Labyrinth Liveblog
Aug. 6th, 2022 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
between_time_and_42When I was a kid, probably around the age of eight or so, my family decided to have a movie night. We went through my stepfather's DVDs and found one that looked promising: a fantasy story about a young girl saving her baby brother from an evil goblin king. Being that I was super into fantasy at the time, the movie sounded right up my alley, so we put it on.
We quickly realized we had made a mistake.
This movie is called Labyrinth. Ever since the day my family watched Labyrinth, we've held it as the standard for what I now call "WTF movies"- that is, a movie where the only feeling you can summon up after watching it is "...what the fuck?" To be fair, in our family it's always been a toss-up between Labyrinth and The Neverending Story. The only difference is that I never want to rewatch The Neverending Story (thank god it ended). On the other hand... tonight, I am going to rewatch Labyrinth, and I am going to liveblog as much of it as I can stand. I blame this decision on my deep dive into David Bowie's discography (as he is one of the stars of the movie). But really, I was overdue to watch this, it's been like eighteen years and I want to see if it's still as bad as I remember.
-I remember loving the barn owl in the credits scene. This was probably around the time when I got super into owls, too, so I remember my mother being like "Look, Blue, it's an owl!" I did not remember that the owl is CGI, though, which is sort of disappointing.
-I also did not remember that the credits are scored to David Bowie singing over a VERY 80's synth track. Which, according to said credits, he apparently composed- I didn't remember that either! If I'd known who David Bowie was at the time I probably would have become immediately suspicious that this movie wasn't going to be the epic fantasy I'd thought it was, but I remained blissfully unaware until it was too late.
-Right away, I'm in love with this girl's big ol' fluffy dog. Good boy!!
"It's not fair!" Yes, that's an appropriate way to greet your mother (stepmother).
-Oh god, Sarah has only had a few lines so far and her teen angst is already bugging the hell out of me. I get it, teenagers are very dramatic, but Jennifer Connelly's line delivery is taking it so over the top.
-"I hate that! I hate it!" Okay, maybe it's the writing, not the acting...
-A "day of housework?" Sarah, you were in the park all day, that hardly constitutes the need for a break.
-I'm actually very impressed by how well-designed these Muppets are, as per usual for Jim Henson's Creature Shop. I’m not sure how those people do it but I’ll never get over how realistically their creations look and move (specifically thinking of Audrey Two from Little Shop of Horrors).
-"Why aren't you crying?" Umm, maybe because your baby brother is not in the bed anymore? Use your damn eyes, Sarah.
-A slow zoom, a burst of glitter... A very appropriate introduction for Mr. David Bowie.
-I'm kind of amused at how Sarah is INSTANTLY regretting her life choices.
-I'm sure it's been pointed out before, but I just have to say. WHY does the Goblin King look like some guy, while all the other goblins are Muppets? Riddle for the ages right there.
-"Well, c'mon, feet." Who... who wrote this...
-The shot of the goblin peeing in the pool definitely marks the first "WTF" moment that I had when watching this movie as a kid.
-...This movie is SO 80's, oh my GOD.
-Did Sarah just call Hoggle "Hogwart?!" Well, that joke sure aged. Up to you whether it aged WELL.
-Ahhhh the Muppet that's basically just a bunch of eyes on stalks is SO COOL!!
-This music is way too dramatic for a shot of a girl walking down an alley.
-"It's not fair!" Sarah says again. I bet this is going to be a running thing.
-Yoooo, I love the visual effect of Sarah disappearing behind the wall. Gotta admit, at least the effects in this movie (when they're not CGI, I'm still sort of miffed about the barn owl at the beginning) are pretty great.
-"You remind me of the babe." "What babe?" "The babe with the power." "What power?" "The power of voodoo." "Who do?" "You do." "Do what?" "Remind me of the babe." THEY SAID THE THING!! THEY SAID THE THING!!!! (I had completely forgotten that it's actually SUNG, not spoken, though, as a sort of recitative. What a weird introduction to a song. Also, those lyrics have no relation to what's actually going on in the scene.)
-This musical number is WTF moment number two. It was when I first saw it, because I had no idea why the Goblin King had randomly broken out into song, and even now that I know he's being played by a singer, I STILL don't get why they had to have a full-fledged musical number.
