Subject: Retrospective: The Dark Crystal (1982)

From: [email-masked] (Bill Chambers)
Date: 7 May 1998 02:59:40 GMT

THE DARK CRYSTAL **** (out of four)
"Another world, Another time... In the age of wonder."

-a review by Bill Chambers
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screenplay by David Odell
directed by Jim Henson & Frank Oz

When Jim Henson passed away, he left behind diverse legions of fans
and a company whose ultimate success, it now seems, hinged on his
input. Jim Henson Productions and The Creature Shop are still thriving
financially, but as the last two Muppet films (or that silly
computer-generated monkey from Lost In Space) demonstrate, the thrill
and genius are gone. I'm not sure THE DARK CRYSTAL, made today, would
generate from an audience of kids five to fifty the same awe-filled
response.

An all-powerful crystal has cracked, causing the leaders of the green
world to split apart into two beings: the big, gentle Mystics, and the
vulture-like Skeksis. The Mystics send Jen, a naive Gelfling boy, on a
mission to find the shard that cracked away, which must be reinserted
into the crystal before the Skeksis become eternal rulers, before the
great "conjunction" of three suns. Along the way, Jen encounters and
teams up with the only other Gelfling alive, the Rebecca DeMornay-like
Kira, an ogre-witch named Aughra, who removes her eyes to look at
things, and a spastic-but-friendly, tumbleweed-like animal named
Fizzgig.

Much of the beauty in THE DARK CRYSTAL, which is a simple tale (though
it does not condescend to any viewer), lies in its art direction and
creature design. The puppeteering is phenomenal--observe the scenes in
which Jen plays his flute, or the landwalker chase--but I must stress
that any thoughts of strings and hands and remote controls all but
vanish in the opening moments of the picture, a delicately-narrated
(by John Baddeley), absorbing prologue. The voice work in the film, by
Muppet regulars and irregulars, is tone-perfect. As well, Trevor
Jones' score should not be discounted: it contributes to the film
almost as an unseen character. I suppose, due to the complexity
involved in executing a movie of this nature, that it couldn't be
helped, but I wish the film was longer.  Jen and Kira have
wonderful...well, chemistry, and more scenes of them quietly
conversing would have been appreciated.

THE DARK CRYSTAL has a very small cult following. The weaker Labyrinth
is probably better-known, which is upsetting. A friend of mine related
a story to me that Henson was pressured into planting humans among
Labyrinth's creatures due to the financial failure of people-less THE
DARK CRYSTAL. That film never quite found its footing; it played like
an acid-trip episode of "The Muppet Show" with David Bowie as
guest-host, borrowing from Tolkien and pandering to Tolkien's
fan-base. (I suppose I just made Labyrinth sound appetizing to a
certain sector of the public.) THE DARK CRYSTAL deserved (and still
deserves) a bigger audience. It's the best kind of children's
entertainment: elegant, fantastical, and courageously un-hip. Brian
Henson, fortunate son, keep looking back at this, your father's
masterpiece.

-May, 1998.