The Dark Crystal

Weird warning but ... some spoilers for The Last Jedi in the first paragraph...

I've always held a budding respect for Jim Henson. While I don't think he has ever produced an out-right masterpiece, his commitment to legitimising the art of on-screen puppetry is an inspirational story all of its own. Most famous for creating the iconic Muppets, Henson had a long history in the entertainment world. He helped to develop shows such as Sesame Street, quite possibly the most influential childrens' series of all time, and on-screen puppet creatures such as Yoda. This in turn led to the other artists using the technique to create characters such as E.T., the queen alien in Aliens or the contorted creatures in The Thing. Then there was his mid-80s cult favourite Labyrinth, which has taken on a second life as an all time classic following the death of its star David Bowie in 2016. His influence spreads even to this very day. One of my favourite TV shows, Farscape, made extensive use of the Jim Henson Workshop to create its many alien creatures. While the wider industry marches on into the route of bland CGI, The Last Jedi took the brave move of bringing Yoda back as a puppet. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy made use of several practical effects, inspired by the puppetry techniques of old. Arguably, without Henson, this creative visual effect wouldn't exist. Henson occupies a special place in many film fans' hearts, especially those who love the fantasy genre. 

In the early 1980s, Henson wanted to create a project that would legitimise the artistry of puppetry. Something on the scale of Tolkien or Guin or Lewis. In addition, he would draw upon the fairy-tale traditions of Grimm and the design work of Brian Froud (who was hired as the art designer for the project). He wanted to make a film that would prove that his profession could produce works more than just funny, light-hearted ventures such as those featured in The Muppets or Sesame Street. He wanted to approach this project with a kind of reverence that had not been seen on film or TV. This would eventually morph into The Dark Crystal, released in 1982 (itself an incredible year for fantasy/horror/sci-fi cinema). In an interview just before the film's release, Henson had this to say about the project, which shows how strongly he felt about it:

"So you know that my feeling about puppetry relates to stylization, simplicity, boiling down to - it's a wonderful form and I really love it. But with The Dark Crystal, instead of puppetry we're trying to go toward a sense of realism - toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive and we're mixing up puppetry and all kinds of other techniques. It's into the same bag as E.T. and Yoda, wherein you're trying to create something that people will actually believe, but it's not so much a symbol of the thing, but you're trying to do the thing itself" (1)

The Dark Crystal establishes a strange mythology set on the planet of Thra. A thousand years before the events of the film, a magical crystal cracked creating two new races - the vile Skeksis, who now rule the world and use the power of the crystal to continually replenish their life force, and the gentle and wise Mystics. We are then introduced to Jen, a member of a long extinct race called gelflings. He was adopted by the Mystics after the death of his parents. He is told by his ancient master that he must go on a quest to track down the missing shard of the crystal in order to heal the object. With an astronomical event known as the Grand Conjuration fast approaching, in which the Skeksis will draw power from the three aligning suns via the crystal to secure dominance over the world, Jen has mere days to hunt down the missing shard. It has also been prophesied that the Skeksis will be drafted by gelfling hand, so a lot is riding on this quest. Along the way, Jen meets up with another gelfling named Kira and the two embark on this do or die quest to the Skeksis castle to restore life to the crystal...

The film's strongest aspect is above and away the special effects. I would argue that there has never been a fantasy world created on screen as bizarre and alien as the one in The Dark Crystal. While I think the world building is a bit rushed, plenty of time is given to showcasing the incredible work and personalities of the creatures created for the film. There are too many wonderful and beautifully realised designs to count. The Skeksis are the highlight of the film - they almost look like anthropomorphised crows cooked in a nuclear oven. And their personalities are really clear as well- indulgent and aristocratic. On the other hand, there are the Mystics, who just ooze ancient knowledge from the design of the creature, with their long arcing backs and heavy brows, to the way they are performed. I think the best of all though are the giant Landstriders, performed by actors raised on all fours by stilts (think of the giraffes in The Lion King stage musical). This scene, in which Jen and Kira ride on their backs, is simply breath-taking. There are some effects and creatures in this film that just mystify me in how they were accomplished, in particular when Jen is venturing through the living forest, where anything and everything can move. Every creature in the film is a conceptual and technical marvel (with the exception of one, which I'll get to). 

It's not just the puppets either - there are some absolutely gorgeous matte paintings of the extreme fantasy landscapes that remind me of prog-album cover artist Roger Dean. The music as well, by Trevor Jones, is as evocative as everything else - fairy tale like and whimsical masking a hidden darkness and sadness. This contributes to the wonderful tone that the film creates. While the film is light on plot, which again I'll get to, it does somewhat make up for it through a strange and dream-like atmosphere throughout. I like how the film throws some complex mythology at you and places you straight into its fantasy world. It kind of continues at its own pace as Jen explores the remains of this world. The whole film is shot with a tinge of twilight to it, with soft oranges permeating the frame, giving a fairytale atmosphere to the story, yet also evoking an end of an era vibe. 