-WHAT IS HAPPENING. Apparently all the goblins do all day is dance around their castle and sing?? This is really going a long way to make Jareth look intimidating... not...
-I am really starting to regret watching this.
-Oh god, I don't like seeing all those hands grabbing Sarah as she's falling. It's very uncomfortable to see them manhandling her.
-Sarah, you are falling down a pit and the hands that grabbed you asked if you wanted to go up (back to the surface where you fell in) or down (towards what was described as "certain death"). WHY DID YOU TELL THEM TO PUT YOU DOWN?!?!
-"Nothing? Nothing?? Nothing, tra la la?" ...Again, I have to ask, who wrote this?
-...Okay, I thought everyone was exaggerating when they talked about David Bowie's pants in this movie, or rather what's in them, because I remembered nothing about that... but I see now, there are things you just don't notice as a kid, that are suddenly GLARINGLY OBVIOUS as an adult. And I wish it was much less obvious. My eyes.
-"It's not fair!" count number three. Jareth even commented on it that time!
-The "cleaners" is/are SO COOL!! Less intimidating once you see it from the other side, though.
-Hmm... so you can never wash off the Bog of Eternal Stench... maybe Sarah should go bathe in it and then Jareth will be too repulsed by her to want to keep her in the Underground. Then again, that's almost like telling someone they should dress less suggestively in order to keep men from hitting on them- it's not Sarah's fault that some creepy older man has taken an interest in her. (I don't want to know HOW old. Although I always got the feeling that Jareth is some sort of immortal being, so make of that what you will.)
-"It's not fair!" count number four, but it was Hoggle who said it this time!
-"I'm certainly not getting anywhere at the moment." SAME. Hurry up, movie.
-Lmao, Hoggle acting all touched that Sarah called him her friend... then he hears a scream and he just DIPS. Some friend he is.
-"Who should I choose between these two ugly characters?" Sarah, that's not very nice!
-Ludo is a big friend!!! I love him!!
-"He's got my eyes." Hmm, unless one of his pupils is permanently dilated, no he doesn't.
-Is that rock sculpture supposed to be of David Bowie? I mean, it's probably supposed to look like Jareth in-universe, but because there's no hair on it, it just looks like his actor out of character.
-"It's not like you, losing your head over a girl." "I'M losing my head??" BURN! You tell 'im, Hoggle.
-"If she ever kisses you, I'll turn you into a prince... Prince of the Land of Stench!" *laughs at own joke* JFC Jareth why are you so extra.
-Uh oh, I do NOT remember this Muppet dance number. Make that WTF moment number three. What is happening??
-Not even kidding, I genuinely feel like I'm on hallucinogens right now. Or rather, being on hallucinogens probably feels a lot like watching this scene.
-WHY is this still going on?? Please END MY MISERY.
-Okay, this whole movie is weird. But even in the context of a weird movie... THAT scene was ESPECIALLY weird.
-This little fox dude has already become my favorite character. He's so chaotic!
-You'd think Sarah would mention something about the fox's "trusty steed" looking exactly like her dog at home...
-"Rock friends." I love you, Ludo.
-How did it take them THAT LONG to realize that Sarah wasn't with them?!
-Okay, wow, I'm having a lot of thoughts on this masquerade scene, too many to blog coherently. I need to come back and write those down when I'm done with this.
-Oh god, this scene in Sarah's mock bedroom is REALLY getting to me, and I don't even know why. I'm seriously almost crying now, I feel so sad. Definitely going to come back and write down my thoughts on this and the ballroom scene when I'm done liveblogging.
-I wonder what this movie would be like if a woman had written/directed it?
-I'm still too emotionally hung up on that last scene to really focus on the fight scene that's currently going on.
-Love how Jareth has spent half this movie just lounging around on his throne playing with Sarah's baby brother. It almost gives me the feeling that maybe the kid would be better off in the Underground... until I remember that the goblins only see him as a possession, not a person.
-How hard is it for the goblin soldiers, who outnumber the protagonists, to catch three people moving in a group, especially when one is a giant furry monster?
-Hypothetical crossover time: Labyrinth x Neverending Story! Ludo vs. the Rock Biter, who would win?
-I love the sight of the rocks chasing everyone, it's so ridiculous that it's amazing.
-Way to go rocks!! You rock!
