Time to go back to my fantasy roots with another movie review. This movie is etched into my memory like few others ever have been. I remember when this movie came out in theaters, and I was absolutely determined to watch it. The trailers had me stoked, with stirring music (still one of my favorite movie themes of all time), Val Kilmer swashbuckling, cool monsters, and the trailer's opening narration: "From the creator of Star Wars..." I was hooked. So, was this movie going to live up to my expectations?
Hell, yes.
I was on a trip to Québec City after I'd won a high school French competition, and I was there with kids from across Ontario and a class from Cleveland, Ohio. I'm not sure what a bunch of Americans were doing in Québec City, but they were having fun, too. The movie had just opened, and I had saved up money for the trip. We got off the bus and went to the hotel, and I was at the theater that night, mesmerized.
I went again the next night, and the next...and the next. Four straight nights at the theater, something I'd never done before, or since. Not even Batman (which I saw nine times in the theater in 1989) had me going back four nights in a row. This was something special.
Now, there are a lot of people who are scoffing at what I'm saying. "It wasn't that great of a movie," I hear. "The effects were cheesy, the plot was thin, and the villains were cardboard cutouts."
I reply: So what? The effects were very good for the time (1988), nobody was expecting an M. Night Shamalayan movie out of this, and the villains were no more nuanced and layered than Darth Vader was in 1977. They were evil, they knew they were evil, and they made it clear to everyone that they were evil. That's what villains do in fantasy stories. It's like complaining that the witch in Snow White isn't a fully-developed character. She's the villain! And so was Queen Bavmorda! And both of them got what they deserved in the end.
So, let's run through the thin plot, shall we? Warning: SPOILERS in case you haven't watched this 33-year-old movie yet.
Still here? Good. So, the evil queen Bavmorda is trying to stop a prophecy that claims a child will be born with a mark that identifies her as the person who will cause Bavmorda's downfall. She doesn't go all King Herod, slaughtering all the kids around, but she does capture and kidnap every pregnant woman in the kingdom, forcing them to give birth in her dungeons until the right baby is found. Naturally, the baby escapes with the help of a sympathetic midwife, and the opening credits roll.
The midwife puts the baby onto a raft (Moses story!) and pushes her out into the river just as Bavmorda's hounds track her down and kill her. The raft floats downstream until it reaches a bank by a village of Nelwyns (short people; Peter Dinklage would fit right in), and the farm of a Nelwyn named Willow Ufgood, played by Warwick Davis of Ewok fame. Willow dreams of being a great sorcerer, but is stuck on his farm, plowing with a pig. When one of the dogs tracks the baby to the village, Willow reluctantly agrees to take the human (Daikini) baby to its own people.
With some help from village warriors, Willow finds a Daikini prisoner in a crow's cage at a crossroads. The prisoner, Madmartigan (Val Kilmer, in the role that made me a fan for life), offers to take the baby in exchange for his freedom. Willow eventually gives in, but not until a defeated army marches by and warns that Bavmorda's troops have destroyed an important fortress. Madmartigan leaves with the baby, but Willow is abducted by brownies (really tiny people) on his way home, and finds the baby has been taken from Madmartigan by said brownies at the request of Cherlindrea, a forest spirit/goddess who names the baby "Elora Dannan." That's a suitably Celtic name.
Elora has told Cherlindrea (who is fluent in Babytalk) that she wants Willow to protect her and take her to the castle of Tir Asleen, where she will be placed under the protection of a great army. Willow takes her into the Daikini lands, where he once again finds Madmartigan just as Bavmorda's troops, under the command of her daughter, Sorsha (Joanna Whalley, who would shortly become Joanna Whalley-Kilmer), find them. Together, Willow and Madmartigan escape after a thrilling wagon chase (it looks better than it sounds), and Madmartigan agrees to take them to the island of Fin Raziel, a sorceress who will help them.
They find Raziel, who was transformed by Bavmorda into a possum. She accompanies them, but they are captured by Sorsha and shackled as slaves while she takes the baby. In a snowy camp, they escape from their cage, but Madmartigan falls under a love spell and temporarily loves Sorsha, spouting poetry while Willow tries to take the baby and escape. They are caught again, but Madmartigan finally gets hold of a sword and shows what he can do. They escape by using a shield as a sled and slide down a mountain, ending up in a village where they meet the remnants of the army they saw earlier at the crossroads.
They escape the village using Sorsha as a hostage, and eventually make their way to Tir Asleen, which has fallen under a curse. Bavmorda's troops arrive, but Madmartigan goes extra-heroic and fends off the army by himself...with the help of an awakened two-headed dragon (called an Eborsisk in the novelization). In the chaos, Bavmorda's General Kail takes Elora, but Sorsha is impressed with Madmartigan's heroic stand and defects, joining Madmartigan in fighting off the evil army.
