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The Movie:
Ridley Scott's 1985 "Legend" has been one of the most requested DVD titles since the format's birth. While more of a cult picture than some of the bigger "wants" for the format, it was at least hoped that Scott, along with the director's usual ace DVD producer, Charlie de Lauzirika, could provide something special. The result, while long delayed (likely due to rights issues or more time to finalize supplements), is the first of Universal's "Ultimate Editions" not to follow a previous "Special Edition".
This DVD edition provides both the theatrical release and Ridley Scott's director's cut, which extends the film by about 24 minutes. The film was a costly effort and, according to director Scott's text notes in the insert, wasn't finding an audience originally. It was re-cut and re-scored, but never really matched the vision that the director had in mind.
As for my thoughts on the film itself, I find it to be a flawed, but ambitious and fascinating film, full of striking visuals. The story itself is a rather simple bit of swords and sorcery lore: an evil force named Darkness lives beneath the land, desiring to cover the sun and launch the world into, well, darkness, where he can reign supreme. We then are introduced to two young lovers, Jack and Lili (Tom Cruise and Mia Sara). Jack takes Lili to see the unicorns that live in the forest, but she's kidnapped by the dark forces and it's up to Jack to rescue princess Lili.
The film does not seem to be about the story as much as it is about the visuals, which are nothing short of stunning, as Scott and team have somehow managed to keep every single widescreen frame busy in one way or another. While this film is now nearly 20-years-old, the production design is still impressive, with an exceptional amount of detail and imagination going into every one of the sets. Still, while these aspects are impressive, I still would have liked a bit better of a balance between story and visuals. While the director's cut does provide a fuller experience, it's still a film that's smoewhat lackluster in character development.
The performances are good, if not outstanding. Cruise is a good actor who has gotten better, but he's not incredibly commanding in this role and only remains moderately interesting. Elsewhere, Sara is elegant and engaging, while Tim Curry is respectable as the villian of the piece. While "Legend" isn't a film without problems, I still remain entertained by the film and especially the dark world that director Scott has created. It's also wonderful that the director's cut of Scott's film is finally available for audiences.
The DVD
VIDEO: The director's cut and theatrical cuts of the film are both presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Both editions of the film have their own disc of the two-DVD set, but it's the director's cut that mostly gets a disc to itself, while the theatrical cut is accompanied by a lot of supplementals on the second disc. The director's cut looks pretty stellar for an extended cut of a film of this age. Sharpness and detail do occasionally are inconsistent throughout the movie, but never became lackluster. While most of the film appeared pleasantly crisp and well-defined, some scenes appeared noticably softer, although this occasionally seemed due to intent or effects.
The director's cut was surprisingly clean and free of all by some minor faults. The primitive early special effects look pretty good, when these kinds of effects can tend to either look muddy or as they did in "The Neverending Story", rather grainy. Edge enhancement is very minimal and barely noticable. The print even looked unexpectedly good condition, with only some very minor grain and a speck or two.
Colors looked splendid throughout, appearing well-saturated and vivid, with no noticable flaws. I was very pleased with the effort displayed for the director's cut. The theatrical cut of the picture looked less pleasing, if certainly not terrible. The theatrical cut appears somewhat softer at times and displays some additional print flaws in the form of occasional specks and other, minor forms of wear. Colors seem slightly more vivid and fresh in the "director's cut", where the picture as a whole generally seems more crisp and clean. The theatrical cut certainly doesn't look terrible, but the director's cut is definitely a more pleasing viewing experience.
SOUND: The director's cut of the film is offered in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 as well as Dolby 2.0. The theatrical cut of the film is presented only with the film's original 2.0 soundtrack. Given the fact that this film and its soundtrack are now about seventeen years of age, I wasn't really expecting a great deal from the new 5.1 presentation in either choice of soundtracks. As it sometimes goes, my expectations were exceeded, if not overwhelmingly so.
The 5.1 soundtracks on the director's cut are pretty impressive at times, boasting a pretty healthy amount of bass and a rich, crisp presentation of Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful score. Surrounds are used fairly actively - if not for the Goldsmith score, they provide some slight ambience and a few instances here and there of more noticable sound effects. While I would have liked a bit more participation from the rear speakers, I'd think there can only be so much done with a film of this age. As much, this is a more than satisfactory soundtrack offering. Both the Dolby and DTS soundtracks provide an almost equally enjoyable experience, but the DTS soundtrack has the slight edge with a slightly more crisper and detailed sound.
The theatrical cut's 2.0 soundtrack is fairly decent, but certainly lacks the envelopment of the 5.1 soundtracks. The 2.0 soundtrack still remains clear and crisp, but certainly the director's cut soundtracks are the way to go for the listening experience. The theatrical cut also offers the less effective Tangerine Dream score instead of the richer and more enjoyable Jerry Goldsmith effort on the director's cut.
MENUS: The animated main menus are slightly animated, but all menus contain striking background images and are quite well-done overall.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Ridley Scott. As with the director's other commentary tracks, he provides everything that is "right" with commentaries. Scott does not simply narrate what is currently going on in the film and when he praises the cast or those he worked with, he provides additional backstory on their role in the film. For a film that was released a considerable while ago, it's impressive that Scott is able to remember so much detail about the production, from stories on the set to technical details. There's also some fine insight into character, filmmaking and working with the actors. This commentary is only available on the director's cut edition.
Making of a "Myth": This is a 51-minute documentary produced by JM Kenny. Many of the folks involved with the production, including the production, stunt coordinator, actor Curry, actress Sara, director Scott, the writer and others, provide their thoughts about the production and offer some technical comments about how scenes were accomplished. The first half of the documentary provides a lot of detail about the pre-production of the film and how everyone got involved. The second half provides more details about where things began to go wrong for the production: Scott and others discuss the very saddening event where one of the biggest sets burned down as well as the changes and alterations that the film had to go through when audiences weren't responding well to the original cut. This is an excellent, informative documentary that takes an in-depth look at all aspects of the production of this film.
Deleted Scenes: 2 deleted scenes, long thought lost, are included here. One is an alternate opening and one is called the "Faerie Dance". The alternate opening is a rough video copy, while the "Faerie Dance" is recreated from storyboards and audio.
Storyboards: Storyboards for 3 sequences: "Lily and the Unicorns", "Jack's Challenge" and "Downfall of Darkness".
TV Spots/Trailers: 4 TV spots, the US trailer and the International trailer.
Also: Brian Ferry music video, production notes, bios, recommendations, DVD-ROM weblink.
Final Thoughts: "Legend" certainly created the magic and universe for this kind of film; the technical side of this production is pretty remarkable - even more so considering this is a 1985 picture. Yet, I never really had that strong of an interest in characters. Overall though, I still find the film entertaining. Universal's long-awaited DVD edition of the picture provides a strong amount of very informative supplements, as well as the terrific addition of the full director's cut of the picture. Recommended.
Film Grade
The Film ** 1/2 (theatrical)/***(DC)
DVD Grades
Video 87/B (DC) & 82/B
Audio: 85/B (DC) & 80/B-
Extras: 89/B+
Menus: 90/A-
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