Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Robin Woitesek ’24
Staff Writer
rudolphwoitese@lakeforest.edu
Starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelley, Jim Henson’s fantasy cult classic tells the story of Sarah, a teenager who’s forced to babysit on yet another weekend. Frustrated with her predicament and using an active imagination, Sarah summons the goblins to take her baby step brother Toby away. When her brother is actually taken away, Sarah makes a deal with Jareth the Goblin King that if she solves his deceptively complex labyrinth he’ll give Toby back. Will Sarah save her brother in time or will she end up being stuck in a fantastical world forever?
David Bowie steals every scene he’s in as his captivating presence not only provides the screen with so much life, but his performance is equally alluring as it is intimidating. Although he never attempts to physically harm Sarah, the danger comes from Jareth’s pure attraction in offering her exactly what she wants, which any blossoming teenage girl would find tempting. In addition, Bowie’s songs also heighten the film as they allow the world of Labyrinth to have a rock opera feel that enhances the surreal atmosphere. Furthermore, without Bowie’s involvement, this film would not only lose its incredible soundtrack, but its soul.
The most impressive aspect of Labyrinth is the pure creativity as each set piece, costume, and Muppet is uniquely enchanting and builds an entirely new world that can never be recreated. It’s a bizarre combination of fairy tales, classic Greek myths, and semi-contemporary artists such as painter M. C. Escher, that invites you to get lost in the ever-winding paths of Jareth’s labyrinth. All of these pieces in conjunction with one another allows the world to not only remain distinct from other fantasy films, but nostalgically familiar, which heightens the film’s exploration of childhood make-believe.
Sarah’s characterization as an imaginative yet angry teenager makes it clear that this film is about the time when many of us in the midst of adolescence are struggling with maintaining the fantastical innocence of our childhood, all the while needing to learn the complicated intricacies of the world as we become adults. This is a balance that Sarah needs to learn as she starts the film with a clichéd childish perspective that narrows her worldview to the fairy tales she reads, her journey through the labyrinth allows her to grow beyond her storybooks and into her own power. In doing so, the film maintains ground-ness which allows Sarah’s transformation from a fantasy-obsessed teen to a self-assured young woman whose strong convictions aid her rather than diminish her efforts to succeed.
In all, Labyrinth is a film that will not only enchant you with its sparkling originality and never-ending artistry, but more importantly allows its viewers to fondly reminisce on a much simpler time when goblins, fairies, and magic existed. Yet the film’s portrayal of an unavoidable shift in our lives where we replace the goblins with incessant stress, fairies with goal-driven ambition, and magic with rationalization, provides the audience with a sympathetic perspective which encourages the audience to not forego everything from our own active imaginations. Much like Sarah, we can use the power within us to create a path for ourselves regardless of any external forces attempting to force one on us, especially if the path in front of us has creatures attempting to thwart us around every corner. Which makes this 80s cinematic time capsule a film that will not only continue to delight audiences with its spellbinding charm and infectious energy, but one that will always resonate with the crazy journey of the human experience.
