Labyrinth
No idea if this goes here or in my own little section, but anyway... Oh, and there are probably spoilers within.
The premise of Labyrinth (1986, Dir. Jim Henson) is this: Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is so annoyed by her baby brother than she calls on the goblin king to take him away. The goblin king (David Bowie, not so much slumming it as doing a good job of having fun) takes the child but challenges her to get to his castle within thirteen hours – if she fails, the baby remains the king’s property for evermore.
The castle is surrounded by the labyrinth itself, and here Sarah meets a variety of creatures, made by Jim Henson of Muppets fame, that help and hinder her.
I must confess that I never “got” The Muppet Show. It just seemed a bit shrill, Miss Piggy was dislikeable and the way the puppets always bobbed up and down... Anyway, Labyrinth is full of muppets – well, Jim Henson puppets – but the shrillness has been replaced with a rather sly wit that made me laugh a few times. This may be something to do with Terry Jones’ script, which comes across as intelligent without seeming to know it too much, or perhaps Brian Froud’s creature design, which in turn reminds me of Arthur Rackham’s goblin pictures. The elements come together nicely and produce some good visual jokes, such as a whirling death machine that in actuality is powered by a pedal bike.
Sarah is interesting in herself, like Alice, and not merely an empty figure to represent the viewer. In fact, also like Alice, she’s not terribly likeable at the start of the film. Our sympathy comes more from her efforts to undo a dreadful mistake – up to that point, she seems rather selfish. Unlike Alice, whose prim logic makes her seem like a tiny adult telling Wonderland to stop being silly, Sarah is a sort of overgrown child who flounces and strops rather like Elfine from Cold Comfort Farm.
She also reminds me slightly of Rosalie from The Company of Wolves, an ‘80s fantasy film which is definitely not for children. In particular, a scene in Labyrinth where Sarah’s bedroom is torn apart by monsters is similar to one in The Company of Wolves, which ends the same way but with a far more unsettling subtext. The ballroom scene in Labyrinth reminds me of the scene in Company where a peasant girl curses the nobleman who deserted her, and contains the same implication: being an adult may be enticing, but at the end of the day it involves dangers and distractions of its own. This is always kept tasteful, but there is a suggestion that Sarah is nearly too old for the labyrinth, and that any normal grown-up would not have summoned the goblins in the first place.
At the end of Labyrinth, it seems that Sarah is putting away her toys and will bid goodbye to the creatures who helped her, since they are part of childhood. Rather pleasingly they all appear in her room and have a party instead, implying that they do not need to be discarded for her to grow up.
You could argue forever about whether Labyrinth lacks originality or whether it borrows wisely from Carroll, M.C. Escher, L. Frank Baum and several others. Personally I think the borrowing strengthens the story. In truth it should have been a little shorter, and like most films about a journey it does meander from set-piece to set-piece. And of course there are songs – 80’s pop songs, some by Bowie. Ultimately I am not sure who would want to see it these days except out of nostalgia (going by Youtube comments there is clearly a lot of affection for the film, not least for Bowie’s tight trousers).
As to whether you will like this film, the answer probably depends on whether you want to like it. It is visually ingenious but like many 80’s fantasy films – Excalibur, say – it will look ropey if you expect it to. That isn’t to excuse its faults but to acknowledge them. Overall I would say it was pretty good for its time and genre, and now, although dated and flawed, it holds up quite well.
Interesting fact: In a running joke, the goblin king mistakenly refers to the dwarf Hoggle as Hogwart. “Hogwarts” is of course the name of a Roman play performed by nigel molesworth in the 1950’s school comedy Back in the Jug Agane.
