Legend (1985)

[Kooshmeister]

Tom Cruise with bad teeth and no pants. Mia Sara in that black dress that shows a lot of tummy. Tim Curry hamming it up as the villain. Not to mention comic relief Scottish elves with wine bottles under their hats, comic relief Mexican goblins in goofy-looking helmets and unicorns with wobbly horns that sound like whales.

Why, yes, I'm talking about 1985's Legend, quite possibly the strangest of the big-budget 80's fantasy flicks, outdone only by Krull in terms of sheer What-The-F*ckery.

No matter which version you watch, no matter which score it's got, no matter which scenes are present and which scenes are missing, it's a still a film with ten minutes of Tom Cruise and Mia Sara frolicking while monster guys follow them around before actual plot kicks in.

And yet, I love every second of it. Anyone else? 

[Kester Pelagius]

And yet, I love every second of it. Anyone else? 

I must since I bought the DVD.  Then again I also bought the DVDs of LABRYNTH and SPACE MUTINY. . .

[Dennis]

My daughter, who was 6 years old in '85, liked "Legend" so much that we watched it so many times that I would cheerfully have shot Tom, Mia, and any unicorn that I saw, on the other hand even though she felt the same way about "Krull", and I watched it with her just as much, I never tire of seeing it, one of my favorites, go figure.

[Andrew]

I like "Legend" a lot.  I have the special edition release and tried Ridley Scott's cut, but it didn't do it for me.  The original version is much better. 

Look at it as a fairy tale come to life.  They (fairy tales) are all twisted when you get down to it.  Pigs building houses, wolves swallowing grandmothers, you name it.  In "Legend" the mixture of evil rhyming goblins and the good faeries works pretty well.  They forgive Jack for endangering the world because he did it for love.  Makes sense in a faerie folk sort of way, doesn't it?

Tim Curry was great as Darkness.

[akiratubo]

I don't like it much.  I've never been able to get through it in a single sitting.  (This is the way I feel about almost all Ridley Scott films.)  Even Tim Curry can't do anything to save Legend.

I like most other fantasy movies, even really bad ones, so go figure.

[Killer Bees]

I haven't seen this movie.  I didn't even realise Cruise made it until I spied it in the DVD store last month.  And after reading this thread yesterday, I left work and went to the supermarket and they were selling it for $9.

It's funny how Risky Business gets mentioned a lot in Cruise's filmography, but you never hear anyone talking about Legend.

[SynapticBoomstick]

The unicorns were growing new horns, causing the old ones to wiggle. Don't you know anything about unicorn physiology The make-up work still holds up today, though, very well done

[Kooshmeister]

I like "Legend" a lot.  I have the special edition release and tried Ridley Scott's cut, but it didn't do it for me.  The original version is much better. 

I tend to feel the same way. The director's cut takes itself too seriously. The cut down version with Tangerine Dream's score is just about being fun. 'Course, even then I still would've preferred they keep the original filmed opening, if only because I like the goblins and it would've properly introduced them (the ones aside from Blix, anyway) as opposed to having them literally just pop up.

[Derf]

I saw this one in the theater when it came out. I didn't really know who Tom Cruise was; in fact, I didn't know who the star was until several years later when I saw a scene from the movie and recognized him. Anyway, I wanted to like the movie, but with every shot, I grew more annoyed because every shot--inside, outside, winter, spring, whatever--was filled with small particles floating through the air (snow, flower petals, ashes). I suppose it was to make the movie seem more fairy-tale like, but it became increasingly more aggravating with each new set. I did like Tim Curry's Darkness. The makeup job was original and very well done. I remember thinking that Mia Sara was beautiful, but that they should never have put her in the black dress cut down to her navel since she had nothing to fill it out; it just looked silly to me. Overall, the movie has just never worked for me.

[Andrew]

I remember thinking that Mia Sara was beautiful, but that they should never have put her in the black dress cut down to her navel since she had nothing to fill it out; it just looked silly to me.

I thought that her body worked for the scene and intent in that respect.  She looked vapid and of little substance in the too-revealing black dress. 

[HarlotBug3]

I remember thinking that Mia Sara was beautiful, but that they should never have put her in the black dress cut down to her navel since she had nothing to fill it out; it just looked silly to me.

I thought that her body worked for the scene and intent in that respect.  She looked vapid and of little substance in the too-revealing black dress. 

A more volumptuous woman might have made it more difficult to believe Lily as representative of innocence. Much as I like grownup eye candy, I don't blame the director for wanting to distance himself from flagrant sexuality, more to maintain focus on the fantastical elements.
I'm trying to think of a movie involving fantasy (elves etc.) between Legend and TLOTR that deserved to take itself as seriously. I really can't, and really don't envy R. Scott for the difficulty he must have had both pitching this and preserving it against the marketing psychophants wanting something to make into toys, and the D&D crowd eager to hypercritically preserve their basement niche.
Legend really is a testament to how, in the right hands, a movie can end up better than it should have been. 

[Brother Ragnarok]

Probably my favorite fantasy flick of all time.  Yes, even better than Lord of the Rings.  My wife and I were watching it t'other night and got to wondering, as awesome as it is, with all its fairytale/gothic imagery, why doesn't this thing have the legions of Hot Topic fans that other movies from the same period, like Labyrinth, have?  I'm sure there are some, but it just seems that the wrist-cutting fairy-worshipping high-school goth/wicca crowd managed to miss out on the mass worship this flick should obviously invite.