn herself.
Just think about that last part for a minute. Lily has been completely separated from her friends at this point. She has no idea that Jack and the others are there looking for her, and therefore no reason to believe she's going to get away. And yet she still manages to keep it together enough to make a plan that will save someone else. Her goal is not escape, or even survival, but trying to correct a disastrous situation that she feels responsible for. This matters because she is a Princess, and it gives you a clue as to what kind of ruler she will become one day. Someone who puts the good of others above her personal safety and can negotiate with a much stronger, meaner adversary without breaking a sweat is clearly someone who will make an excellent Queen.
This is why it's Lily's story. She's the one who has to examine her actions and sit with her mistakes, and learns how to grow past them and become a stronger person because of it. It’s remarkable how close she comes to siding with the Lord of Darkness. There is an undeniable part of Lily that's drawn to the Dark, with its power and glamor and danger. Mia Sara’s delivery in lines like, “I hear a throat begging to be cut,” is chilling because you can’t quite tell how much she’s bluffing. The seduction scene when Lily dances with the entity in that fabulous black gown is one of the film’s most iconic moments, and a big reason horror fans remember this movie even if most of the 80s nostalgia train left it behind.
GIF - closeup of Princess Lily in full sparkly Goth regalia, spinning in mesmerized circles
Source.
By the time we get to this scene, we already know that Lily’s biggest flaws are that she’s stubborn and impulsive, which is what leads to getting the first unicorn killed. But ironically, it’s those same qualities that save her life later. She refuses to submit to Darkness’s demands, and tricks him into getting her into the dungeon long enough to set the unicorn free. Seeing a fairy tail Princess who is flawed and complicated in this way is so rare, I can't think of a single other place I've seen it. And it's fascinating.
It's interesting that Lily is corruptible despite being the Innocence MacGuffin for this destroy-the-universe plot. Doubly so since Jack apparently isn't. Speaking of Jack, let's talk about him for a minute, and about the romance sub-plot. Jack might be my second-favorite Tom Cruise character ever. (If you have to ask who the first is--get out. Get out right now.) I keep forgetting how much I enjoy early Tom Cruise. He is so recognizable it should be distracting, but he plays this character with such disarming sincerity I can’t help falling for him all over again. Really, the whole cast is like that. Mia Sara as the Princess goes from sweetly naive to scarred and self-aware over the course of the movie. David Bennent as Honeythorn Gump steals every scene he’s in, and should have had a much bigger career after this. And of course, Tim Curry as the Lord of Darkness is magnificent.
I think Jack is easy to mistake for a protagonist because he’s in the spot we expect heroes to fill in a conventional fantasy story. He’s the guy, he’s played by a famous actor (although this might be more of a factor retrospectively--this was pre-Top Gun, after all), he gets to hold a sword and have a fight scene against the Big Bad, etc. That’s what the hero does, right? But it’s a role he’s uncomfortable with, and he’s happy to leave it behind when the adventure’s over. Jack is handed the position of a knight in shining armor, but ultimately saves the day by engineering a way to bring daylight into Darkness’s lair. He’s quick and knows how to defend himself, but killing is not something he’s good at, and he’s not interested in changing that. Jack's a lover, not a fighter. And that, just like the Princess being susceptible to Darkness, is incredibly rare.
GIF - Mia Sara and Tom Cruise sitting in wildflowers with a cuddly fox
Source.
Don't get me wrong: I love my fantasy warrior types who fight monsters with swords. Atreyu was my first crush, Inigo Montoya was my second--I get it. But there are other ways to save the world than by killing things. It’s refreshing to see a focal character in a movie like this who does exactly that. (Even if he does kill a few monsters along the way.)
More importantly, Jack’s entire arc is tied to his relationship with Lily. Everything he does in the movie is motivated by his love for her. Lily, on the other hand, is motivated by personal responsibility and inner turmoil over trying to do the right thing. What I find refreshing about Jack and Lily’s relationship is that they already have a relationship by the time we get there. There's no will they / won't they, there's no drawn-out peripheral questioning of how they feel about each other, there's no disposable love interest on either side that has to be dumped before the credits roll. Before anything even goes wrong, Lily has already promised to marry him. And it's fine! Not a single piece of the plot revolves around their relationship becoming strained in some way.
I’m trying to think of a less twee way to say, “Their love is so pure,” which is what I’m getting at here.
