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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 25, 1986)
Limitations leave gaping holes in a ‘Legend’ Putting myth onto film is a difficult task at host, ami when this myth pits natural good vs evil incarnate.: _| the film's job becomes infinitely tougher After all. when the stakes are that high we expect nothing short, of an-epic v , ' : . - Ridley Siott's "l.egend," - misses the epic ..siy-eep need eel to giv'e tlir liattre liet ^ ■ vviaVri liglft atV(l;(irtrkiii'sKthe coRmjc. 'pn> |)(irti(ins S(:iitt irisists i:xist All nf the ai v • tiiiiv is tieil into a iHsiutifuJ Netherworld . " v,Ipresf. a won<rerfuHy_,-mali/.ed -.location i oustim led; entirelv tjy Scott* and coni ji.im ti» i ic,He a maun faintaie land Its •r , lot ation is olisi ore and any sense uf oi.rocjion within the forest JlY unimpor taut t In* mystjt al i harm ters know iKeir vyav around and that's endugh/ Vet this setting is .loti i confined because. for all ot 'Scott's.efforts to keep the action moving around this undefined space, it simply feels too small. No vistas, no master shots give us any sense of magnitude nod the* scope of the story is too limited to allow the time factor to help open tip the sweep. Simply put. there isn’t enough there to convince us that tin? fate of the world hangs in the balance* ' The cast. too. seems limiting lack ' |Tom < iruise|, ’a . medieval version of Mother.Nature's son, is In love w ith the Princess. I.ili (Mia Sara) who copies to visit lack in his forest home In a. special gesture. |ack allows I.ili to glimpse the power of light aiid good iir'llfis world ~ a 11.11 i ol mill oms Dowiwer The l.oril cif. Darkness (Tipi < 111 i\ .11 Ills tiieatrual liest) has plans to destrriv the beasts and enshroud the world in darkness and cold I.ili's pi eseni i allows the ill i iiioiis ol I lark ness to injure one ol the beasts and throw the del fcatel y - Ira la n tied world into a raging storm / Jack and I.ili are separated and both dedii ate themselves to lighting the world I.ili overhears Darkness* plan to capture and kill the surviving unicorn mid runs In save the animat. Meanw hile, lack teams up with the ell (Jump, dwarves Screwball and Brown Tom and fairv Oona.to fight Darkness on his own turf his dreaded underground kingdom ol death T’vtjry Irame'of the film is stacked in . detail. The npenidg scenes, are suffused; with agqlden-whitujight that plays on t he rose .petals that fi11-1he air loiter, the w ind swept petals are replaced by; bub i)lesiaiiils'ev:«i'n'_.laler.-(lrilt iug; snow f lakes. -The';middle and ' background are miniitelv.Tealized settings a lusli forest 1 a mist '.enshrouded bog. dark and tjah'geroiis 'caverns with death wailing around .everycorner.: All of these sets are .set if it ini' creations that rival 'the'detail •Scott pul blip bis previous ■'Blade Run ner,'' sets. Scott doesn't merely make movies: he creates worlds. yet something is missing from this c arefullv crafted land of magic and iii’vlli The’t|‘uest seems too short. thecas) too limited, the answer too simple and easily won fora battle of this magnitude. And. finally, (he opening prologue about the need fyr co-existence between light and dark for balance is never actually proven or even necessary for the conclu sion of the tale. '/ . <•’. for Ridley Scott the image is the film, style is meaning and detail is'explana- . tton. As.this is the.case ilVoiildbeuice to see Ins original < reation his i. lit w iiich isfyMngVscpjv'in/Kiipiptc.fl.nfdrluiaalely.-. Universal decided that- the film had to be recut to make sense to American an il i’ences (t he same reasoni llg thal al lowed "Once Upon A Time In America" to be hacked and sliced out of shape). For some reason. Universal.seems hr-believe that we aren't as "sophisticated" as the Kuropean audiences. Perhaps the original cjil does allow for a sense of <|iiesl and .1 feeling of magnitude, perhaps not However. I do know that in this incarnation. "i.egend" is somewhat less than legendary. B\ Sean \\maker Polish postwar love story cunning, insightful In "A Year Of The Quiet Sun.” Polish director Krzysztof /.anussi has fashioned a subtle film about war ravaged Poland, circa American soldier at tempts to romance a Polish civilian. Nor man is part of an Allied commission in vestigating war crimes. Kmilia is a widow who lives with her ailing mother and paints, doth are fortyish. age-wise. The storyline is simple: Norman tries to convince Kmilia to move to America w ith him, She reciprocates his love, but eventually refuses to leave Poland. Now . in love stories involving people from different backgrounds, there are two cliche-ridden possibilities: "They lived happily ever after” and “Two ships passing in the night, destined never to meet ”A Year Of The Klim" manages to avoid tmth dangers Indeed. Xanussi is not so much concerned with love as with the possibility of happiness. Mis other films treat themes such as the difficulty of moral action in a modern l SiH || * ICMl % fra-u.1!**-1 1046. where i world Thus, the flashing lights we see i onlimi.illv in "A Year" refer not to the stars crossing the lovers' eyes, hut to beams that shine into the eyes making action difficult. At first Kmiiia resists Norman's stam mering attempts at contact but finally relents, thanks to his doggedness. Neither speaks the other's language and much time is spent with translators, but it is by intuition and gesture that the Polish woman and American man understand each other. The language difference is more a source of shared humor than a handicap: Kmiiia has great fun with the Polish-Knglish dictionary and later. Iioth Kmiiia and Norman laugh uproariously at the bumbling efforts of their young Polish interpreter. Next door to Kmiiia lives Stella, a woman who worked in a brothel for tier man SS officers during the war. and who continues to turn an occasional trick. Kmilias mother and the Polish authorities shun her. but Kmiiia is ada mant about refusing to judge her. Kmiiia is equally serious about keeping her suf faring •<> herself. and lives this ruin to the extreme When Imodiums invade her apartment, mb her and her mother, heal up her mother and nearly rape Emilia, shit says nothing about this to a n vuno — i n eluding Nor ma n. Norman is both tortured by and drawn to his own memories of humiliation in a Nazi concentration camp. When he discovers that Stella's boyfriend is tier man. Norman encourages the man to order him to raise his hands and turn around, in German. When Stella's beau complies with this seeming jest. Norman almost strangles him. Nevertheless. Nor man makes it clear to Emilia that he in tends to pursue a happy future with her track in the 'States. Emilia understands him perfectly, but disagrees. Her wish to remain in Poland, and find happiness in suffering in the same land where her dead huslsmd lies, is morbid and downright incomprehen sible to her fellow Poles. A priest who hears her confession urges Emilia to depart with Norman, rather than en courage her to remain true to her dead husband. Observations about the Polish historical experience art; tightly woven into the narrative, Zantissi doesn't caricature Americans in his film: in stead. he encourages comparisons bet ween Poland and the United States, l-'or example, in one of their rare moments of jov. Norman and Kmilia drive through a meadow and sing ‘‘Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” The cow. they see walking through the grass sets off a land mine. American nursery rhymes would 1 men me very macabre if rewritten in the light of Polish history. All in all. “A Year Of The Quiet Sun” offers an insightful view of a romance tainted by the very memories of tragedy on one country's soil. The understated performances pnivide a welcome relief front Hertford and Streep. Don’t miss it! “A Year Of The Quiet Sun” is playing at Cinema 7. in the Atrium building at West loth Avenue and Olive Street. 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