Legend (1986)

Fantasy film by Ridley Scott, starring Tom Cruise

Director: Ridley Scott

 

As a director who came up through the ranks of television commercials, Scott knows how to make a visually arresting cinematic statement. This film is an appealing fantasy that takes place hundreds of years ago.

 

In a dimly-lit place lives the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) who is a strange cloven-hoofed creature with large horns. He instructs one of his goblin minions named Blix (Alice Playten) to locate the unicorns which live above ground, so that she can steal their horns. Without their horns, they will die, and Darkness can insure that day will never dawn again.

 

We meet Jack o’ the Green (Tom Cruise) who is a recluse in the forest that has knowledge of various mythical creatures meets with his chaste love, Princess Lily (Mia Sara). Jack decides that he will take her to see the unicorns. As they journey to the place, they are followed by Blix and her two goblin friends, Pox and Blunder. Jack tells Lily to keep her distance from the unicorns, but since they are attracted to virgins, she disobeys him in order to touch them. Using a poisoned dart and a blowpipe, Blix shoots the stallion. However Jack and Lily do not notice this.

 

Jack scolds her for touching the creature. Lily then takes her ring and throws it into a deep pond, saying that she will marry the one who retrieves the ring. He dives in after it.  The stallion in the meantime dies, and Blix steals the horn. This causes a violent snowstorm. The pond freezes and Jack has trouble getting out. When he re-surfaces, he must make amends for allowing a human to touch the unicorn.

 

Here the plot becomes very complicated as Lily seemingly allows Darkness to seduce her in order that he will allow her to kill the remaining unicorn. Both Jack and Lily strive individually to cause sunlight to beam on Darkness and destroy him. Though it is a difficult path, everyone lives happily ever after, as you would expect.

 

The film is quite unique and it is a bona fide classic. The original version was scored by Jerry Goldsmith, but Hollywood didn’t appreciate a quality orchestral score. They wanted an electronic score created by the group Tangerine Dream.  Goldsmith’s version is much more evocative, although the electronic  one does have a certain atmosphere.  If you can, see the director’s cut. Even though it was well-made, the film bombed at the box office and barely made half of its budget back. It has, though, become a cult classic.