But keep in mind, the love story is a sub-plot. Jack and Lily getting together again isn't actually the goal. The goal is to save the unicorn. Saving the unicorn doesn’t even bring them together--they were already together, and just had to survive a very bad day. I do wonder if Lily has the authority to choose a husband without consulting anyone else. Jack isn't exactly affiliated with a neighboring kingdom here. He's teaching her how to speak to the animals, and likes hearing her sing, but he has very little to offer in a material sense. Is she allowed to make him a Prince? Will she move out of the palace and find a place to live in the forest, the better to keep in touch with all the sprites she met through this experience? Going back further, is that vision of the clock on the mantel turning to ice a first for her, or has she had prophetic visions before?
That's the other thing about immersive fantasy. I have so many questions about how this universe works, but that leaves more for your imagination to explore. And anything that encourages your imagination to conjure details is a good thing. Especially if there are monsters, and unicorns.
GIF - figure kneels in front of white unicorn in the snowy woods
Source.
(Cross-posted torhoda_rants.)
GIF - Mia Sara in white dress kneeling in river reaching out to a white unicorn
Source.
For obvious reasons, I used to get this movie mixed up with The Last Unicorn, and so had a hard time tracking it down to watch again. There are still a few movies I can't find because I know so little about them apart from a few half-remembered images. I've mentioned before that, until I sat down and watched the whole thing properly, I was convinced that The Neverending Story was an elaborate dream I'd had. But that’s still a movie I grew up with and know inside out. Legend is in that rare but slowly expanding category of movies that I only kinda remember from my childhood, but have rediscovered as an adult. Allow me to gush over it for a couple thousand words.
For clarity’s sake: I am discussing the 2002 Director’s Cut with the extra 25 minutes and the Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack.
One thing I’ve started to realize about myself as a reviewer and cinephile is that I still watch movies through the lens of wonder and amazement I had as a child. It took work to get back to that point, to remember that this movie-watching thing is supposed to be fun. I think binging the entire Resident Evil series helped, as did going to see A Wrinkle In Time with my mother. Even before that, I retained the ability to get carried away by the movies I loved as a kid, usually without bringing any cynicism to it. Now, there is an analytical part of my brain that I can’t turn off. I still think about things like shot composition, soundtrack, dialogue, and character development, but what I’m always hoping for is to forget that I’m even watching a movie. I want to get lost in it.
That's what I mean by "immersive" magic. Legend is a movie I can get lost in, despite only seeing it from start to finish as an adult. Magic is a fact of this universe, with rules and immediate, palpable consequences. It seeps out of every frame, it hums behind the unsaid dialogue and the silent moments in the soundtrack. It feels like we aren't being told a story, but rather shown a snapshot of a much larger world that's completely unaware of the presence of an audience.
GIF - white unicorn walking through path in the woods in a blizzard of pink cherry blossoms
Source.
This is what "Show, don't tell," looks like when it's done right. What does this scene with the swirling cherry blossoms as thick as a snowstorm mean and why does it feel so ominous? We don't know, but we don't need to, and it is beautiful. Every shot is like this. The frame is filled with detail that brings the world to life in a way that’s hazy and unexplained, but feels like it’s somehow existed for hundreds of years.
But what I keep thinking about, the reason I decided to write this now, is the subtle and brilliant characterization of Lily. This last viewing was only my fourth time watching the movie, and only my second seeing it the whole way through. What I find remarkable is that, contrary to what I had thought up to now, Jack is not the protagonist. All the marketing, including promotional stills, the layout of the DVD cover, the plot summary, and the fact that it's Tom Cruise, seem to indicate that he's the one driving the story. He's not. It's Lily. She's introduced first, it’s her mistake that delivers the unicorns into the clutches of Darkness, it’s her guilt that leads her to track the goblins and pass their plan on to the elves before getting captured, she outsmarts the Lord of Darkness, and she saves the last unicorn herself.
Just think about that last part for a minute. Lily has been completely separated from her friends at this point. She has no idea that Jack and the others are there looking for her, and therefore no reason to believe she's going to get away. And yet she still manages to keep it together enough to make a plan that will save someone else. Her goal is not escape, or even survival, but trying to correct a disastrous situation that she feels responsible for. This matters because she is a Princess, and it gives you a clue as to what kind of ruler she will become one day. Someone who puts the good of others above her personal safety and can negotiate with a much stronger, meaner adversary without breaking a sweat is clearly someone who will make an excellent Queen.
