Fantasy Zone: The one with Muppet genocide

 

Title: The Dark Crystal

What Year?: 1978 (preproduction)/ 1982 (release)

Classification: Irreproducible Oddity

Rating: It’s Okay! (3/4)

 

With this review, I’m starting yet another feature, this time simply because I have a movie and no better idea where to put it. It is a follow-up to a review I just did for Featured Creature, and the feature will in turn be to a certain extent a continuation of that feature. What sets this on a new direction is that I will be looking at both a genre and a time, specifically the fantasy genre and its de facto golden age of the early to mid-1980s. Out of that boomlet, already well-represented in my reviews, there is truly one film more egregious than all others, one which would be notorious if it hadn’t become well-regarded enough to be influential and outright loved. I present The Dark Crystal, a fantasy film so unusual I’ve debated whether to count it as live-action.

Our story begins with an introduction to a magical fantasy world divided between the opportunistic Skekses and introspective Mystics. When the leaders of both sides die, the Mystics send out their servant/ mascot Jen, possibly the only survivor of a humanoid race called the Gelflings, on a quest to end the Skekses’ rule and bring balance to the world. Of course, the Skekses send out their insectoid soldiers to find the last of the Gelflings. Meanwhile, Jen meets a a female Gelfling named Kira and a witch who reveals the secret of the Skekses’ power, a shard from a mystic power source called the Dark Crystal. To heal their world, the Gelflings must repair the crystal by restoring the shard, but first, they must make their way to the heart of the stronghold of the Skekses. It’s a perilous journey through a wonderous land, and in the end, the Gelflings must pay the ultimate price!

The Dark Crystal was the first feature film by Jim Henson Productions outside the Muppets franchise, with Henson and Frank Oz (see… American Werewolf In London?) sharing credit as director. The film was reportedly made over at least 4 years, based on a story conceived by Henson as early as 1975. The movie was possibly the first non-animated fantasy film to have no human characters, and as such relied heavily on animatronics. The creatures were designed by Brian Froud and Wendy Midener, who married during production. The voice cast for the film included Stephen Garlick as Jen, Lisa Maxwell as Kira and Billie Whitelaw as the witch Aughra; Whitelaw re-recorded lines originally scripted for or read by Oz. Significant changes were made after test screenings, including the replacement of a language created for the Skekses with English dialogue. The movie received a mixed response both critically and commercially; on the latter front, it earned just under $40.6 million against a budget estimated as either $15M or $25M. Its reputation improved greatly over time, leading to a range of media including the 2019 prequel/ reboot Age of Resistance. The son of Froud and Midener, Toby Froud, appeared in Labyrinth, and went on to a career in special effects and animation.

For my experiences, I definitely saw this one in the early to middling 1990s, and came back to it perhaps two or three times before I picked up the very subpar DVD. What really kept it in my memory has been an uncanny sense that I must have encountered it quite a bit earlier, yet even with my world’s-worst-superpower memory (have I mentioned I found Krull?), I can’t piece together when or how. My clearer recollections are straightforward enough to account for, sightings from TV, magazines and comic shops that from what I know now could have been from this movie, Labyrinth, or certain other films either from the same people or the general time and genre. On the other hand, I have very early memories that seem related but are mashed together with things I know have nothing to do with it. The most irritating incident is that I have a very old idea for an alien species that’s damn close to the Skekses (I said it, and I’m sticking to it), which I’m sure I first thought of right about the time I would have seen the movie, but I still can’t convince myself which came first.

Moving forward, one more thing about this movie is that I have long had it filed on my animation shelves, and I’m cantankerous enough that I very seriously considered doing this review for my animation feature. Of course, it’s not really animated, but as I already pointed out, it’s so unconventional, it doesn’t fit in the live-action mold either. It is truly an updated Punch And Judy show, as far beyond its simple beginnings as a supertanker is from a canoe. Defining its genre poses at least as many problems, and this brings up more than a few strengths and weaknesses of the movie. Its premises and atmosphere definitely fall under fantasy rather than science fiction, though there are points where it comes close to that already hazy line. At the same time, as I first commented reviewing Willow, it still doesn’t quite fit within the swords-and-sorcery/ epic fantasy genre, and in certain lights, it could have been better if it did. There’s no counterpart here to Conan or even Bilbo Baggins. In fact, it’s debatable whether the Gelflings accomplish anything the Skekses couldn’t have been talked into doing themselves. (“Tricking” the bad guys into doing what’s already for their own good, unfortunately, seems a lot more apt now…) These and other issues fall into the alt-too-familiar pattern of effects guys allowed to run their own show.

Naturally, if you really like this film, this will feel like petty nitpicking. The undeniable power of the film lies in the beauty and depth of its world. By the standards of any time, this is easily among the richest fantasy realms on record, with a range of settings and environments that all have their own inhabitants. There’s further freaky wonder in the non-sentient animals, especially the disgruntled Fezzgig and the ethereal landstriders (which I mentioned way back in my patchisaurs post). The usual point of argument is whether the characters have corresponding depth. The easy targets are Jen and Kira, who among other things seem tailored to draw attention to the more serious glitches in the technology. In my assessment, the real and not-uncommon problem here is that the most developed characters are the Skeksis overlords. They look like vultures trying to dress up as peacocks (a premise I developed into a creation myth for “my” alien species), and are every bit as vain, petty and cruel as might be expected from that description alone. It’s worth further note that, while there’s no effort put into setting them “misunderstood”, one can still find favorable points compared to the literally useless Mystics. At least they know their world is dying and are trying in their own way to do something about it. To me, the most realized and flat-out entertaining race are the podlings, who never quite get the attention they deserve.

That leaves the usual “one scene”, and I’m going with one I only remember noticing after I finally bought the movie. After the death of their emperor, the Skeksis Lord Chamberlain challenges the more militaristic one I think of as their general when he matter-of-factly tries to take the old ruler’s scepter straight from his hands. The others promptly announce a “Trial by Stone!” We cut right to this duel, where the two creatures each draw a gnarly scimitar to use not on each other, but a large crystal column. There’s an impressive sense of heft and weight as they take turns trying to make the deepest mark on the rock. Their peers are cheerful and polite, encouraging both combatants with each swing. Then, on his second or third swing, the general swings and breaks the whole column with a visible flash. Everyone seems startled as it falls apart, visibly glowing. This is where I get suspicious. A long time ago, I really did study geology (see my Congo review/ rant), enough to get further experience carving through rocks. If you have a fair amount of experience, it’s really not hard at all to find a spot where a fraction of the force will crack the whole thing. So did the winner really strike the strongest blow, did he get lucky, or did he figure out something his opponent didn’t? It’s overanalyzing, but it’s exactly the kind that makes a movie more fun.

In closing, what I really feel the need to say isn’t the rating I have given, but how I came to review it at all. As I’ve commented occasionally, there are a lot of movies that go over my radar in my choices of what to review, and this one fits most of the criteria. It may have failed to make the top box office dollars in its own time, but it certainly reached the audiences it was meant for then and since, and that translated to the kind of real and enduring influence that usually eludes the movies I normally cover. The common-sense decision for me was that it didn’t suit my needs for any of the features I have done before, which in turn made it inevitable that when I did feel ready to review it, it meant a new feature as well. With that context, it can be a gateway to something new, and a frame of reference for other material that will be a lot less familiar. Finally, I hope that my review will give a new perspective on the movie and especially on just how unusual it was and is. With that, I’m done for the day and another year.

Image credit Cult Film Club.