One of my favorite movies of all time is Legend which was released in 1985. This movie is a fantasy story long before the Lord of the Rings trilogy and holds up well over the years, it stars Tim Curry as “Darkness” a creature who worships the night and wants nothing more than to purge light and good from the world. Tom Cruise plays “Jack” a forest child who was raised by elves and forest creatures who is in love with a princess named Lily played by Mia Sara.
The movie is a romantic fantasy flick at its best, setting an fantasy world filled with orcs, goblins, unicorns, hags, faeries and magic. It is a Good versus Evil film with a poetic artistic style, one that really stands out is how Darkness himself has his heart empty and feels love for Lily himself willing to do just about anything to win her affection.
One day Jack wants to show Lily something magical and takes her to witness the last pair of unicorns in the world first hand, Lily though can’t just look and has to just “touch” one. Though there is no harm in touching the unicorn this allows the goblins to injure it with a poison and slay it by severing its horn.
We see that with one unicorn killed the world plunges into chaos, snow and ice freeze everything over and leave the mortal world in a frozen state. Darkness has Lily captured and brought to him while she tries to protect the second and final unicorn. Jack meanwhile with the help of his elven allies must arm himself and battle his way into the lair where Darkness is keeping both Lily and the mare.
Filled with sword and sorcery and one of the most disturbing creatures Meg Muckelbones the Hag, this film leaves you feeling like you watched a piece of art. Ridley Scott who directed the film did a fantastic job, and honestly I grew up with the American version of the film. Tangerine Dream was one of my favorite musical groups and their soundtrack is permanently burned in my head from this movie, I tried watching the European version fo the film and I didn’t not like it as much as the American version. The original didn’t have Darkness providing as much poetic speech as the American edited version which really helped give personality and presence to his character in my opinion.
This movie was and still is a 4 out of 5 stars in my book, though as a fantasy film is dark and a little slow paced for younger kids, but there is no real bloodshed and very little violence compared to more modern fantasy flicks.
-Dragon Blogger
Related posts:
- Dragon Blogger Review of Dragon Hunters I love a good CGI movie and I have seen many of them over the years. Lately many children’s CGI...
- Dragon Blogger Review of 9 Review of the movie 9 which was produced in part by Tim Burton but written and directed by Shane Acker....
- Dragon Blogger Review of The Time Travelers Wife Dragon Blogger gives this film 4 out of 5 stars and if you have a spouse or partner, curl up...
- Dragon Blogger Review of The Fall My family likes to watch independent films all the time which show true originality and storytelling that you don’t usually...
- Dragon Blogger Review of Avatar Avatar was one of the top five films I have ever seen and immerses you in the culture and ways...
| via FaceBook, Twitter, RSS or Email |  |
Enter your email and subscribe now!
Tags: 80's movie reviews, Darkness, dragonblogger movie reviews, Legend, Legend 1985, Movie Reviews, Ridley Scott, Tim Curry, Tom Cruise
March 1st, 2009 at 3:12 am
I do remember this film and I do remember that I liked it very much at the time, but I haven’t seen it lately.
Morten Pedersens last blog post..Book review: SWINDLED by Bee Wilson.
[Reply]
April 26th, 2009 at 4:25 am
[...] Sauron appeared on the battlefield and starting kicking ass. 84. Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) from Legend – No doubt driven mad by his oversized horns, The Lord of Darkness gets it in for a young Tom [...]
May 15th, 2009 at 6:43 am
yeah this is a good film but i just wanted to point out that the lord of the rings is older than this film and if you have read the book you would be able to see where some of the ideas have come from don’t get me wrong this is a good film
[Reply]
May 15th, 2009 at 7:21 am
True, and lets face it even LoTR stole its idea’s from more ancient stories and documents as well.
[Reply]
October 18th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
[...] Sauron appeared on the battlefield and starting kicking ass. 84. Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) from Legend – No doubt driven mad by his oversized horns, The Lord of Darkness gets it in for a young Tom [...]