Episode 277: LEGEND (1985)

LEGEND is a 1985 fantasy film directed by Ridley Scott and written by William Hjortsberg. It stars Tom Cruise in one of his first leading roles as Jack, a pure-hearted forest-dweller who is in love with Princess Lily (played by Mia Sara). Hoping to show her something beautiful, Jack introduces Lily to two majestic unicorns that live in a remote part of the forest. In doing so, he breaks one of the forest’s most sacred rules: That mortals must never touch the unicorns, lest they “upset the order of the universe”. The encounter creates an opportunity for goblin emissaries of the Lord of Darkness (played by Tim Curry) to poison one of the unicorns, steal its horn (alicorn), capture the other unicorn and enslave Princess Lily, threatening to plunge the world into darkness — unless Jack, the pure-hearted hero, can return the unicorn’s horn and avoid everlasting darkness.

It’s an arrow-straight premise with promise for more underneath — but after more than a dozen screenplay revisions and numerous cuts, LEGEND comes out the other end feeling rather hollow. So we’re reading WAY too far into it to see what we can get out of it beyond what it shows us!

On this episode, we also talk about the magical production design, marvel at Tim Cunty’s — er, Curry’s — sassy, satanic swagger; Tom Cruise’s tooth/teeth; and guess how tall two Tom Hardys are toe-to-tip when you stack them on top of each other.

Do these things:

Read “Before Lift Off: Tom Cruise in Legend” by John Blair for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/04/19/before-lift-off-tom-cruise-in-legend/
Read “When I’m Bad, I’m Better: Legend and Tim Curry’s Legacy of Villainy” by Courtney Kowalke for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/04/19/when-im-bad-im-better-legend-and-tim-currys-legacy-of-villainy/
Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/

#OfSwordsAndSorcery #35mm

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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "The Dance" by Tangerine Dream from the LEGEND soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 277: LEGEND (1985)

2:16 - The episode actually starts

3:18 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

8:08 - Starting thoughts

16:17 - TC’s CT

18:40 - The power of nostalgia in evaluating movies like LEGEND

33:31 - Rich visuals and a hollow story

42:47 - How Lily’s sexual awakening would bring this story together

1:07:41 - The Junk Drawer

1:16:53 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1985

1:19:40 - Cody’s Noteys: L’edging (legend-adjacent movie trivia)