Legend [Blu-ray]

Here's another reason why we can give credit to Ridley Scott: he could have easily offered us HIS version of the film and forget about the other one, but he didn't. He made sure (or at least the studio) that we'd get both sides of the coin because people out there like the original, others like the director's cut and another group likes both.

Legend is quite a "naive" tale, but it is in no way meant as an insult. In fact, it is one of its most beautiful qualities that makes viewer wonder. Even the name of the evil guy (Darkness...) is "naive" in its form, but all this naiveté shouldn't refrain you to watch the film. Scott definitely has a talent to take you into horribly realistic rides as in American Gangster, as he has the talent to take you down the fairy path and make you believe in both worlds.

The special features aren't quite as full as we could have hoped for, and the behind the scenes aren't that immersive, but it gives you a general idea of how they made the film at the time, and all the struggles they had to deal with.

All in all, it's a nice experience of a Blu-ray but as a french-native customer, I would have appreciated the dubbed track, to hear them as I first heard them back in 1985...

(Please note that my review mentions a few scenes and plot elements which you may not wish to know beforehand if you have never seen the movie; however, I would definitely not consider them spoilers.)

Legend is one of "those" movies for me. Like many of the movies I saw when I was young, it helped define my childhood. I first saw Legend during its first televised airing in Canada at about the age of 8. My mother taped it off of television for me, and over my unicorn obsessed childhood it became etched into my memory. Strangely, the version I saw then I have never been able to find in stores.

When the taped-from-tv version finally gave out on me, my mother bought for me an official Legend release for Christmas. I watched the movie with a sense of horror as I found that scenes that I felt were pivotal or pleasureably memorable to the movie were not present. The two notable scenes missing were the scene in which Gump riddles Jack about moonbells, and the one in which Jack faces the witch on his way to Darkness. The lack of these scenes brought the movie's greatness down a few notches for me. Perhaps if I'd never seen it with those scenes I wouldn't have noticed, but knowing just what was missing, and what the movie was without them, ruined something for me. So, when I found Legend: Ultimate Edition, I decided to buy it to see if the Director's Cut was the better version. However, I was aware when I bought it that my childhood version of Legend featured the Tangerine Dream score, and not the original. So I wasn't really sure what I was getting.

Imagine my annoyance to find that the Director's Cut is no better. In fact, I think it's worse. I will pick out three specifics that bother me:

Lily: In the U.S. Theatrical release, I like Lily. She is sweet, and innocent, and a little foolish, but endearingly so. In the Director's Cut, Lily's dialogue makes her out to be much less likeable - she seems immature and spoiled, a brat. There were points where I wanted to slap her for being so irritating.

The Score: The Tangerine Dream score has an atmospheric and often shadowy feel to it; the original score is much too over-the-top and takes away from the atmosphere of the film. Really, it does not feel much as though Jerry Goldsmith was watching the same movie everyone else was. Legend's dreamlike fantasy world grows into a dark nightmare, and this is served quite well by Tangerine Dream's interpretation; the original score is comical and clumsy in comparison.

Added Scenes: The scenes left in the Director's Cut were cut from the U.S. Theatrical release, with the exception of the scenes I mentioned previously, for a good reason; in addition to Lily becoming an irritating brat, most of the uncut scenes serve only to make parts of the film drag, or disturb the sense of flow. Some of them seem pointless or silly, as when Jack does a sudden flip in the air for no apparent reason. Perhaps if the score was more suited to the movie, certain scenes (such as the flip) wouldn't seem so comical or out of place, but when his flip is accompanied by a wild clashing of instruments, one has the urge to laugh at the clumsiness of the scene.

Now, back to those two scenes missing from the U.S. release. Why am I griping about two little scenes? Without the riddle scene, there seems a rather uncomfortable transition between Gump's rage at Jack for taking Lily to see and touch the unicorns. Not to mention it's a great scene! Also, Gump's riddling Jack is important to the story - Jack can't simply claim that love is the reason he did something stupid and then not have to answer for it. The riddle is a moment in which Jack can prove himself worthy, worthy of Gump & company's assistance in righting his wrongs, and worthy of the quest itself.

The scene with the witch is just cool. And, yes, Jack again proves himself. Jack's youthful inexperience needs to be tested a few times before he reaches Darkness. The U.S. Theatrical release leaves these out and Jack reaches Darkness untried. It goes against the whole idea of the quest. Silliness.

To be perfectly honest, I would not buy Legend: Ultimate Edition again if I had known the Director's Cut would annoy me so much. I would dearly love to find out why and how I saw a version that came somewhere in between the U.S. Theatrical release and the Director's Cut, and even get my hands on an official copy, but that will likely never be. Needless to say, Legend *is* a beautiful movie, and if you must have it, stick with the U.S. Theatrical release, cut scenes not-withstanding. I think my viewing of it is simply sullied by my memory and from knowing that my first viewings were of a superior version to the ones actually available.

Legend came out at a pivotal moment in director Ridley Scott's career. Blade Runner was already in production when the script for the film was being worked on, and that film's dark tone had already migrated over to what would become Legend. Disney was afraid of it, passing on the project due to the subject matter, and probably for good reason. It would later become one of Scott's most unique movies, requiring repeat views to truly appreciate it.

