Now, was
this a major childhood film where you grew up? I had never heard of it to be
honest. My boyfriend, however, grew up on this apparently. As in he actually
knows most of the film word for word. When I disclosed that the closest I could
think of to “Willow” was the iconic “Wind in the Willows”, that would never do.
I was promptly sat down to watch the film then and there, because frankly, how
did I survive to 29 without having seen the film in the first place? If there
is one thing I love, it’s a good fantasy film with a good dollop of ‘80s
nostalgia as you guys know by now, and so we settled down. But then the credits
started… Hang on, Lucasfilm? Ron Howard as director? (director of Angels &
Demons, Frost / Nixon, The Da Vinci Code, Cinderella Man and A Beautiful Mind
among other things). George Lucas himself as executive producer? Er, OK hang
on, this is not some lost children’s flick from the ‘80s. This is serious stuff
with potential to be a classic.
So, what is
the story here? In a land far, far away, where magic still rules the earth,
there is an evil queen called Bavmorda (I LOVE all the names in this film by
the way. They would give Dickens a run for his money). She is an unjust
tyrant that rules the land with much cruelty; however, all hope is not lost.
There is a prophecy. A prophecy that tells of a very special baby girl whose
destiny it is to topple Bavmorda and put an end to her tyranny. (I know, it’s
not the most original storyline in the world, but hey… Ok, what was the basic
storyline for Lord of the Rings? Thank you. Moving on). Our queen Bavmorda however, is not one to
leave things to chance. She gathers all the pregnant women in the kingdom in
the hope of finding this special baby and perform a ritual that will “exile her
soul to oblivion”. The baby is indeed found; however, the midwife- being a brave
and clever soul - smuggles her out of the castle. Hereby starts our adventure. It
falls to Willow Ufgood, a dward, Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) a rather hot-headed
swordsman of dubious intent, two brownies (having stopped reading Enid Blyton a
while back I had clean forgotten about the existence of brownies. Shame on me!)
and an unfortunate sorceress who herself has been changed into a muskrat to get
the baby to the safety of a good kingdom where she can grow to fulfil her
destiny. Willow has magic, the power of good and justice on his side. But will
it be enough to conquer the evil magic and barbarian hoards of Bavmorda?
Ok, I know.
There is a lot in this film we have seen before. And then again, it is because
of instances like this, when they are done so well, that we want to see this type
of thing again and again and again. Willow does it well. All of it. The
requisite bouts of comedy are well done and still hilarious. The atmosphere and
the magical world constructed are superb. I mean, yes of course if they had the
technical possibilities we have today it would be a whole different story. But
shall I tell you something? It is no substitute for imagination. I honestly
think that special effects are well and good but it’s making us lazy. I mean,
when I was a child we had entire imaginary worlds – built out of thin air! We
used very little in the way of props, we often “pretended” everything existed
and we were fine. We loved it! Think the classic scene in “Hook” where they sit
down to dinner and seemingly there is no food there at all. Only when the
characters start using their imaginations they see that there is food on the
table and you know what? It is as filling as you please. This is the strength of
imagination. And this is that makes this film an absolute joy to watch. It is
not that the film is “lacking” in comparison to modern films where all the
(visual) gaps are filled in for you. You just have to use a different skillset.
A skillset we don’t use as often as we should in the modern world by my
reckoning. I guess this is why some of us really enjoy ‘80s fantasy movies
while others find them pointless. If you are of the latter group I strongly
encourage you to give this a whirl. Exercise your imagination a bit. Go on…
You’ll enjoy it once you get into it you know…
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