| | | | Legend
(1985) |
'Modern Classic Fairy Tale', Legend should be called...
From the director of "Alien" and "Blade Runner" comes a legendary fairy tale that Ridley Scott could do. This movie is a piece of movie art in itself. It is stunningly beautiful and even with all of this and a soundtrack eventually done by Tangerine Dream, it Failed. Just Like Dune audiences did not grasp this film, but you might. If you have seen it, there is no forgetting it. And if you have not, give it a try, you may be pleasantly surprised. Now on to the plot...
Legend is a tale of good against evil, right against wrong, and love against lust. Our Hero is Jack (Cruise), a boy of the woods. A friend of the animals, and eventually fairies. Then there is his great love Lily. A beautiful but innocent girl. Jack wants to show Lily something magical. The most magical creatures in all existence, Unicorns. There is also a darker force at work. One who wants to destroy the Unicorns because they are the bearers of light. This darker force is the devil... And with the help of his goblins there may never be another sunrise. Now Lily accidentally helps the goblins hurt one of the Unicorns and puts her immortal soul in jeopardy. So Jack is the only one left who can save us from total darkness, with the help of an elf, a fairy, and a couple of gnomes. Will good triumph over evil? Do I even have to answer that question? It is a fairy tale....
Like Ridley's Blade Runner, Legend has two versions. Both available together only on a special DVD in the USA.
The first is the U.S. theatrical version. This Version was the re-cut for theatres when Ridley's original cut failed to achieve greatness. In this cut Lily is only a lady not a princess. Character dialogue is shorter and the soundtrack was redone by Tangerine Dream. This version is the only version that U.S. audiences knew until the DVD era.
The Second is the Director's cut. This of course is Ridley's vision of Legend. It has Jerry Goldsmith's original score. And the added dialogue and Character development missing from the other cut. The film seems like a completely different film... So if you have seen the original and enjoyed it, watch this one, you may enjoy it.
 Don't forget that Legend is now available to order on Widescreen DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...
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I would not recommend Legend for everyone. Remember that it did Fail. But for the ones who loved Legend, it is one of the best Fantasy films around. It is very Magical, and has a strong cult following.
For me Legend is more personal. It came to theatres when I was 11 and was the only film I ever saw with my father. It was also very beautiful... I will remember it always..
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You can now correct/update any item of trivia by clicking the "Update" button next to it...
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Mia Sara was only 15 at the time of filming!  -Thanks to Kristin Troxel
Billy Barty who plays Screwball also appeared in the 1988 film "Willow" as High Aldwin, and in the 1991 Mel Brooks comedy "Life Stinks" as a fellow homeless character named Willy. -Thanks to Dreamer012778
Tom Cruise was 20 when they started filming. -Thanks to Leticia
Tom Cruise did a wonderful job in this movie, but he has since disavowed any knowledge of it (presumably because it flopped in the box office). I wish he would deny "Mission: Impossible 2", because "Legend" is a far better movie. -Thanks to Simon Callahan
The swamp witch 'Meg Mucklebones' was actually played by a man! This was Robert Picardo, who also plays the holographic doctor in Star Trek Voyager and the 'Cowboy' in "Innerspace"! -Thanks to Jason Chapman
The Swiss-German actor David Bennent (Gump) was 18 when filming Legend. He got his first role in the very interesting 1979 film, based on the Günter grass novel, Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) because, at the age of 11, he had the body of a six year old and the story was about a boy who threw himself down a flight of stairs at the age of 3 to stunt his growth and never grow up to be like the decadent adults around him during the pre-nazi and nazi era. From what I have heard from Ridley Scott during his commentary, he finally grew up to the normal height of 5'9" and is now 36 years old. -Thanks to Laurent ÉCrivain
The Devil is played by Tim Curry who also played the alien transvestite in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. -Thanks to Ricardo
"The Legend of Zelda," Nintendo's widely popular role playing/adventure video game, was inspired in part by the movie Legend, as admitted by the game's creator Shigeru Miyamoto.
Princess Lily is Sloan Peterson (Ferris' girlfriend) in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". -Thanks to Chanel
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Find much more great trivia in the filmmaker's commentary on the Legend DVD.