-Oh hell yeah, this scene with the M.C. Escher stairs is what I was waiting for the whole movie. I did not remember that it's a musical number, though, which is kinda killing the tension.
-Oof, I can't believe they left those flat notes in the final recording. One could assume they were intentionally sung flat for a sort of bluesy/jazzy effect, but it doesn't come across that way to me.
-This whole thing is starting to remind me of a book that I read when I was a kid, which had a similar plot of a girl trying to rescue her younger brother who she had never cared about before and therefore learning about the value of family and the importance of responsibility, but it was a Halloween story and took place in some kind of haunted funhouse. I wish I could remember what book that was.
-I'm not going to say that Bowie was the best actor in the world (I mean, his performance is good but it’s not something that would have won him awards), but this confrontation scene really shows how out of her depth Jennifer Connelly is. (Then again, she was a teenager when she made this movie, I need to cut her some slack.)
-"Fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." UMMMMMMMMMM and people try to say that Jareth ISN'T the bad guy of the movie?! Why do they think it's okay that he said this very creepy line to A LITERAL TEENAGE GIRL? Is it because he's conventionally attractive that they still consider this line romantic? Or because he looked a little sad while singing about basically wanting to possess her? Uggggggh...
-Okay, there HAD to have been a better way to end this movie than THAT. When Sarah was talking to Hoggle, Ludo, and Didymus in the mirror, I thought they were going to fade out, but NO, all the Muppets show up in her bedroom and they have a party. Which is completely defeating the point that the movie was trying to make about how Sarah needed to give up her childish things in order to grow up! I'm not even happy with that being the moral of the story, but come on, if you're going to try to send a message with your film, don't backtrack at the very end...
-The “You remind me of the babe" exchange was seriously the last line of the movie?? Oh my GOD.
-I'm so mad that I did this to myself. To think that I could have been watching a program on black holes instead of this (it was on TV, and I LOVE black holes). And I did this for what, so I could listen to the Labyrinth soundtrack? After being reminded of how PAINFULLY 80's the music in this movie is, I don't even want to listen to the soundtrack. Sigh.
-…And to think my stepfather just let this happen back then! He had the DVD, he had to have known how fucking bizarre this movie is. Why did he let us all believe we were going to watch some epic fantasy movie when what we really got was wall-to-wall awkward Muppet humor and generic 80’s pop music?
Welp, okay, that was that, then. No, it didn't get much better on rewatch, but at least I know that for a fact now. Anyway, let me try to pull together some coherent thoughts on the ballroom and bedroom scenes...
The scene with Sarah at the masquerade reminded me a bit of a scene from Steven Universe, from the episode where Steven and Connie fused for the first time. Stevonnie has fun as a fusion, going to dance at a rave, but they start to feel anxious about the attention they're drawing, especially when a guy tries to get them to dance with him and won't take no for an answer. Some meta has been written about that episode, positing that Stevonnie's situation reflects how the body changes during puberty while the mind matures more slowly, and how suddenly some people going through puberty attract sexual attention from others, while mentally they might not understand or just be coming to terms with their own desire. I felt like that was a very relevant theme to the masquerade scene in Labyrinth. While Sarah is older than Steven & Connie (I think Jennifer Connelly was 15 or 16 when she made this movie), she's shown in the beginning of the movie to still cling to things that are considered childish, having a deep attachment to her toys and losing herself in a fantasy book. Throughout the movie, she dresses plainly in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt/sweater, and wears her hair down, without any extra styling. She does wear lipstick, but throughout much of the movie she's seen using the lipstick to mark her path as she makes her way through the labyrinth, instead of applying it. Then, the ballroom scene happens, where Sarah eats a drugged peach (sent to her by Jareth) and hallucinates that she's at a fancy masquerade, dressed to the nines in an absurdly poofy dress, with her hair done up and her face full of makeup. She attracts the attention of Jareth, who dances with her, and on the surface it's a rather lovely moment- I remember a classmate of mine in college saying that her takeaway from this scene as a child was a lifelong dream to waltz with David Bowie, lol. But now that I'm watching this scene as an adult... What I noticed most from the scene were all the cuts showing how the other attendees of the masquerade were staring at Sarah, how some were even laughing, and how Sarah didn't once smile or appear to be at ease for the entire scene. Even though the music is a slow ballad, which typically connotes romance, and the framing of Sarah and Jareth finding each other in the crowd is clearly intended to be romantic, there is nothing romantic to me about this scene. To me, it's about how adulthood, for some women, automatically means objectification, and how unfair it is to force that on a person who's mentally unprepared for it, and how harmful that can be to a person's mental health and sense of well-being. It's also worth noting that this vision came from a peach that JARETH sent to Sarah- this is HIS fantasy, not hers. And by the end of it, Sarah has realized this and taken control by smashing the mirror, essentially shattering the entire illusion. She's given agency, which I love, removing herself from the hallucination and returning to a world that's arguably of her own making. I think the ballroom scene was really great and it shows that Sarah is starting to mature, but only on her own terms. She's finding her own strength at her own pace.
