Legend (1986)

This strange, 1985 experiment by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) starred the up-and-coming Tom Cruise in a fairy-tale world of dwarfs and unicorns and demons. After the horn of a unicorn is broken, darkness and winter descend upon the world. Cruise's character, helped along by a magic sprite played by David Bennent (The Tin Drum), descends into hell to save paradise. This movie is almost a classic case of art direction gone amok. The somewhat amorphous Cruise doesn't lend much dramatic focus or artistic definition, but the drama between Tim Curry's satanic majesty and Mia Sara's character, who becomes a sort of princess of the netherworld, is pretty captivating. A mixed experience all around that makes one wish it had been more successful. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com essential video

Legend

This should be considered a great '80s classic! For those of you who are fans of Labyrinth or the Princess Bride, you will love this movie as well! Its a great tale about how Good overcomes Evil! There is drama, excitement, romance, & humor: something for everyone!
October 10, 2008

Brings back childhood memories

The DVD arrived promptly and in very good condition. We had a great time revisiting this movie. September 29, 2008

Excellent Viewing For All Ages

This is an excellent movie. There is no filthy language, sex or real violance. I wish holywood would make more movies like this. All ages can watch this and it's truly enjoyable. September 13, 2008

The musical score *does* make all the difference

Legend is one of my favorite movies. While the acting isn't great, the incredibly beautiful, dream-like fantasy world setting *more* than makes up for any negatives (IMO). I have seen both versions of the movie, the edited version with the haunting musical score that included "Loved by the Sun" by Tangerine Dream, and the the original Goldsmith musical score.

Honestly, while it sounds more "dated", I prefer the Tangerine Dream musical score as it seems more fitting to the fantasy world depicted in this movie. It has that eerie and surreal tone to the music which I felt captures what is occurring on screen wonderfully, which of course was a fantasy world come to life.

I also liked the ending of the edited version better as well, with Lily and Jack running off into the sunset and looking back to wave at their fairy friends. In the unedited version, after Jack finds Lily's ring and places it on her finger, they speak for a few minutes and Lily sings to him. Then Jack watches as she runs away, with the scene changing to Jack running off into the sunset alone, waving back to his forest fairy friends.

I'm not exactly sure why I didn't like the added footage during that scene (of Lily and Jack talking), but it felt out of place. Perhaps it could be due to the fact the version I grew up watching and enjoying as a child was the edited version. This is just my opinion, but whenever I watched the ending version where Lily and Jack run off together, I always thought they were living their HEA. It was more firm in my mind that they did have their HEA (after all, aren't fairy-tales with the hero in this case Jack, and the heroine princess, Lily, supposed to live happily ever after?), while in the original version all you get is Lily pretty much saying to Jack, "Keep my ring, remember me I'll be back" and she goes running off with him watching her. Oh well, this is my reasoning behind why I preferred the edited version of the movie.LOL.

I think Legend is still one of the best fantasy movies out there. Too bad there aren't fantasy movies being produced like Legend anymore (or Willow, The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, to mention a few more of my favorite fantasy movies). I have seen more recent fantasy movies, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the first Narnia movie, but they miss that particular *something* the other movies I mentioned made in the 80s have. Not that I didn't enjoy the LOTR movie and Narnia movie, I did, but fantasy movies such as Legend have a magical quality of a fairy-tale come to life straight from the storybook.

There is just something about the fantasy genre (whether books or movies) that captivates me, IMO, fantasy is all about dreams, hopes, and marvelous wonders. How many of us as children were told those fairy-tale stories and we believed in our innocence that there were such creatures as elves, fairies, and unicorns? I think fantasy movies like Legend are simply those fairy-tales come to life, or as close to "real" as one can get to imagining what such a world would truly look like if it was reality. September 12, 2008

Excellent

I love the movie. It arrived in perfect condition and I am happy with it July 27, 2008

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