Labyrinth
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DVD Review
Ratings And Purchasing Information
Review
Plot Outline
Like a lot of teenage girls, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) feels frustrated at being neither a girl nor yet a woman, and finds comfort playing out scenes from her favourite book "Labyrinth". When her anger at being left once again to look after her baby step-brother boils over, she imagines the goblins from this fantasy world will come and take him away.
When they do so, the Goblin King (David Bowie) himself appears and challenges her to venture to his castle beyond the Labyrinth and rescue the child. She has to do this within thirteen hours, otherwise the child will be turned into a goblin and be lost forever.
Along the way, Sarah will meet many dangers and find strange allies in her quest, realised by the talents of the Jim Henson Creature Workshop. The troll-like Hoggle, 'Ludo', and the brave Sir Didymus will help her fight her way to the Goblin City. The 'Labyrinth' is a maze of puzzles and traps, and a place of illusion where nothing is as it seems.
Review
I'm going to admit to holding a very unfashionable opinion about this film and say that I actually like it.
That's contrary to most professional critics who derided on it's release and for whom the passage of time has not mellowed. But I think they missed the point of the film in a spectacular way.
First of all though, let me say that I do agree that there are some criticisms that are justified. Even allowing for its age there are some hideously bad optical effects. The 'dance' number was filmed with puppeteers wearing blackout material against a jet black background and then composited with background and foreground elements. And boy, does it look awful! The colour matching on the worm in the wall of the labyrinth near the beginning of the film is so far out it's painful.
Some of the dialog is clunky at times, but I personally think that you can get away more with that in a fantasy setting. The film does seem to suffer from having a story subtext that only adults will appreciate, and story elements that seem to be aimed more at children. Essentially, and to borrow a well-worn phrase, it falls between two stools.
Many also criticise the performance of the lead actors, which is strange. Bowie had certainly proved he could act already, so it seems to me that any criticism that he didn't seem very natural is bizarre. After all, he's a fantasy character, and maybe the pantomime theatrical way he played it was a deliberate acting choice. I think it fits just fine and there's only a few moments which don't quite come off as they should.
As for Jennifer Connelly, have these critics never had teenage daughters or listened to girls of that age? She was spot on. I'm much more forgiving than the critics were of the odd few 'wobbles' in her performance. After all, it was her first major acting role and at fifteen she was the perfect age to play Sarah. What were the critics suggesting, get someone older and more experienced in the role? What, like they did with O.N.J. in Grease? Please, spare us!
So why do I like it so much? Because children can watch it as a simple adventure but the depth of the movie is in the fact it is a 'rights of passage' story. It's all about leaving childhood things behind and facing up to adult responsibilities, and yet not wanting to lose all of the magic. There's tons of references in there, and maybe the critics didn't miss them, but they certainly did the film a grave disservice by not considering it in their reviews.
Admittedly, a lot of it is so subtle that you'd only get it on multiple viewings. Most people appreciate first time round that her bedroom has many objects in it that are part of the world of the 'Labyrinth'. But so few seemed to appreciate the significance of the Jareth, the Goblin King. It isn't just the main character of the book - it's the embodiment of what she fears and despises, but also that which she is drawn to as her sexuality awakens.
I had to laugh when some overly PC critic recently reviewed the DVD on a site and expressed concern at Jareth's paedophilic stalking of Sarah. Jareth only exists like that because Sarah has created him as such in her fantasy. And the reason she is so confused about him is because he represents the man that her Mother left her father for. And that's not a wild idea of mine. If you look at the pages of her scrapbook carefully you'll see press clippings about the event, and the man they used in the photos is David Bowie. See, I told you there was more to the film than meets the eye on first viewing.
The fantasy world created for the Labyrinth is inventive and the sets look gorgeous. The vast majority of the creatures, story points and gags work very well. Maybe it's best if you don't come to it with too many preconceived notions, which may have been what damaged 'Labyrinth' after the success of 'The Dark Crystal'.
Video
The picture is a nice 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer - not stunning, but good. It's a little 'soft' in places, and the R2 release will probably look a little better for having more vertical scan lines in the PAL system than my NTSC copy. The print it's taken from is free from noticeable scratches or defects.
The wide screen transfer is a real bonus over the fullframe video I had before as there are at least four hidden faces of the Goblin King during the movie that you miss on a 4:3 pan and scan copy. If anyone is interested, I could post screen grabs of them in the Easter Eggs section.
Audio
The Dolby stereo surround sound track is adequate, and is taken directly from the original theatrical release. The movie predates the introduction of Dolby 5.1, but it seems a shame not to have remixed it as there's several opportunities for creating additional atmosphere by careful placing of sound effects.
Extras
Apart from the usual scene selections (28 chapter stops), there are some rather uninspiring static menus, fullscreen trailers for 'Labyrinth', 'The Dark Crystal', and 'The Storyteller', and text 'talent profile' screens. Nothing much to get excited about there.
The documentary however is a decent length (56 minute) 'behind the scenes' look at making the movie. Some of it is shamelessly promotional and the voice over is irritating, but the interviews and on-set footage is illuminating. If anything, it shows the commitment that all the talent had to trying to do the very best of which they were capable, and yet how so often the reality of what they are able to get on film falls short in the inevitable compromises of movie making.
Overall
I regard this film as one that deserves to be admired more than the critics were prepared to, and one I'm always likely to watch. It is a bit dark and scary in places for really little ones, and my daughter didn't like it until she turned six. Adults will get more out of it than children, but children will enjoy more of the creature led story moments. In all, a good family film.
It was only the release in R1 prior to even an announcement for R2 that made me get this version, and the R2 release is identical in content. It's also going to be marginally superior picture quality and I think the cover artwork is less messy.
However, if you've yet to buy a copy and you want the best quality the technology can deliver, then it might be worth waiting for the Superbit release. It's already out in R1, and gets an R2 release on 12th May. However, reviews in R1 suggest that the quality improvements are marginal. The slightly improved picture is a bonus, but shows up the poor opticals even more, and the soundtrack is just a direct lift from the Dolby stereo surround track, not a remix. There's no extra features of course to make way for the higher transfer rate.
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