Jim Henson surrounded by the incredibly varied line up of creatures featured in The Dark Crystal

Despite drawing upon traditional, more gentle fantasy design, the film does go to some fairly dark places. The Skeksis make use of the crystal to draw the life force out of creatures to keep them living. The gelflings were hunted down to extinction as they offered the most potent life force. There's a pretty disturbing scene in which a captured podling (cute potato-like creatures) is strapped to a chair and his essence stolen from him leaving him as an empty husk. The Skeksis keep the now zombie-like podlings as their personal slaves...definitely not something that would appear on Sesame Street! Honestly, it's fairly uncomfortable stuff and something that modern children's films wouldn't even dream of touching. That's what I respect about 80s childrens' films - they are not afraid to make children .. well afraid. A big part of fantasy adventure stories is the journey itself, which isn't always a happy or fun experience. Kids can handle a lot more than studios think and when their favourite characters conquer darkness, it's even more satisfying - it draws them into the story even more, as long as it is measured. Just look at Return to Oz for a great example of this. 

I think the best thing about The Dark Crystal, outside of the technical feats, is that it led to Labyrinth. I know it would be easy to write off Labyrinth as the more commercial of the two films. Labyrinth features human characters, a big star in David Bowie and is also a musical (you remind me of the babe ... and you know the next bit). And while Labyrinth is far from being a perfect film, which I'll maybe discuss one day, it does a couple of things better than The Dark Crystal; clear character arcs and a human connection. The Dark Crystal is fun, to a degree, in how alien the whole thing is. However, in my opinion, this makes it difficult to engage with the characters. Labyrinth sets Sarah out on a clear, well-defined character arc. Labyrinth is also light on plot but it is episodic in nature and tactile in its story-telling. The opening 5 minutes perfectly set up Sarah's character before dropping her into Bowie's labyrinth ... From there, we can begin the quest. Every encounter Sarah has on the journey directly contributes to her growth producing a film that is light on plot but satisfying from a character perspective. While I praised the strange constant tone of The Dark Crystal earlier, it is also the film's biggest curse. In its "alieness", The Dark Crystal loses that human connection. In a way, I commend the film for not having human characters but at the same time the replacement for this doesn't quite work, for me anyway. The puppets for Jen and Kira, while wonderful from a concept point of view, are a little bit ... lifeless, which is odd since Henson is so brilliant at communicating emotions with his puppets. I think this severely harms the emotional core of the film and, coupled with the light plot, makes our heroes' arcs somewhat underwhelming and difficult to care for. Outside of some intrigue with an outcast Skeksis, the film doesn't really offer much in terms of its narrative. It develops in exactly the way you expect it to and, coupled with our main characters being fairly bland, makes for an oddly uneventful film, despite the incredible set pieces and locations (if that makes any sense). I think for me, it's the standard hero's journey/prophecy plot line that I most object to in the film; everything else is so wonderful and bizarre, it's a bit of a shame more time couldn't have been spent on fleshing out the arcs of the main characters and finding a way to undermine the traditional hero's tale or at least do something new with it. 

While The Dark Crystal must be applauded for its "alieness", it loses out on the human connection and clear character arcs when compared to Henson's follow-up Labyrinth

Overall, from a story perspective, I would call The Dark Crystal under-whelming. Very under-whelming. However, from a technical stand point and for maintaining a constant, dream-like mood, The Dark Crystal is still, just about, a worthy recommendation. Clearly, it has stuck with its many fans. Next month, the film will be enjoying a rare re-release in cinemas in a brand new 4K restoration. The film's legacy survives in various different mediums, such as books, comics, games, music (metal maestro Devin Townsend wrote a song about the Skeksis for the album Alien and would use the creatures as a launch point in creating his musical cypher for the album Ziltoid the Omniscient) and even an upcoming Netflix Original Series. The project, entitled The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, purports to be a 10 episode prequel series exploring the world created in the original film. For me, its the ambition of The Dark Crystal that stands out to me. I can't think of any films quite like it; a whole film with no human characters with a cast made up entirely of puppets. To be honest, this is probably about as bold as mainstream fantasy cinema has got. I don't think every element works but it does succeed at creating a strange fantasy world inhabited by interesting creatures and jaw-dropping visual effects. I think especially in the era of CGI heavy films, The Dark Crystal has a true artistry with its mostly in-camera effects. If you can look past the weak story, The Dark Crystal offers a pretty trippy adventure into unbridled creativity. 

References:

1. http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/interviews/jim2.shtml (accessed 06/01/2018)