Meanwhile, Willow, who has been unsuccessfully trying to restore Fin Raziel to her human form using Cherlindrea's wand (she became a raven and a goat before he finally succeeds), goes with the army to Bavmorda's castle to attempt to rescue Elora Dannan before Bavmorda can destroy her soul and end the threat to her reign. After Fin is restored, the army uses deception to get into the castle, where the big final battle is fought. Madmartigan fights General Kail in hand-to-hand combat, Sorsha and Fin Raziel take on Bavmorda, while Willow watches from the sidelines until he's the only one left to rescue Elora from Bavmorda after the two women fail to stop her.
Willow tricks Bavmorda using some sleight of hand, and Bavmorda's ritual backfires and turns against her, destroying her instead of Elora, thus fulfilling the prophecy. The curse of Tir Asleen is lifted, and Madmartigan and Sorsha take Elora to raise her there together, while Willow returns home, triumphant and confident in his newfound magical abilities. Which I glossed over in the synopsis, but it does happen. Honest.
So, there's humor, action, romance, adventure, and an epic feel. Plus a dragon. What more can you want in a movie?
Now, let's look at the performances, in particular the two (three?) leads. First, Val Kilmer was born to play Madmartigan. He is fantastic in this role, bringing all kinds of awesome with him. He's funny, sarcastic, conniving but charming, heroic and deadly with a sword. He's also smart, outwitting General Kail in their showdown at the climax of the movie. Five chef's kisses for Kilmer in this movie.
Warwick Davis does his best to keep up with Kilmer's scene-chewing performance, and acquits himself well enough. His Willow is courageous but lacking in self-confidence at the beginning of the movie, but he's as determined as Frodo Baggins when the chips are down, and his focus throughout the movie is protecting Elora and returning home to his family. He's vulnerable when he has to be, and while he doesn't get a lot of screen time to be a hero, leaving the fighting stuff to Madmartigan, when he faces down the powerful Queen, he shows he's got the guts and the smarts to make up for his stature. Well done, Mr. Davis.
Then there is Joanna Whalley, in her debut role. Sorsha is young, as is Whalley (she was 19 during filming). She's got the fiery red hair thing going on, which definitely got my attention as a teenager, and she's certainly a beauty. But Sorsha starts out as the Queen's henchdaughter, as cold and cruel as her mother when it comes to hunting down that helpless baby girl. She even gets to kick the chained Madmartigan in the face, which sets the stage for their magically-induced love scene shortly afterward. She does well, and while her sword technique leaves something to be desired, she does well enough to be believable as a swordswoman. And she doesn't wear chain mail bikini armor, which is totally fine; she's got the presence and figure to look damn good even in the black armor of her mother's army.
Okay, so what about the effects? Well, as I said, for 1988 they were excellent. The scene that, to this day, sticks out in my mind the most is when Cherlindrea tasks Willow with protecting Elora. In the theaters, I got chills each time her glowing white face filled the screen and she pronounced her dire warnings. Even on the fourth viewing, it got me. It was powerful. The effects are almost all practical; the Eborsisk looks like a Harryhausen monster (which is not at all a criticism), and while the green-screening for the big fight in the castle with the dragon is pretty obvious, the same techniques with the tiny brownies isn't nearly as blatant. The state-of-the-art was improving by 1988.
The production was light on the magical effects (mostly with Cherlindrea and the climactic fight in Bavmorda's tower), but the makeup was well done for the transformation scene near the end, and the production made excellent use of the landscape, in both Wales and New Zealand. I guess we know where Peter Jackson got the idea to do his own fantasy movie there, don't we? That's how influential and important this movie is.
Okay, so the critics disagree with me; Rotten Tomatoes has it at 51%, Siskel & Ebert both said 'thumbs down,' and it wasn't the blockbuster it was projected to be at first. Hey, I did my part.
But the thing is, in the end, the critics are just people, and their opinions aren't any more important or special. What matters is what we, personally, think of the movie. And to me, the best and finest review of the movie came not from me, but from my son, Tanner. I convinced him to sit and watch this with me, and he was reluctant. At one point, he was adamant that he wasn't going to watch it any more. But he did, and after it was over, he said, "I don't know exactly what you see in this movie, Dad. But can we watch it again tomorrow so I can figure it out?"
He got it.
I give this movie a 9 out of 10 for its epic sense of fun and great lead performances. Siskel & Ebert can go sit on their thumbs; this movie rocks.
For my own take on fun fantasy, I would like to suggest that you take a look at Arrival, the first book in my Chronicles of Meterra. It's based on the ideas of fantasy that I grew up with, with a strong helping of pulp fantasy to season it. It's available in both paperback and e-book at Amazon. Supporting indie publishing is the key to bringing back the fun-tasy we all love!
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