Legend review by Jackass Jon
Legend is a fantastic story of good vs. evil. Jack (Tom Cruise) must save mankind from the purest of evil, Darkness (Tim Curry). Darkness has a master plan to plunge the world into a dark and frozen wasteland for all eternity. Light is his destroyer and goodness is the weapon that keeps him at bay. But Darkness and his Goblin kin use the pure of heart to bid their evil doings. Jack and his lovely Princess Lily (Mia Sara) unknowingly deliver the last two Unicorns into the hands of a Goblin band waiting for a chance to steal the Alicorns (a Unicorn's horn) and use their power for their masters dark biddings. But all is not lost, one of the Unicorns escapes the Goblins poisoned darts and remains alive to keeping the world in check. Half in the light of day and half in the darkness of night, nature is locked in a frozen state of despair and Jack is the only hope of saving the Unicorn's and conquering Darkness. Along the way he is aided by the folk of the forest, the Elves and ever elusive Fairies. As the story progresses we see Jack, a young boy forced into the trials of the real world where he must make decisions that carry deadly consequences which transform him into a man fighting for not only his own life but the life of the woman he loves and of course the lives of all mankind. Lily is also forced to deal with her exposure to this new unknown world in her own ways. She's a fancy young princess who enjoys the spoils of wealth only to be wooed by Darkness with temptation and wicked desires. Her education in these matters are both seductive and deadly. Thus fully drawing her into the web of darkness in body and soul... How does the story end you ask? Watch the movie and find out!DVD features
The features of this two disk set are what Legend fan's have been dreaming about for years. Until now this movie has only been available on VHS. And as we all know, VHS is a waste of time and effort for the true movie goer (I just had to say that). Until now, what we have seen is a bastardized version of what was an excellent cult classic. In fact, the following of this film is so great, it has been the number one requested movie from Universal Pictures. Yep, that's what I said, the number one most requested film they've produced. Anyway, the new DVD has the original release of the movie never seen here in the United States. It is the uncut European version with the original Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack. The soundtrack by the way is excellent. What was released here in the U.S. was a hacked up edited version with a new soundtrack created by Tangerine Dream. While the Tangerine Dream soundtrack was ok and upbeat, the Goldsmith music was fantastic and it brought a surreal feeling of doom and darkness to the story. The DVD set also has the original U.S. release on the other disk if you must see that one too. There are also several other goodies on the discs that are a collectors treasure chest.
Analysis
While this film was shot in the mid 80's when the Star Wars craze was still buzzing strong and everything was seen as futuristic and visually amazing, Legend took a hard right turn to make a clean break from the money making Science Fiction mindset. It plunged us into a world of pure fantasy film making as visually stunning as any new special effects filled sci-fi thriller. The world we saw on the screen was anything but bright and clean (even in space). It was just the opposite, it was dark and dirty. It was almost real but at the same time totally unreal. The entire movie was shot on a sound stage in the UK, twice. Once for normal shooting then partially again later due to a fire that wiped out the entire building.
The story is great in the way that we see how the innocence of youth gives way to the reality of the world around us. It's a slap in the face for both leading characters and in truth the movie didn't have one lead. Both Cruise and Sara balanced their parts equally with Curry tipping the scales one way then another... I think the youth of the actors lent itself very well to the story line tool. In a short time (the length of the movie) we saw both main characters "grow up". The acting was pretty good on the part of Cruise and Sara while Curry did an excellent job as Darkness. He almost drew you into his servitude with just his presence in a given scene. The make-up was second to none considering the era the film was made and the visual impact was just as incredible. It won a Best Cinematography Award and was nominated for several others including an Oscar. I'm also a fan of Ridley Scott's work so it's no surprise that this movie turned out so good.
All considered, this being a fantasy film and totally unrealistic, it was just that. So
unreal that it just holds your attention until the very end.
Final Thoughts
If you've seen this movie on tape or at the theatre in the past and thought it was worth
the time to watch, it's well worth your time to see it again in the uncut
presentation. Or if you've never seen it before, see it in it's un-cut format. You'll love
it if you're a fantasy film lover. It's a flat out all around good entertaining movie.