Legend Blu-ray Review

• 3rd Feb 2012

Truly, perhaps, the most overlooked and underrated of all of Ridley Scott’s films, Legend marks the end of his lush visual enterprise within film.  That is not to say that Scott lost the knack for visual opulence. He has gone on to film many a lush epic; but Legend is the last film he made which is arguably made for its visual style. The same can be said for Alien (which is alternately a stalker in space movie) and Blade Runner (which is actually a wafer thin detective story). Legend falls in similar territory. The story itself is fairly thin on first inspection, but is highly enriched by the visual code it adheres to.

Legend also has a strong production history behind it, a post Risky Business Tom Cruise in the lead, a pre Ferris Bueller Mia Sara as his princess, and a scene stealing Tim Curry as the red and demonic “Darkness.”

Cruise plays Jack, a young man of the forest who spends a day showing his princess girlfriend Lily (Sara) around the beautifully shot (and hand crafted!) forest. But Lily has a wicked side to her and she breaks a cardinal rule when she approaches and touches a unicorn. Literally all hell breaks loose at this point. Jack and Lily are separated; the unicorn’s horn is delivered to the Lord of Darkness along with Lily for his pleasure.  It’s up to Jack and a ragtag band of elves, fairies and “little men” in dwarf make up to seek out Darkness’ lair and rescue Lily along with the last remaining unicorn.

Legend is over 25 years old now and it simply looks stunning in every shot with every detail. The forest, you’d be forgiven for thinking was an actual location, as it was beautifully put together. But look out also for the details in the lair of Darkness. It is in these scenes where the film really finds its depths. The seduction of Princess Lily is where the film is at its strongest. This is where every element of the film is working. The design, the make-up (both Curry and Sara look terrific in their scenes) and the dialogue in particular is worthy of the darkest of fairy tales.

OK, so this isn’t Tom Cruise’s best performance and his scenes in particular would be all the more forgettable if it weren’t for those visual aspects I keep hammering on about.

This main disc offers you the UK theatrical cut of the film and also the director’s cut version. The director’s cut offers an added 25 minutes of footage, but it’s of work print quality so is only partially restored and doesn’t look as great on high definition. Don’t take my word for it though; both versions actually come with written introductions by the director giving his opinion. But don’t be too put off as there is still good enough quality to enjoy.

Legend is a film that was screaming for a Blu-ray transfer and thankfully a good job was done of the theatrical version. The director’s cut though, along with a trailer, is all you are going to get as extras. But do be thankful that the U.S. does not have the short UK Theatrical version available to them. This fact will make this edition a collector’s item worth getting.

This release has the Jerry Goldsmith score on both versions and is not to be mistaken with the extras heavy US edition.

Steven Hurst