This is why it's Lily's story. She's the one who has to examine her actions and sit with her mistakes, and learns how to grow past them and become a stronger person because of it. It’s remarkable how close she comes to siding with the Lord of Darkness. There is an undeniable part of Lily that's drawn to the Dark, with its power and glamor and danger. Mia Sara’s delivery in lines like, “I hear a throat begging to be cut,” is chilling because you can’t quite tell how much she’s bluffing. The seduction scene when Lily dances with the entity in that fabulous black gown is one of the film’s most iconic moments, and a big reason horror fans remember this movie even if most of the 80s nostalgia train left it behind.
GIF - closeup of Princess Lily in full sparkly Goth regalia, spinning in mesmerized circles
Source.
By the time we get to this scene, we already know that Lily’s biggest flaws are that she’s stubborn and impulsive, which is what leads to getting the first unicorn killed. But ironically, it’s those same qualities that save her life later. She refuses to submit to Darkness’s demands, and tricks him into getting her into the dungeon long enough to set the unicorn free. Seeing a fairy tail Princess who is flawed and complicated in this way is so rare, I can't think of a single other place I've seen it. And it's fascinating.
It's interesting that Lily is corruptible despite being the Innocence MacGuffin for this destroy-the-universe plot. Doubly so since Jack apparently isn't. Speaking of Jack, let's talk about him for a minute, and about the romance sub-plot. Jack might be my second-favorite Tom Cruise character ever. (If you have to ask who the first is--get out. Get out right now.) I keep forgetting how much I enjoy early Tom Cruise. He is so recognizable it should be distracting, but he plays this character with such disarming sincerity I can’t help falling for him all over again. Really, the whole cast is like that. Mia Sara as the Princess goes from sweetly naive to scarred and self-aware over the course of the movie. David Bennent as Honeythorn Gump steals every scene he’s in, and should have had a much bigger career after this. And of course, Tim Curry as the Lord of Darkness is magnificent.
I think Jack is easy to mistake for a protagonist because he’s in the spot we expect heroes to fill in a conventional fantasy story. He’s the guy, he’s played by a famous actor (although this might be more of a factor retrospectively--this was pre-Top Gun, after all), he gets to hold a sword and have a fight scene against the Big Bad, etc. That’s what the hero does, right? But it’s a role he’s uncomfortable with, and he’s happy to leave it behind when the adventure’s over. Jack is handed the position of a knight in shining armor, but ultimately saves the day by engineering a way to bring daylight into Darkness’s lair. He’s quick and knows how to defend himself, but killing is not something he’s good at, and he’s not interested in changing that. Jack's a lover, not a fighter. And that, just like the Princess being susceptible to Darkness, is incredibly rare.
GIF - Mia Sara and Tom Cruise sitting in wildflowers with a cuddly fox
Source.
Don't get me wrong: I love my fantasy warrior types who fight monsters with swords. Atreyu was my first crush, Inigo Montoya was my second--I get it. But there are other ways to save the world than by killing things. It’s refreshing to see a focal character in a movie like this who does exactly that. (Even if he does kill a few monsters along the way.)
More importantly, Jack’s entire arc is tied to his relationship with Lily. Everything he does in the movie is motivated by his love for her. Lily, on the other hand, is motivated by personal responsibility and inner turmoil over trying to do the right thing. What I find refreshing about Jack and Lily’s relationship is that they already have a relationship by the time we get there. There's no will they / won't they, there's no drawn-out peripheral questioning of how they feel about each other, there's no disposable love interest on either side that has to be dumped before the credits roll. Before anything even goes wrong, Lily has already promised to marry him. And it's fine! Not a single piece of the plot revolves around their relationship becoming strained in some way.
I’m trying to think of a less twee way to say, “Their love is so pure,” which is what I’m getting at here.
But keep in mind, the love story is a sub-plot. Jack and Lily getting together again isn't actually the goal. The goal is to save the unicorn. Saving the unicorn doesn’t even bring them together--they were already together, and just had to survive a very bad day. I do wonder if Lily has the authority to choose a husband without consulting anyone else. Jack isn't exactly affiliated with a neighboring kingdom here. He's teaching her how to speak to the animals, and likes hearing her sing, but he has very little to offer in a material sense. Is she allowed to make him a Prince? Will she move out of the palace and find a place to live in the forest, the better to keep in touch with all the sprites she met through this experience? Going back further, is that vision of the clock on the mantel turning to ice a first for her, or has she had prophetic visions before?
That's the other thing about immersive fantasy. I have so many questions about how this universe works, but that leaves more for your imagination to explore. And anything that encourages your imagination to conjure details is a good thing. Especially if there are monsters, and unicorns.
GIF - figure kneels in front of white unicorn in the snowy woods
Source.
(Cross-posted to
rhoda_rants.)