Legend (1985 film)

Legend is a 1985 fantasy film released by 20th Century Fox (in Europe) and Universal Pictures (in the U.S. and Canada), directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry, and Billy Barty.

The story is set "once, long ago" in a world of unicorns, princesses, fairies, and demons. Cruise plays Jack O' The Green, a woodland prince who takes Princess Lily (Sara) to see the last of the living unicorns. But temptation and fate cause the world to freeze over, and Lily is kidnapped by evil goblins. Ultimately, it is Jack (with the help of a group of fairies) who must save Lily from the Satan-like demonic Lord of Darkness (Curry), who wants to take Lily as his bride. Jack and the fairies overcome all obstacles to reach the Tree Of Darkness (where Lily is held hostage) and conquer the demonic Lord before the world enters a never-ending Age Of Darkness.

The film was written by William Hjortsberg and produced by Arnon Milchan. But the behind-the-scenes story on the making of the film is in itself a legend. Midway through the filming, Pinewood Studios (where the film was shot, and had been used for many James Bond films) burned completely to the ground, forcing the producers to finish the movie on hastily completed sets. Then, the film failed in test screenings. Among the complaints from test audiences was about Jerry Goldsmith's beautiful orchestral score (considered by some music critics to be Goldsmith's greatest film work), and how teenage audiences would accept the film. Ultimately, both Universal and director Scott had decided to cut the film drastically from its nearly two-hour length to 89 minutes for domestic release, and replacing Goldsmith's score with rock music by Tangerine Dream, Yes leader Jon Anderson, and Bryan Ferry (while Scott allowed Goldsmith's score to remain on European prints).

In the years that followed, Goldsmith's score (which was released as a soundtrack CD) would be the most asked-for and least heard music score in film history. Finally, in 2002, Universal released a 113-minute "director's cut" on DVD restoring previously cut scenes, and most importantly, Goldsmith's original score.