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Ridley Scott's first fray into fantasy is one of those movies that *could* have been a classic if not for some unfortunate shortcomings that harmed its chances. After making darker, sometimes horrifying fare such as Alien and Blade Runner, the director wanted to make a less intense, accessible story. Teaming up with writer William Hjortsberg, Scott fashioned a fairy tale fantasy involving loss of innocence, unicorns, dwarves, temptation, redemption, and occasional Biblical overtones. Thus, Legend was born.
Following an atmospherically haunting opening sequence in a nighttime forest, the movie follows two innocents: Jack (Tom Cruise), a "forest boy" who communicates with animals, and his girlfriend, a princess named Lili (Mia Sara). Against his better judgment, Jack takes Lili to a forbidden grove where she is entranced by the sight of unicorns. She reaches out to touch one of them -- a fatal mistake which eventually leads to the unicorn having its alicorn severed by a trio of nasty goblins (their ringleader played by the raspy-voiced Alice Playten). Almost instantly a blizzard showers down on the forest, and Jack and Lili are separated. It turns out that the ringleader behind the plot is the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry), a horned, demonic presence who wants to destroy sunshine and spread his evil across the world. Soon Lili is kidnapped, too, and Jack must get her (as well as the unicorn's alicorn) back. He's accompanied by Honeythorn Gump (David Bennett, voiced by Playten), a sprite-child who strums a violin, a pair of bickering dwarfs (Cork Hubbert and the late Billy Barty), and an emotionally distraught fairy.
Legend aims to be an atmospheric fantasy epic, and in many ways it succeeds. The production design is staggeringly spectacular, even for a movie shot primarily on sound stages. The colors in the forest scenes are lush and rich with detail, and the set/creature/costume designs perfectly encapsulate the mood of the subject. The goblins and dwarves look pretty much how you'd expect, but Tim Curry's Lord of Darkness is easily the triumph of the film. Completely unrecognizable in prosthetic make-up supplied by Rob Bottin, Curry not only looks terrifying, but his delivery is truly evil personified. Every scene he's in is an unbridled delight.
Unfortunately, as mentioned, the film has its share of problems. For one, it moves at a snail's pace (Scott's movies tend to do so, but for some reason that's a drawback here), never really coming alive until the end of the film. Secondly, the characters are pretty much archetypal and lacking in depth. Finally, as good as Curry is, the rest of the cast doesn't quite reach the same heights. Alice Playten, Billy Barty, Cork Hubbert, and Robert Picardo all embrue their characters with quirky, goofy humor and in the cases of Miss Playten and Mr. Picardo, nasty and brittle. David Bennett conveys the sprite-child effectively (although his voice is sometimes grating, dubbed by Alice Playten). Tom Cruise, unfortunately, is the weakest link of the cast. In all fairness, it's not his fault; he has shown himself to be a solid actor in many other productions, but his role as the hero doesn't provide him the opportunity to showcase the talent that made him truly famous. It is not by any means a bad performance; there are moments when he does deliver, but even Cruise admits that he isn't particularly proud of his work in this movie. It's serviceable, but not great. Mia Sara actually fares better as the princess, especially in the latter scenes of the film where she dons a revealing costume and is wooed by Curry. (Her scenes with Cruise aren't as effective, but again, that's down to the writing of both roles than the actress.)
But there were other shortcomings even when production wrapped up. Scott's director's cut of approximately two hours was so poorly received by test audiences, that Scott ended up cutting the movie down to 95 minutes. Furthermore, Scott had commissioned Jerry Goldsmith to write a luscious, deeply haunting score which arguably enhances the whole movie, but Universal executives, fearing the film needed to be more "mainstream", displaced it with an inferior and ill-fitting synthesizer/rock score by Tangerine Dream. To add insult to injury, the film was recut in the style of an MTV video to barely an hour and a half. The result was a messy, confusing, choppily edited trainwreck that unsurprisingly died at the box office. (The cutting also affects the credibility of Tom Cruise's performance, making him seem more monodimensional and confused than his character actually is in the director's cut.) Although the movie has since earned a cult following, the damage had already been done.
Thankfully, Universal has provided the Director's Cut on DVD (thought to be lost forever until recently discovered); having seen both versions, I can safely say that the film works better in its longer, symphonic version than the American cut. Goldsmith's score is a ravishingly gorgeous, haunting work of art that compliments the atmosphere of Legend far better than the synthesized rock score. (On the flip side, there is at least one scene where there is temp track music that feels out of place, but luckily not as gratingly distracting as the Tangerine Dream score.) Some people may take issue with the inclusion of some singing, but it's at the very least a more fitting alternative to the misplaced rock songs at the end of the U.S. cut.
Of course, Legend is not a perfect movie even in its restored form--the faults still exist--but at least it adds more depth and feels more "complete" as an overall experience. The U.S. version, for the curious, can be found on the "Bonus Material" DVD (and it does add a scene that unfortunately didn't make it into the director's cut -- the restoring of the unicorn's alicorn), but personally I recommend the Director's Cut--it's a better experience by far. Also worthy of note is the 45-minute documentary on how the making of the film and its unfortunate fate due to the cuts and score swapping.
Legend has polarized audiences to this day, and even the director's cut has received is share of detractors. It remains an oddity in Scott's portfolio, but it's an intriguing source of fascination regardless.