Rediscover your favorites! If you like
Legend or 80's Sci-Fi / Fantasy classics, then be sure to
check out this list: ..... Empire Strikes Back ..... Night of the Comet ..... Aliens ..... Back To The Future ..... Last Starfighter ..... Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ..... Circuitry Man ..... Brazil ..... Blade Runner ..... Thing ..... Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan ..... Return to Oz ..... Starman ..... Somewhere In Time ..... Strange Invaders ..... Short Circuit .....[More]
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The sound of the unicorns at play is actually a recording of humpback whales.
In the scene with Meg Mucklebones, the actor had to be put in the water while he had the latex on. When latex hits water, the water engulfed the makeup so it was hard to breathe. Watch the scene where Meg makes her appearance merging from the water, she looks like she is spitting out the water and gasping for air! -Thanks to Jess
David Bennent's (Gump) voice was redubbed by Alice Playten who also did the voice of Blix. I once read that the director thought that David's German accent would be too hard for children to understand.
The "icicles" in the treasure cavern were made out of several hundred pounds of paraffin wax.
Most of the forest scenes in the movie were filmed on a massive set, built inside a sound stage. Ridley had originally planned some overhead and fly-through shots, but they (along with a lot of other planned footage) were never filmed, because the entire set burned flat to the ground. -Thanks to Brett
The fire that destroyed the Bond Stage happened while everyone was at lunch, luckily, because someone could have been killed if it happened when they were shooting. -Thanks to Jess
When Lily goes back to tell Brown Tom that Darkness has sent the goblins to find the mare, she runs behind Brown Tom very um... panic-y. It cuts to the goblins, then when it cuts back to Brown Tom, you can see Lily standing in the background on the upper left side of the screen looking pretty bored. Its only for a moment.
When Lily goes to find Jack after touching the Unicorn, her dress isn't wet. Wasn't she just kneeling in a stream of water?
Right before Lily says "I only wanted to touch one. Where's the harm in that" it shows her turning her head to face Jack. Her hair is abnormally curly in this one shot. -Thanks to Kelly
When Oona flies away from Gump towards the end, a black rod (part of the fx equipment) swishes above Gump's head briefly in the top right hand side of the frame.
In the snowy scene where Jack is looking for Lily, he holds up a lantern and you can see the inside of his cape. If you look closely you can see a shiny safety pin. -Thanks to Jakkin
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|  |  |  | | Legend
Locations |
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Mainly shot on a studio soundstage at Pinewood Studios, near London in the UK.
The set for Legend was one of the largest scale sets ever built. Ridley had looked are forests all over the place but had lighting issues with all of them. So he decided to just build the whole thing on a stage. They used the old Bond 007 stage because it was one of the largest available on the lot. They had hundreds of animals actually living on the set to make it as real an environment as they could. They had just finished filming "the Fairy Dance" (a scene omitted from the final cut) and in order to have the fires working they had tons of gas tanks they would just turn on to make the fire come to life.
The build up of the gas in the polysthyrene ceilings caused a small explosion that just went across the entire ceiling. By the time Ridley was called from the editing room, it was too late. The entire thing was destroyed. Ridley then went to play tennis.
Luckily, they were only about three more weeks until they were finished with that set. [Thanks to Kristin Troxel]
The underwater sequences were filmed at Silver Springs in Florida. We just returned from there and it is a beautiful location. The water is so blue and clear. I had visions of Jack hunting Lily's ring while we were boating over the main spring where the sequence was filmed. [Thanks to Amanda Thurman]
Can you help? Do you know any of the filming locations used for Legend? [Please send them in]
|  | | | | ![[16:9 -Widescreen Enhanced]](16_9.gif) | ![[5.1 CH SURROUND]](dd5.gif) | Commentary, Featurette, Notes |
| Our
Comments: Both Versions, 2 DVDs |
| | | | Trailer |
| Our
Comments: Not S.E. version |
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Both Tangerine Dream's soundtrack and Jerry Goldsmith's score have been available on CD. The Tangerine Dream is most notable for "Loved by the Sun" ...it is one of my favorites.
"Is your Love Strong Enough" was co-composed by David Gilmour from Pink Floyd. -Thanks to Felipe Alvarado
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. Goldsmith's original score was heard only with the film's European release.
When it came time to assemble the full director's cut, the original session masters for the Jerry Goldsmith score could not be located. However, Mike Ross-Trevor of Hit Factory Studios in London had kept a 2-track digital copy, mixed down from 8-track session masters, which he knew "would be worth preserving." Most of these tapes contained complete takes, which had to be re-edited from scratch to match the cues in the recut print.
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