And then the following scene upset me so much. After escaping the ballroom fantasy, Sarah is lured into a recreation of her own bedroom and believes that her journey through the labyrinth was all just a dream. The creature that lured her in starts piling her belongings into her arms, specifically all her toys and trinkets that she acted so possessive of at the beginning of the movie, insisting that she wouldn't want to get rid of any of this. Sarah, however, realizes that "it's all junk!" and tears the room apart, finally returning to the labyrinth and her friends. This scene absolutely broke my heart, even though I think I understand what it's trying to say. What breaks the spell for Sarah in this scene is the realization that her brother Toby is still trapped in the castle, and saving him is much more important than saving these worthless items. The moral of the story, ultimately, is about how one has to accept serious responsibilities as an adult, like taking care of your younger sibling for instance. But the thing is... to me, those items that Sarah called "junk" weren't worthless. In comparison to Toby's life, sure. But it CRUSHED me, for whatever reason, to hear her call them "junk" and to see her destroy her room, because those things meant something to her. She still loved and needed them. And it almost gave off the message that the only way to become an adult is to get rid of childish things like toys and fantasy novels and set those aside to prepare for the real world. I don't know, I could be reading it wrong. I'm almost certainly too emotionally involved with this scene. I'm a 26 year old woman who has a job and pays rent and buys my own groceries, does my own cooking, fronts a band (which involves a LOT of responsibility) and makes my own plans when I want to get together with friends... but I still cuddle up with stuffed animals every night and color in coloring books and stick stickers on myself and read silly stories about people falling in love and whatnot, and none of that makes me less of an adult. I just wish that Labyrinth could have shown Sarah getting the best of both worlds- keeping her personal belongings and continuing to value them, but also accepting the responsibility as Toby's caretaker, too. I think this may have been more nuanced than the script was willing to go, which is why I wondered what the story would have been like if it were written by a woman who may have related to this more (then again, that depends on which woman, because we're not all one entity and maybe another woman wouldn't have seen anything wrong with that scene). Anyway, I guess the ending mitigates this scene by having the characters from the Underground show up in Sarah's bedroom and throw a dance party, which... maybe it is supposed to represent the best of both worlds but to me, it just looked like Sarah was backtracking on everything that she had learned about adulthood. But whatever, maybe they just wanted a feel-good ending and I shouldn't look into it too deeply. It's late and I'm struggling to think coherently so take my observations with a grain of salt here.
So, yeah. That’s Labyrinth! Certainly the type of bizarre movie that you see as a child and subsequently wonder in your adult life if you dreamed it all up. Now that I’ve seen it again, I’m actually wondering if I should do this again in the future for The Neverending Story… although I think my opinion of that would be even lower now than it was as a kid, so maybe not.
We quickly realized we had made a mistake.
This movie is called Labyrinth. Ever since the day my family watched Labyrinth, we've held it as the standard for what I now call "WTF movies"- that is, a movie where the only feeling you can summon up after watching it is "...what the fuck?" To be fair, in our family it's always been a toss-up between Labyrinth and The Neverending Story. The only difference is that I never want to rewatch The Neverending Story (thank god it ended). On the other hand... tonight, I am going to rewatch Labyrinth, and I am going to liveblog as much of it as I can stand. I blame this decision on my deep dive into David Bowie's discography (as he is one of the stars of the movie). But really, I was overdue to watch this, it's been like eighteen years and I want to see if it's still as bad as I remember.
-I remember loving the barn owl in the credits scene. This was probably around the time when I got super into owls, too, so I remember my mother being like "Look, Blue, it's an owl!" I did not remember that the owl is CGI, though, which is sort of disappointing.