Legend tells the story of a Princess Lily (Mia Sara), a young maiden in love with a forest boy named Jack (Tom Cruise), who has befriended animals great and small. He promises to take her to see something truly remarkable: two beautiful Unicorns passing through a small meadow. Mischievous Lily approaches the Unicorns despite Jack's warning, and reaches out to touch one, breaking an unwritten rule that mortal beings are never supposed to touch a creature of legend. At the same moment, a trio of dark Goblins fire a blowdart at one of the Unicorns, spooking it and sending it racing away, leaving Jack and Lily unaware of the attack. Jack chastises Lily for her selfishness, but Lily feigns innocence before removing a ring from her finger and tossing it into the pond below. When Lily tells Jack that she will marry the man who finds the ring, Jack immediately leaps into the pond to find it. Meanwhile, the incapacitated Unicorn falls prey to the venom of the blowdart and dies. The Goblins track it, leaving the leader Blix free to cut off the horn of the Unicorn, which in itself is able to grant some degree of magical power. Night soon falls over the world, and a deep winter freeze coats the land while putting a curse on local villagers, freezing them in time. They leave the lifeless body of the Unicorn for Lily to find, who grieves for the loss of the beautiful creature, blaming herself for her own rash behavior. Meanwhile, Jack, barely escaping the frozen over pond, manages to ally himself with a fairy, an elf and two dwarves to find Lily and the alicorn, the female unicorn who has since disappeared. Lily discovers the alicorn and begs for forgiveness, but not before they are both captured by the Goblin trio and brought to the castle of the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) who seeks to slaughter the alicorn and bring everlasting night to the world so that he may roam free unthreatened by the deadly rays of the sun. Jack and his companions infiltrate the castle and soon learn that Darkness is slowly corrupting Lily's heart, whom he has fallen in love with. In order to make her his bride, she must accept the darkness willingly. Jack and companions must race against time to destroy the almost-invincible darkness and prevent night from falling forever.

Legend is the darkest of fairytales. Ridley Scott is no stranger to bleakness. Blade Runner was a moody, dark and rainy film from beginning to end, splitting its audience down the middle into those either fascinated, or completely turned off. By all accounts, Legend is the fantasy version of Blade Runner, for it repeats these themes tenfold. There is plenty of visual and audible poetry in the film, which dresses each scene with a particular attention to traditional storytelling. However, the film itself seems small in scale, never really exiting its primary forest locale except to enter a gloomy castle. There are only a handful of characters and practically no supporting ones, which gives the film a sense of personal importance rather than a threat affecting an entire country. To top it all off, the film touches on several philosophical themes such as humanity's irresponsible meddling with the environment and its creatures, as well as the true, inescapable nature of good in relation to evil. That being said, Legend is hard to swallow. It is filmed in Scott's typical style of utilizing grand set pieces with plenty of detail, and filling them with light sources to make the environment a character all by itself. It's not quite as obvious Blade Runner, but there's no escaping it. The tradeoff of course, is that characters can sometimes be given a secondary treatment. The only character who truly steals the show is Darkness himself, played brilliantly by Rocky Horror's Tim Curry who is obviously enjoying his role here. Physicality aside, Darkness is the most passionate character in the entire film. When this lord of all evil begins experiencing love for the first time, it creates such a conflict within his black heart that he becomes almost childlike and sympathetic in his inability to understand himself.

Legend is not for young children, so parents be warned. The dark tone is extremely strong from beginning to end, but the characters themselves will scare the PJs off the kids. Meg Mucklebones (played wonderfully by Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo) is a hump-backed half-troll with piercing eyes and a vicious tendency to devour grown men whole. Hers is a scene spiked with black comedy, but black nonetheless. There are also quite a lot of disturbing images in the film, which I found particularly shocking given the film's PG rating. One scene shows a pair of demonic butchers with meat cleavers hacking away at human victims on a table while they flail around and writhe in agony, and it's right in front of the camera for all to see. There's also a heavy dose of demonic imagery in the film as well. Darkness himself is the physical embodiment of Satan in every way, from red skin and fangs to gigantic obsidian horns and goat's hooves. Though not explicitly named, Scott's obvious intention was to portray this character as the source of all evil, and this can be seen in the character's dialog. "Through dreams, I influence mankind!" Legend is most definitely recommended for older children and up.

Legend is a love-it-or-hate-it movie. You will either be enthralled by the imagery and the characters right up until the end, or you'll be turned off and wonder why you just wasted an hour and a half of your life. Fans should note that the Blu-Ray edition contains Ridley Scott's Director's Cut of the film, and the original theatrical version which included the electronic score by Tangerine Dream. Depending on who you speak to, they'll claim that either version is superior, but I preferred Scott's cut of the film with more traditional music, approximately 15 minutes of extra footage, and a slightly keener editing job. Either way, you have the choice of which version you prefer. The visual differences between the theatrical and Director's cuts are mostly due to source material. The theatrical cut was transferred directly from Universal's internegative, maximizing the film's sharp detail and saturated colors into what is possibly the best looking version of the film so far. By contrast, the Director's Cut could only be mastered from an answer print, which are traditionally known to yield less peak detail, and although the differences aren't night and day, they are noticeable. That being said, there was obvious attention given to the Director's Cut to make it the absolute best it can look, and it's no throwaway. Despite their transfer differences, both cuts have vastly different color tones as well. The theatrical version prefers lush greens and more traditional colors, while the Director's Cut casts a soft purple over some outside scenes, completely changing the tone. The DTS-HD 5.1 audio mix of the film is supple and explosive, taking full advantage of the Bass speaker to maximize thundering power where necessary, while filling the room with lush melody on softer scenes. I was incredibly impressed! As for special features, well, if you already own the Special Edition DVD, then you're just getting a double-dip here, but...the material included is pretty satisfying, including a great documentary, Ridley Scott's feature commentary, and a few extra bells n' whistles here and there.

It's not for everyone, but Legend is just another example of why Ridley Scott is one of the best and most iconic visual directors in the world.