LEGEND 1985
36%
Directed by Ridley Scott
Written by William Hjortsberg
Starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry
Synopsis
Peasant boy Jack rallies an army of elves to stop an underworld prince from killing the last unicorns and plunging the world into eternal night. Jack must also rescue his great love, Princess Lili, from the demon’s clutches.
Why We Love It
Ridley Scott’s Legend was his own conception, which may explain the fantasy film’s somewhat unmoored feel; it has no basis in mythology or classic fairy tales, and so it struggled to find an audience for the inhabitants of its magical realm.
In today’s terms: it needed that bankable IP.
At the same time, the film offers an enchanting heroine in Lili, played by Mia Sara in her feature-film debut ahead of her career-defining role as Sloane Peterson in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Legend was an intimate sword-and-sorcery tale that gave its damsel in distress almost as much responsibility for her own saving as her knight in, well, a grass-weave shorts set.
Donning the leafy pjs is twenty-two-year-old post–Risky Business Tom Cruise, which may have contributed to Legend’s negative reception. Critics (mostly male at the time) surely would have found it jarring that Business’s floor-sliding Joel, a.k.a. The Outsiders’ Steve Randle and Taps’ David Shawn, was now hopping around an enchanted forest, air filled with bubbles and dandelion fluff; spying on unicorns; keeping company with fairies, goblins, and leprechauns; and wearing glitter on his face and a skort. This was the actor’s next choice?
How could anyone expect those graying critics to appreciate Scott’s fairy tale and Cruise’s sensitive charm in the heyday of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, a time of The Terminator, Rocky IV, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Scott’s own Blade Runner? Where were the sixteen-year-old female YouTube stars who could have truly appreciated this iteration of Cruise?
Fantasy title Ladyhawke, from Superman director Richard Donner, also came out the same year but starred rugged Rutger Hauer as its male lead—Cruise was a skinny hipster by comparison—and buzzy Scarface moll Michelle Pfeiffer as his romantic interest. Critics gave it a big Fresh thumbs up, deeming it the superior of the two films. Legend did get nominated for an Oscar, however, for Best Makeup (Rob Bottin and Peter Robb-King). Fully deserved.
Tim Curry’s at once bold and nuanced performance as demon Darkness is, alone, more than worth the viewing. One can only imagine what a remastered edition of the film, touched up with new-millennium credits and special effects, might look like. Fresh, most likely. Maybe even Certified.