-I also did not remember that the credits are scored to David Bowie singing over a VERY 80's synth track. Which, according to said credits, he apparently composed- I didn't remember that either! If I'd known who David Bowie was at the time I probably would have become immediately suspicious that this movie wasn't going to be the epic fantasy I'd thought it was, but I remained blissfully unaware until it was too late.
-Right away, I'm in love with this girl's big ol' fluffy dog. Good boy!!
"It's not fair!" Yes, that's an appropriate way to greet your mother (stepmother).
-Oh god, Sarah has only had a few lines so far and her teen angst is already bugging the hell out of me. I get it, teenagers are very dramatic, but Jennifer Connelly's line delivery is taking it so over the top.
-"I hate that! I hate it!" Okay, maybe it's the writing, not the acting...
-A "day of housework?" Sarah, you were in the park all day, that hardly constitutes the need for a break.
-I'm actually very impressed by how well-designed these Muppets are, as per usual for Jim Henson's Creature Shop. I’m not sure how those people do it but I’ll never get over how realistically their creations look and move (specifically thinking of Audrey Two from Little Shop of Horrors).
-"Why aren't you crying?" Umm, maybe because your baby brother is not in the bed anymore? Use your damn eyes, Sarah.
-A slow zoom, a burst of glitter... A very appropriate introduction for Mr. David Bowie.
-I'm kind of amused at how Sarah is INSTANTLY regretting her life choices.
-I'm sure it's been pointed out before, but I just have to say. WHY does the Goblin King look like some guy, while all the other goblins are Muppets? Riddle for the ages right there.
-"Well, c'mon, feet." Who... who wrote this...
-The shot of the goblin peeing in the pool definitely marks the first "WTF" moment that I had when watching this movie as a kid.
-...This movie is SO 80's, oh my GOD.
-Did Sarah just call Hoggle "Hogwart?!" Well, that joke sure aged. Up to you whether it aged WELL.
-Ahhhh the Muppet that's basically just a bunch of eyes on stalks is SO COOL!!
-This music is way too dramatic for a shot of a girl walking down an alley.
-"It's not fair!" Sarah says again. I bet this is going to be a running thing.
-Yoooo, I love the visual effect of Sarah disappearing behind the wall. Gotta admit, at least the effects in this movie (when they're not CGI, I'm still sort of miffed about the barn owl at the beginning) are pretty great.
-"You remind me of the babe." "What babe?" "The babe with the power." "What power?" "The power of voodoo." "Who do?" "You do." "Do what?" "Remind me of the babe." THEY SAID THE THING!! THEY SAID THE THING!!!! (I had completely forgotten that it's actually SUNG, not spoken, though, as a sort of recitative. What a weird introduction to a song. Also, those lyrics have no relation to what's actually going on in the scene.)
-This musical number is WTF moment number two. It was when I first saw it, because I had no idea why the Goblin King had randomly broken out into song, and even now that I know he's being played by a singer, I STILL don't get why they had to have a full-fledged musical number.
-WHAT IS HAPPENING. Apparently all the goblins do all day is dance around their castle and sing?? This is really going a long way to make Jareth look intimidating... not...
-I am really starting to regret watching this.
-Oh god, I don't like seeing all those hands grabbing Sarah as she's falling. It's very uncomfortable to see them manhandling her.
-Sarah, you are falling down a pit and the hands that grabbed you asked if you wanted to go up (back to the surface where you fell in) or down (towards what was described as "certain death"). WHY DID YOU TELL THEM TO PUT YOU DOWN?!?!
-"Nothing? Nothing?? Nothing, tra la la?" ...Again, I have to ask, who wrote this?
-...Okay, I thought everyone was exaggerating when they talked about David Bowie's pants in this movie, or rather what's in them, because I remembered nothing about that... but I see now, there are things you just don't notice as a kid, that are suddenly GLARINGLY OBVIOUS as an adult. And I wish it was much less obvious. My eyes.
-"It's not fair!" count number three. Jareth even commented on it that time!
-The "cleaners" is/are SO COOL!! Less intimidating once you see it from the other side, though.
