Legend (1985) - Its parallels in atmosphere to Berserk

I was scrolling through my YouTube feed, when I came across the soundtrack to one of Ridley Scott's forgotten films, Legend. I remember seeing this film a while back, and because of my re-discovery of the soundtrack, I decided to give it a re-watch. The sets are fantastic, the makeup and practical effects are impeccable and still hold up phenomenally, and its atmosphere is incredibly well established. It shares a sort of "picturesque" quality in its depictions of hell and fantasy with my (clear) favorite piece of fiction Berserk. The main theme is one of the relationship between light and darkness, and you only need to look at a picture of Guts and Griffith to see how these themes can relate to Berserk. Admittedly the plot is rather thin, Tom Cruise is dead on arrival, and the run time is anemic; not giving the film enough time to breath and the characters enough time to develop. However there is no denying the stunning direction and atmosphere created by the soundtrack and set design. Satan's son is played extremely well by Tim Curry, which in cohesion with the aforementioned soundtrack adds a sense of true dread. This maybe is not "comparable" to Hirasawa and Berserk, but it is something that made me appreciate the film a bit more. Fantasy films that are of this sort of 80's aesthetic really do reinforce my love for Berserk and (Dark?) fantasy as a whole, I am just curious about anyone's thoughts on this film and would like to hear any sort of feedback anyone has for this film and its tonal alignments with Miura's great piece of work. I also wish there was some source material for this film, lol.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Miura has detailed more than once in the past how 70s and 80s movies inspired him. Films like Excalibur, The Name of the Rose, Hellraiser, Conan the Barbarian... I don't remember him naming Legend specifically, but it no doubt stands among that same library of classic fantasy works.

As for my personal opinion on the movie, to be honest I haven't seen it in a long time so I can't say much, but in general I consider it to be noteworthy among the genre. "Cheesy plot but good visuals for the time" is how I remember it.
 
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