Labyrinth (1986)

[DisneyBoy]

Dance, magic, dance!

It's difficult to believe that this movie wasn't an immediate success upon its release. It puts a really inventive spin on more familiar stories like The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland and gave us an iconic performance from David Bowie as well as a solid one from Jennifer Connelly and a whole bunch of memorable puppets from Jim Henson. They just don't make films like this anymore.

...although apparently they're working on another film "set in the same universe", whatever that means. I'm extremely skeptical and just don't think it's a good idea. I think this one was lightning in a bottle and should probably be left alone rather than imitated. But we will see...

Edited May 27, 2017 by DisneyBoy

[methodwriter85]

If it's not David Bowie, it's not worth it. You can't ever replace the guy. (May God rest his soul.)

I got to see a packed revival screening of the movie. It was pretty fun.

[paramitch]

On 5/27/2017 at 8:14 AM, DisneyBoy said:

Dance, magic, dance!

It's difficult to believe that this movie wasn't an immediate success upon its release. It puts a really inventive spin on more familiar stories like The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland and gave us an iconic performance from David Bowie as well as a solid one from Jennifer Connelly and a whole bunch of memorable puppets from Jim Henson. They just don't make films like this anymore.

...although apparently they're working on another film "set in the same universe", whatever that means. I'm extremely skeptical and just don't think it's a good idea. I think this one was lightning in a bottle and should probably be left alone rather than imitated. But we will see...

Thanks for starting this topic! I love Labyrinth. I don't think it's perfect, and I know Terry Jones spoke pretty openly about how the movie that emerged wasn't the one he actually wrote, but I did think it included some gorgeous moments, and that it took a lot of risks.

It is interesting that you can see the somewhat darker movie still underneath -- the chemistry between Sarah and Jareth, first off, and the relationship that I think walks the tightrope pretty well -- I think it's effective because it shows the adulthood and sexual awakening Sarah yearns for, while never crossing over into outright inappropriateness (there was a kiss in the script, but Henson rightly nixed it). Echoing this, for instance, Sarah's dressing table is filled with pictures of the mother who left her family (and the stepfather in those pictures is actually the Goblin King). That Hoggle's first appearance is that he's peeing in a garden. That fairies bite. etc.

The main joy I take from the movie is David Bowie's charismatic and richly textured performance as Jareth. He's so gorgeous to look at (and his character design is fantastic), he really seems to inhabit a deeper and richer fantasy universe (and to perhaps be stranded in his current one). I also love that there's an almost palpable loneliness and sorrow to Bowie's Jareth ("I am exhausted from living up to your expectations.").

The thing that doesn't quite mesh for me is Jareth (a complex dark figure) as a believable part of the puppet-universe of the goblins and the other labyrinth inhabitants, who are honestly a lot of the time too cute to really seem threatening. I actually feel sorry for Jareth. Maybe he simply spirits away babies just so their families chase them so that he has someone with an IQ over 50 to talk to now and then.

But I love movies for moments, and for me the big ones in Labyrinth are when the baby disappears and Jareth appears (a genuinely creepy scene, especially in the "be careful what you wish for" sense), the ballroom scene (which is just exquisite and which remains a pretty perfect 2-3 minutes of film for me), and the final Escher/stair sequence where Sarah confronts Jareth.

It doesn't always work for me plotwise, and some of the moments and adventures are pretty clumsy, but still, all around the edges are these ideas that the movie almost gets to. So I love it despite the flaws. (And after seeing some behind the scenes, I became a lot more forgiving of Connelly's uneven performance -- what she was acting opposite was often whole teams of people in very strange and uncomfortable circumstances, and I think she was just too inexperienced at the time to know how to overcome that).

Edited July 24, 2017 by paramitch

[Spartan Girl]

David Bowie was the hottest Goblin King ever.

[rmcrae]

"Nothing? Nothing?! NOTHING TRA LA LA?!" Love this movie! First time I saw it was at 8 when I taped Return to Oz (another fantasy fave of mine) off the Disney Channel and it came on right after. One of my favorite scenes is the dream sequence in the ballroom. The score was matched the enchanting atmosphere perfectly.

[Dandesun]

Ahhh... the sexual awakening of my generation. A significant portion of it anyway. I went to see it on the big screen a few years ago on one of those throwback nights movie theaters do now after decades of seeing it 'edited for television' and was very quickly reminded WHY it was the sexual awakening for a large swath of my generation.

Bowie in tights with a view of his crotch or ass in the majority of scenes.  Always to the side where it got cropped out for the regular sized televisions lo those many years.

They aren't really remaking this are they? Bowie was always so strange and easily believed to be one of the Fair Folk. Is there anyone now that can remotely match that? I can't think of anyone.

[Athena]

1 hour ago, Dandesun said:

They aren't really remaking this are they? Bowie was always so strange and easily believed to be one of the Fair Folk. Is there anyone now that can remotely match that? I can't think of anyone.

Tilda Swinton comes to mind. Though lately, she doesn't seem to play roles with the kind of raw sexuality and eroticism that Bowie had in this movie.

I never saw this as a kid so it started my own Bowie lust/love late in life.

The movie basically perfect for me except that weird fire puppet scene which I always skip.

[littlewonder]

Man, favorite movie as a kid and still one of my faves as an adult.  When I was evenlittlerwonder and I had no concept of queerness, that movie woke up something in me.  I loved that Jareth was a boy who wore makeup and was pretty.  I wanted to both be him and marry him.  

As an adult, I now have a giant husky named Ludo because he's a gentle giant.

[Joe]

I am that rare creature, a hetrosexual male fan of the Labyrinth. Seriously. I'm not knocking David Bowie, he's very entertaining and a great villain. But when I was younger, I always had the hots for Jennifer Connelly. And I like mazes. The idea of such a huge and sprawling maze, big enough for people (of a sort) to actually live in? That was and still is awesome!