-Hmm... so you can never wash off the Bog of Eternal Stench... maybe Sarah should go bathe in it and then Jareth will be too repulsed by her to want to keep her in the Underground. Then again, that's almost like telling someone they should dress less suggestively in order to keep men from hitting on them- it's not Sarah's fault that some creepy older man has taken an interest in her. (I don't want to know HOW old. Although I always got the feeling that Jareth is some sort of immortal being, so make of that what you will.)
-"It's not fair!" count number four, but it was Hoggle who said it this time!
-"I'm certainly not getting anywhere at the moment." SAME. Hurry up, movie.
-Lmao, Hoggle acting all touched that Sarah called him her friend... then he hears a scream and he just DIPS. Some friend he is.
-"Who should I choose between these two ugly characters?" Sarah, that's not very nice!
-Ludo is a big friend!!! I love him!!
-"He's got my eyes." Hmm, unless one of his pupils is permanently dilated, no he doesn't.
-Is that rock sculpture supposed to be of David Bowie? I mean, it's probably supposed to look like Jareth in-universe, but because there's no hair on it, it just looks like his actor out of character.
-"It's not like you, losing your head over a girl." "I'M losing my head??" BURN! You tell 'im, Hoggle.
-"If she ever kisses you, I'll turn you into a prince... Prince of the Land of Stench!" *laughs at own joke* JFC Jareth why are you so extra.
-Uh oh, I do NOT remember this Muppet dance number. Make that WTF moment number three. What is happening??
-Not even kidding, I genuinely feel like I'm on hallucinogens right now. Or rather, being on hallucinogens probably feels a lot like watching this scene.
-WHY is this still going on?? Please END MY MISERY.
-Okay, this whole movie is weird. But even in the context of a weird movie... THAT scene was ESPECIALLY weird.
-This little fox dude has already become my favorite character. He's so chaotic!
-You'd think Sarah would mention something about the fox's "trusty steed" looking exactly like her dog at home...
-"Rock friends." I love you, Ludo.
-How did it take them THAT LONG to realize that Sarah wasn't with them?!
-Okay, wow, I'm having a lot of thoughts on this masquerade scene, too many to blog coherently. I need to come back and write those down when I'm done with this.
-Oh god, this scene in Sarah's mock bedroom is REALLY getting to me, and I don't even know why. I'm seriously almost crying now, I feel so sad. Definitely going to come back and write down my thoughts on this and the ballroom scene when I'm done liveblogging.
-I wonder what this movie would be like if a woman had written/directed it?
-I'm still too emotionally hung up on that last scene to really focus on the fight scene that's currently going on.
-Love how Jareth has spent half this movie just lounging around on his throne playing with Sarah's baby brother. It almost gives me the feeling that maybe the kid would be better off in the Underground... until I remember that the goblins only see him as a possession, not a person.
-How hard is it for the goblin soldiers, who outnumber the protagonists, to catch three people moving in a group, especially when one is a giant furry monster?
-Hypothetical crossover time: Labyrinth x Neverending Story! Ludo vs. the Rock Biter, who would win?
-I love the sight of the rocks chasing everyone, it's so ridiculous that it's amazing.
-Way to go rocks!! You rock!
-Oh hell yeah, this scene with the M.C. Escher stairs is what I was waiting for the whole movie. I did not remember that it's a musical number, though, which is kinda killing the tension.
-Oof, I can't believe they left those flat notes in the final recording. One could assume they were intentionally sung flat for a sort of bluesy/jazzy effect, but it doesn't come across that way to me.
-This whole thing is starting to remind me of a book that I read when I was a kid, which had a similar plot of a girl trying to rescue her younger brother who she had never cared about before and therefore learning about the value of family and the importance of responsibility, but it was a Halloween story and took place in some kind of haunted funhouse. I wish I could remember what book that was.
-I'm not going to say that Bowie was the best actor in the world (I mean, his performance is good but it’s not something that would have won him awards), but this confrontation scene really shows how out of her depth Jennifer Connelly is. (Then again, she was a teenager when she made this movie, I need to cut her some slack.)
-"Fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." UMMMMMMMMMM and people try to say that Jareth ISN'T the bad guy of the movie?! Why do they think it's okay that he said this very creepy line to A LITERAL TEENAGE GIRL? Is it because he's conventionally attractive that they still consider this line romantic? Or because he looked a little sad while singing about basically wanting to possess her? Uggggggh...