Ridley Scott's first fray into fantasy is one of those movies that *could* have been a classic if not for some unfortunate shortcomings that harmed its chances. After making darker, sometimes horrifying fare such as Alien and Blade Runner, the director wanted to make a less intense, accessible story. Teaming up with writer William Hjortsberg, Scott fashioned a fairy tale fantasy involving loss of innocence, unicorns, dwarves, temptation, redemption, and occasional Biblical overtones. Thus, Legend was born.
Following an atmospherically haunting opening sequence in a nighttime forest, the movie follows two innocents: Jack (Tom Cruise), a "forest boy" who communicates with animals, and his girlfriend, a princess named Lili (Mia Sara). Against his better judgment, Jack takes Lili to a forbidden grove where she is entranced by the sight of unicorns. She reaches out to touch one of them -- a fatal mistake which eventually leads to the unicorn having its alicorn severed by a trio of nasty goblins (their ringleader played by the raspy-voiced Alice Playten). Almost instantly a blizzard showers down on the forest, and Jack and Lili are separated. It turns out that the ringleader behind the plot is the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry), a horned, demonic presence who wants to destroy sunshine and spread his evil across the world. Soon Lili is kidnapped, too, and Jack must get her (as well as the unicorn's alicorn) back. He's accompanied by Honeythorn Gump (David Bennett, voiced by Playten), a sprite-child who strums a violin, a pair of bickering dwarfs (Cork Hubbert and the late Billy Barty), and an emotionally distraught fairy.
Legend aims to be an atmospheric fantasy epic, and in many ways it succeeds. The production design is staggeringly spectacular, even for a movie shot primarily on sound stages. The colors in the forest scenes are lush and rich with detail, and the set/creature/costume designs perfectly encapsulate the mood of the subject. The goblins and dwarves look pretty much how you'd expect, but Tim Curry's Lord of Darkness is easily the triumph of the film. Completely unrecognizable in prosthetic make-up supplied by Rob Bottin, Curry not only looks terrifying, but his delivery is truly evil personified. Every scene he's in is an unbridled delight.
Unfortunately, as mentioned, the film has its share of problems. For one, it moves at a snail's pace (Scott's movies tend to do so, but for some reason that's a drawback here), never really coming alive until the end of the film. Secondly, the characters are pretty much archetypal and lacking in depth. Finally, as good as Curry is, the rest of the cast doesn't quite reach the same heights. Alice Playten, Billy Barty, Cork Hubbert, and Robert Picardo all embrue their characters with quirky, goofy humor and in the cases of Miss Playten and Mr. Picardo, nasty and brittle. David Bennett conveys the sprite-child effectively (although his voice is sometimes grating, dubbed by Alice Playten). Tom Cruise, unfortunately, is the weakest link of the cast. In all fairness, it's not his fault; he has shown himself to be a solid actor in many other productions, but his role as the hero doesn't provide him the opportunity to showcase the talent that made him truly famous. It is not by any means a bad performance; there are moments when he does deliver, but even Cruise admits that he isn't particularly proud of his work in this movie. It's serviceable, but not great. Mia Sara actually fares better as the princess, especially in the latter scenes of the film where she dons a revealing costume and is wooed by Curry. (Her scenes with Cruise aren't as effective, but again, that's down to the writing of both roles than the actress.)
But there were other shortcomings even when production wrapped up. Scott's director's cut of approximately two hours was so poorly received by test audiences, that Scott ended up cutting the movie down to 95 minutes. Furthermore, Scott had commissioned Jerry Goldsmith to write a luscious, deeply haunting score which arguably enhances the whole movie, but Universal executives, fearing the film needed to be more "mainstream", displaced it with an inferior and ill-fitting synthesizer/rock score by Tangerine Dream. To add insult to injury, the film was recut in the style of an MTV video to barely an hour and a half. The result was a messy, confusing, choppily edited trainwreck that unsurprisingly died at the box office. (The cutting also affects the credibility of Tom Cruise's performance, making him seem more monodimensional and confused than his character actually is in the director's cut.) Although the movie has since earned a cult following, the damage had already been done.
Thankfully, Universal has provided the Director's Cut on DVD (thought to be lost forever until recently discovered); having seen both versions, I can safely say that the film works better in its longer, symphonic version than the American cut. Goldsmith's score is a ravishingly gorgeous, haunting work of art that compliments the atmosphere of Legend far better than the synthesized rock score. (On the flip side, there is at least one scene where there is temp track music that feels out of place, but luckily not as gratingly distracting as the Tangerine Dream score.) Some people may take issue with the inclusion of some singing, but it's at the very least a more fitting alternative to the misplaced rock songs at the end of the U.S. cut.
Of course, Legend is not a perfect movie even in its restored form--the faults still exist--but at least it adds more depth and feels more "complete" as an overall experience. The U.S. version, for the curious, can be found on the "Bonus Material" DVD (and it does add a scene that unfortunately didn't make it into the director's cut -- the restoring of the unicorn's alicorn), but personally I recommend the Director's Cut--it's a better experience by far. Also worthy of note is the 45-minute documentary on how the making of the film and its unfortunate fate due to the cuts and score swapping.
Legend has polarized audiences to this day, and even the director's cut has received is share of detractors. It remains an oddity in Scott's portfolio, but it's an intriguing source of fascination regardless.