1983 was THE year of Tom Cruise, with Loose Deals, The Outsiders and The Right Twist. But one of his biggest failures soon followed. Next, the budding superstar shot the fantasy film Legend with Blade Runner director Ridley Scott.
At Disney + * you can catch up on the colorful fairy tale that almost wiped out an entire genre.
In legend, the last unicorns are in danger
The Lord of Darkness (played by the future Pennywise Tim Curry) wants to conquer the world, but he has to kill all remaining unicorns. To achieve his goal, he sends the goblin Blix (Alice Playten) into the fairytale forest, who uses the young princess Lily (Mia Sara from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) to track down the animals. Blix kills an animal, Lily and the last unicorn fall into the villain’s hands. So the ranger Jack (Tom Cruise), in love with Lily, sets out to save the world from the rule of darkness.
20th Century Pictures
Tom Cruise in Legend
Legende hit theaters in 1985, three years after Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner failed at the box office in a studio-massacred version. A real comeback was not a legend for the Alien director.
Also this time there were problems with the final cut version, which was long as too sophisticated for North American audiences was viewed. The film fell largely through the critics. While the effects and makeup were praised, the story was dismissed as an anemic, cheerless affair.
A flop that wiped out the fantasy boom?
Financially, legend was hardly better off. The film came out during a small boom in the fantasy genre that produced The Dragon Slayer (1981), The Dark Crystal (1982), The Last Unicorn (1982), Krull (1983), The Neverending Story (1984) and several more .
20th Century Pictures
Make-up and masks are great
However, Legend was such a failure that it put a severe damper on the genre that wasn’t really rebounded until the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). In an article in the British Telegraph on the occasion of its 30th birthday, the film is even called “Extinction Event” described as wiping out a genre like an asteroid wiped out dinosaurs.
There are several versions of Legende
It took Ridley Scott a while to recover from failure with Thelma & Louise in the early ’90s (and promptly hit 3 flops in a row afterwards). Tom Cruise, on the other hand, released a small film called Top Gun the year after legend – they fear neither death nor the devil.
Like his director, he takes the position that the 114-minute Director’s Cut is the only true version. At Disney + you can watch the 93-minute so-called international version, which is a kind of middle ground between the US version and the director’s desired version.
As is often the case with films that fail at the box office (and everyone else too), it’s worth seeing the quality for yourself. In any case, legend now has cult statuswhich doesn’t even remotely compare to the recognition of Scott’s Blade Runner.
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