-Okay, there HAD to have been a better way to end this movie than THAT. When Sarah was talking to Hoggle, Ludo, and Didymus in the mirror, I thought they were going to fade out, but NO, all the Muppets show up in her bedroom and they have a party. Which is completely defeating the point that the movie was trying to make about how Sarah needed to give up her childish things in order to grow up! I'm not even happy with that being the moral of the story, but come on, if you're going to try to send a message with your film, don't backtrack at the very end...
-The “You remind me of the babe" exchange was seriously the last line of the movie?? Oh my GOD.
-I'm so mad that I did this to myself. To think that I could have been watching a program on black holes instead of this (it was on TV, and I LOVE black holes). And I did this for what, so I could listen to the Labyrinth soundtrack? After being reminded of how PAINFULLY 80's the music in this movie is, I don't even want to listen to the soundtrack. Sigh.
-…And to think my stepfather just let this happen back then! He had the DVD, he had to have known how fucking bizarre this movie is. Why did he let us all believe we were going to watch some epic fantasy movie when what we really got was wall-to-wall awkward Muppet humor and generic 80’s pop music?
Welp, okay, that was that, then. No, it didn't get much better on rewatch, but at least I know that for a fact now. Anyway, let me try to pull together some coherent thoughts on the ballroom and bedroom scenes...
The scene with Sarah at the masquerade reminded me a bit of a scene from Steven Universe, from the episode where Steven and Connie fused for the first time. Stevonnie has fun as a fusion, going to dance at a rave, but they start to feel anxious about the attention they're drawing, especially when a guy tries to get them to dance with him and won't take no for an answer. Some meta has been written about that episode, positing that Stevonnie's situation reflects how the body changes during puberty while the mind matures more slowly, and how suddenly some people going through puberty attract sexual attention from others, while mentally they might not understand or just be coming to terms with their own desire. I felt like that was a very relevant theme to the masquerade scene in Labyrinth. While Sarah is older than Steven & Connie (I think Jennifer Connelly was 15 or 16 when she made this movie), she's shown in the beginning of the movie to still cling to things that are considered childish, having a deep attachment to her toys and losing herself in a fantasy book. Throughout the movie, she dresses plainly in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt/sweater, and wears her hair down, without any extra styling. She does wear lipstick, but throughout much of the movie she's seen using the lipstick to mark her path as she makes her way through the labyrinth, instead of applying it. Then, the ballroom scene happens, where Sarah eats a drugged peach (sent to her by Jareth) and hallucinates that she's at a fancy masquerade, dressed to the nines in an absurdly poofy dress, with her hair done up and her face full of makeup. She attracts the attention of Jareth, who dances with her, and on the surface it's a rather lovely moment- I remember a classmate of mine in college saying that her takeaway from this scene as a child was a lifelong dream to waltz with David Bowie, lol. But now that I'm watching this scene as an adult... What I noticed most from the scene were all the cuts showing how the other attendees of the masquerade were staring at Sarah, how some were even laughing, and how Sarah didn't once smile or appear to be at ease for the entire scene. Even though the music is a slow ballad, which typically connotes romance, and the framing of Sarah and Jareth finding each other in the crowd is clearly intended to be romantic, there is nothing romantic to me about this scene. To me, it's about how adulthood, for some women, automatically means objectification, and how unfair it is to force that on a person who's mentally unprepared for it, and how harmful that can be to a person's mental health and sense of well-being. It's also worth noting that this vision came from a peach that JARETH sent to Sarah- this is HIS fantasy, not hers. And by the end of it, Sarah has realized this and taken control by smashing the mirror, essentially shattering the entire illusion. She's given agency, which I love, removing herself from the hallucination and returning to a world that's arguably of her own making. I think the ballroom scene was really great and it shows that Sarah is starting to mature, but only on her own terms. She's finding her own strength at her own pace.
