Legend (1985)

A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves.

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writer:

William Hjortsberg

Stars:

Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Cruise	...	Jack
Mia Sara	...	Lili
Tim Curry	...	Darkness
David Bennent	...	Gump
Alice Playten	...	Blix
Billy Barty	...	Screwball
Cork Hubbert	...	Brown Tom
Peter O'Farrell	...	Pox
Kiran Shah	...	Blunder
Annabelle Lanyon	...	Oona
Robert Picardo	...	Meg Mucklebones
Tina Martin	...	Nell
Ian Longmur	...	Demon Cook (as Ian Longmuir)
Michael Crane	...	Demon Cook (as Mike Crane)
Liz Gilbert	...	Dancing Black Dress

Storyline

A demon who seeks to create eternal night by destroying the last of the unicorns and marrying a fairy Princess is opposed by the forest boy Jack (Tom Cruise) and his elven allies in this magical fantasy. Two different versions of this movie feature soundtracks by either Tangerine Dream or Jerry Goldsmith.

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Plot Keywords:

mythical kingdom | fairy | swamp | love | unicorn | 

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Taglines:

"No Good without Evil. No Love without Hate. No Innocence without Lust. I am Darkness."

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Romance

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the American cut, Darkness gives his speech of "In the Beginning, there was Darkness" showing an opposing perspective to the introduction of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The themes, especially in the Director's cut, parallel the book Paradise Lost by John Milton which focuses on Satan's perspective. Ridley Scott makes allusions to Christian mythos in many of his movies.

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Goofs

In the first half of the movie, Lily's dress gets increasingly torn up with each scene, yet at the end when Jack tries to bring her out of the spell, she wears the same dress completely intact.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Darkness: I am the Lord of Darkness. I require the solace of the shadows and the dark of the night. Sunshine is my destroyer. All this shall change. Tonight, the sun sets forever. There shall never be another dawn.

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Alternate Versions

Some TV prints have the full Meg scene, which runs even longer than in the European edition. (Jack has trouble getting his sword out.)

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Connections

Referenced in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

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Soundtracks

My True Love's Kiss
(uncredited)
Performed by Mia Sara
Written by Jerry Goldsmith

User Reviews

Wonderful movie filled with fantasy , adventure , feats and amazing monsters

This is such stuff as dreams are made of ; this is Legend . Jack (Tom Cruise , though Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr. and Jim Carrey were all considered for this character) and his partners such as Screwball (Billy Barty) , Blunder (Kiran Shah) and Gump (David Bennet , recently his Tin Drum) are disposed to do everything to save the world and rescue princess Lili (Mia Sara) who Darkness intends to make his wife from the hands of this evil devil . A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness , the personification of evil , from both destroying daylight and marrying the young girl (Mia Sara was only 15 during the filming of Legend , she was actually born in 1967, so she was 15 in 1982, which is when production for the film began) he loves . There appears demons , Elfs , Unicorns , fairy , and goblin as Blix (played by Alice Playten whose face was designed after that of Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones) . As Darkness (Ridley Scott was inspired to cast Tim Curry as Darkness after seeing The Rocky Horror Picture Show , he had also considered casting Richard O'Brien as Meg Mucklebones) plans to spread eternal night in the land where this tale takes place , by killing every unicorn (the sound of the unicorns at play is actually a recording of humpback whales) in Earth .

This breathtaking film contains imagination , magic , thrills , fantasy , adventure and many other things . This is an incredible fantastic movie which features elves , fairies , dwarfs and other mythical creatures . Ridley Scott drew most of his inspiration for "Legend" from the 1946 version of ¨Belle and the Beast¨, as well as such Disney animated classics as ¨Snow White¨ , ¨Fantasy¨ and ¨Bambi¨. Impressive production , the production was filmed on the Pinewood Studio sound stage that had been originally created for ¨The spy who loved me¨ . However , filming was interrupted twice, firstly by the studio burning to the ground and secondly, by the death of Tom Cruise's father. Composer Jerry Goldsmith's original score was removed by the studio after the first round of test screenings. In an effort to appeal to "the kids", executives commissioned Tangerine Dream to create a replacement. Until 2002, Goldsmith's original score was heard only with the film's European release. Special mention to brilliant and colorful cinematography by Alex Thomson .

Ridley Scott admits that comments made by some pot-smoking attendees at a screening got the director second-guessing himself, and influenced him to cut the film from 150 minutes to 98. The director's cut reveals an alternative ending where Jack remains in the forest and Lily goes home alone with plans to see him again soon. The motion picture was marvelous and glamorously directed by Ridley Scott , at his best and as stylish as ever , similarly his previous film ¨Someone to watch over me¨ and others as ¨Blade runner¨, ¨Black rain¨ , in which his visual style is impressive as well as his speciality ,the historical genre , as ¨Robin Hood¨ , ¨Kingdom of heaven¨ , ¨Duelists¨ and ¨Black Hawk down¨ . Rating : Above average . Essential and indispensable watching for Ridley Scott followers

Details

Official Sites:

William Hjortsberg

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

18 April 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Legend

Filming Locations:

Agnes Scott College - 141 E. College Avenue, Decatur, Georgia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$24,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,261,154, 20 April 1986

Gross USA:

$15,502,112

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$15,502,112

Company Credits

Production Co:

Legend Production Company, Embassy International Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min 114 min (director's cut) 89 min (theatrical)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby Stereo (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1