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Reviews
Labyrinth (1986)
Ah Labyrinth, what a tangled web we weave!
Ah Labyrinth, what a tangled web we weave! I love Bowie as the goblin King. Really takes you back to childhood where anything was possible. Oh how I yearn for those days but I digress.
It's great to watch a film where you can learn something and really feel it on a human level. The character, Sarah, the selfish brat, wished her little brother into a bad place and then had to go through hell to get him back. But what's cool is how she grew up in the process. I see the symbolism of how we grow up as well in this film and that's what touches me.
I don't know if many people know this but Labyrinth was a box office dud, returning only 50% of the budget they spent, and threw Jim Henson into a depression. It ended up being the last feature film directed by Jim before he died in 1990. A sad story behind a pretty good film that didn't get the attention that it deserved. now of course it's a huge cult film, as with so many great artists, not really recognized until after Henson's death. (although he had of lot of success in his lifetime!) RIP.
X: The Human Condition (2009)
Wild stuff! Reminds me of Bowie
This is heady stuff. I say it reminds me of Bowie not only because of the imagery but the vocals as well. Has a new wave rock quality to it.
The cinematography is way cool. Pretty unique and really captures the whole zeitgeist of alienation/loneliness. Scenes where the main characters are out of step, literally with the rest of the population really makes it hit home and become very relatable for the audience.
What we have here is a fantastical allegory, either set in another alternate reality or in the character's minds.
(SPOILER)
What's interesting is the symbolism of the characters being trapped in a prison of their own making. This hits home for me because sometimes I do this myself in my man cave, just to get away from people, and in a way it makes us prisoners in our own prisons.
Though in the story, it can be inferred that these two main characters decided to live in their own prisons because others didn't understand them or ridiculed them.
My take of what happened at the end (SPOILER):
The two adult characters "create" children who are parts of themselves - possibly the childlike part of themselves? They then sacrifice themselves for their children "creations", and, as in real life, the children "took their place" as "replacements", and the adults accepted that. By doing that, they allowed the children to experience a real connection, but the only way they could do that was to sacrifice themselves. Very sad but beautiful ending.
It's a unique package as a whole, and I recommend people watch it, but beware, you can't multitask while watching, because unless you are paying full attention, it's easy to get lost in the story because it's so surreal, which brings me back to Bowie, since that's what he did in so many of his videos. RIP.