And then the following scene upset me so much. After escaping the ballroom fantasy, Sarah is lured into a recreation of her own bedroom and believes that her journey through the labyrinth was all just a dream. The creature that lured her in starts piling her belongings into her arms, specifically all her toys and trinkets that she acted so possessive of at the beginning of the movie, insisting that she wouldn't want to get rid of any of this. Sarah, however, realizes that "it's all junk!" and tears the room apart, finally returning to the labyrinth and her friends. This scene absolutely broke my heart, even though I think I understand what it's trying to say. What breaks the spell for Sarah in this scene is the realization that her brother Toby is still trapped in the castle, and saving him is much more important than saving these worthless items. The moral of the story, ultimately, is about how one has to accept serious responsibilities as an adult, like taking care of your younger sibling for instance. But the thing is... to me, those items that Sarah called "junk" weren't worthless. In comparison to Toby's life, sure. But it CRUSHED me, for whatever reason, to hear her call them "junk" and to see her destroy her room, because those things meant something to her. She still loved and needed them. And it almost gave off the message that the only way to become an adult is to get rid of childish things like toys and fantasy novels and set those aside to prepare for the real world. I don't know, I could be reading it wrong. I'm almost certainly too emotionally involved with this scene. I'm a 26 year old woman who has a job and pays rent and buys my own groceries, does my own cooking, fronts a band (which involves a LOT of responsibility) and makes my own plans when I want to get together with friends... but I still cuddle up with stuffed animals every night and color in coloring books and stick stickers on myself and read silly stories about people falling in love and whatnot, and none of that makes me less of an adult. I just wish that Labyrinth could have shown Sarah getting the best of both worlds- keeping her personal belongings and continuing to value them, but also accepting the responsibility as Toby's caretaker, too. I think this may have been more nuanced than the script was willing to go, which is why I wondered what the story would have been like if it were written by a woman who may have related to this more (then again, that depends on which woman, because we're not all one entity and maybe another woman wouldn't have seen anything wrong with that scene). Anyway, I guess the ending mitigates this scene by having the characters from the Underground show up in Sarah's bedroom and throw a dance party, which... maybe it is supposed to represent the best of both worlds but to me, it just looked like Sarah was backtracking on everything that she had learned about adulthood. But whatever, maybe they just wanted a feel-good ending and I shouldn't look into it too deeply. It's late and I'm struggling to think coherently so take my observations with a grain of salt here.
So, yeah. That’s Labyrinth! Certainly the type of bizarre movie that you see as a child and subsequently wonder in your adult life if you dreamed it all up. Now that I’ve seen it again, I’m actually wondering if I should do this again in the future for The Neverending Story… although I think my opinion of that would be even lower now than it was as a kid, so maybe not.
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Date: 2022-08-10 05:37 pm (UTC)I 100% agree with you about the message being very upsetting. I'm 6 years older than you and I own stuffed animals and hope never to stop reading "silly" stories, and that doesn't make anyone less of an adult. I really hate it when any type of media acts like you have to completely cut ties with anything from your childhood in order to be a "real grown-up." (Controversial opinion, but I dislike Kiki's Delivery Service for that same reason. It's a really cute movie, up to the end. I hate it that although her other powers return, she loses forever the ability to communicate with her cat, as if adults can't talk to animals and that's a childish thing to be left in the past. I'm talking to my dog right now!)
Although my childhood self escaped watching Labyrinth, she didn't escape watching The Neverending Story, and going from my memories of it you're definitely better off not rewatching it, haha. I was also very glad that it did eventually end. xP
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Date: 2022-08-12 03:10 pm (UTC)Apparently one of several people who worked on the script was a woman, but in general it felt very much like someone's idea of what a girl coming of age would be like, instead of something that was told from experience. And I'm glad you agree about the message, it's so frustrating! I haven't seen Kiki's Delivery Service but I have heard about the ending and that's very unfortunate. I talk to animals too haha.
And THANK YOU for being on the same wavelength re. The Neverending Story!! I thought it was something that only someone who grew up at the time the movie was released could enjoy, because of nostalgia, but I've met people my age who still loved it when they saw it as a kid and I've always been so confused about that. Talk about a movie with a terrible ending...
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Date: 2022-08-14 12:14 pm (UTC)I see what you mean, and I'm sorry there weren't more women involved. The story might have turned out really interesting if it had been told from experience. And yeah, Kiki's Delivery Service has a lovely beginning, but the ending really does ruin it for me, unfortunately.
And we're definitely on the same wavelenght regarding The Neverending Story. I remember watching it when I was about 6 and thinking "it HAS to get better at some point, it's such a famous movie... There's gotta be a payoff, c'mon..." And then things only kept getting worse instead.