Labyrinth Part 1: The first ten minutes ALONE.
Go here. Listen to that. Then come back.
Gooood. All on the same page?
My love for this movie is unrepentant and unbreakable. It appears to be eternal, as well, since it has not diminished in my affection for the past twenty years. It is, instead, my relationship with the movie that alters, and it has changed from being an awesome fantasy movie to an interesting coming of age film.
I decided to talk about this film now because, well A; it's about time I stopped bitching and shared the love, and, B, mostly I see that guys write and talk about this movie more than women do. When I wear my Jareth shirt, more often than not it's a male who will call me on it. I thought I would shed some like on why I still love this movie, and how it is so filled with STUFF.
Recognition of course has to go to the many minds who brought this about. Jim Henson, Dennis Lee and Terry Jones (of Monty Python) are credited with story and screenplay, while the producers include George Lucas, two Henson regulars Martin G. Baker and David Lazar, and Eric Rattray, who had worked a number of jobs for movies such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Dragonslayer, and First Knight. Bowie and Trevor Jones are responsible for the synth soundtrack, which I admit a softness for. Jennifer Connley is the effective child star.
To hear some of these men discuss how the movie came about, is to hear about goblins, and the desire to cast a rock star as the Goblin King (Micheal Jackson and Sting were the other options, people. QUAKE IN FEAR.) There is very little talk of the fact that this is a coming of age story centering around a female, and it is her story which is the framework. Honestly, I have no idea what forces gently pushed this movie, but somewhere, something did, and while it could be better, there's a fine balancing act going on. This is a FRUEDIAN movie is ever there was one, and while no one breathes a word about sex, it's kind of all over the movie.
But, let's start at the beginning, shall we?
The first few 10 minutes of this movie actually unload a fuckton of information about Sarah, and you have to be paying attention to get a lot of it. Me, I make a few intuitive jumps, but that's just me. Feel free to think that I'm nuts, or, consult the movie and symbolism repository of your choice.
Atop content, I am going to talk a lot about set dressing. Now, I know, Set Dressing, you say. But the truth is, that house Sarah lives in does not exist. It was built on a soundstage at Pinewood Studios. Therefore, everything was created from the ground up, and choices were made in regards to decorating and dressing that set. Costuming and Sets are some of the little appreciated aspects to film, but a huge amount of thought and character can go into a room or an article of clothing. Also, what you're seeing in the background in terms of background action. This is all important, for though the camera might not to a specific close up, like a painting film involves composition and symbolism.
Let's start with Sarah.
Dad and Toby
Dad is seen in the front hall because his briefcase rests on the table. There is no tangible sign of him in the bedroom. Toby's crib and baby area share the master bedroom. He has no space of his own.
Jareth
Okay. Those are our spaces and our symbols.
Now lets look at what is going on.
Sarah begins the movie enacting a power fantasy, exchanging dialogue from her book which is her announcing her defiance to the unknown listener, but she cannot remember the integral line, hell, the fricken point of the speech: You Have No Power Over Me. This is fitting, because as we will soon see, Sarah is both without power or responsibility and where one goes so should the other.
She realizes time has gotten away from her, and she rushes home, late to babysit. "Ohh, it's not fair!" she cries, presumably, that she has to have her Terribly Important Teenage Things be interrupted by any form of responsibility. Cry us a river, Sarah.
We meet Stepmother, who is miffed, and gets on Sarah's case about her being tardy. Oh, Sarah's being a petulant and whiny teen, but here is what we learn from Stepmother:
Dad appears and it's he who voices concern 'We we worried!' he says, because heck knows that Stepmother didn't seem at all worried her Stepdaughter was out lost for an hour in the dark and the rain. Dad meanwhile is heroically trying to make the whole encounter between these women as pleasant as possible.
Stepmother concludes her stay in this movie but spitting this petulant line at her husband; "She treats me like a Wicked Stepmother in a fairy story no matter what I say!". Well, except for the fact that the decor of the house seems to reflect her, and her alone, and she easily snipes at Dad who is the one caring for Toby.
So Dad volunteers to talk to Sarah. He knocks on the door, says wants to talk to her. And Sarah tests him. 'There's nothing to talk about. You better hurry, you're going to be late' she says. And Dad takes the offered out and avoids her and any discussion entirely. Instead, he just starts discussing Toby's needs. And Sarah feels that sting as he fails the test. He fails to give a shit. How many times has he utterly failed to give a crap? How many times has he not even bothered to open the door to talk to her? How pistol whipped is this guy?
Then, there's Lancelot.
This one is basic, and I didn't pick up on it for a long time, but it really colors a kind of behavior that is going on in this house. You have Sarah, very very attached to her possessions, to such a degree that her stuffed animals have their own little homes. She likes her shit, everything is named and hers and, as we see later in the movie, has names and value and importance.
What kind of parent just decides to appropriate something from their daughter and give it to their other kid? Think about it. Either Dad or Stepmother CONTINUOUSLY goes into her bedroom without her permission to take some stuffed animal and put it in Toby's crib. You and I both know this has happened before, and Sarah raised the mother of all bitchfits, and yet ... SOMEONE KEEPS DOING IT. Whether or not you feel Sarah should be developmentally beyond this obsession with her possessions, it speaks to a disregard for her privacy, wishes and a particularly underhanded statement about her position in the household, moreso when you realize Toby already has some stuffed what-sit in the crib with him, when Sarah does in!!
Seriously, someone in that house prefers to piss off the teenager rather than paying the ten bucks for Toby to have his own fucking stuffed bear, if it just hasss to be a bear. But it's not really about the bear. It's about Sarah being late, so someone went into her room to take something of hers to give to the other child as a kind of petty vengeance. And I think we all know it's Stepmother. Stepmother who thinks Sarah should be dating, and not so anal about her toys, because Dad? He did not set foot in Sarah's room without invitation, and as we see, the door was not locked. He's clearly a little oblivious to the power struggle going on in the house.
Now, you say, WTF, Shugawhim, stop making up bizarre shit. To that I say, no, seriously. Because this doesn't have to be there, technically speaking. Toby could just be sobbing his brains out, and Sarah would have to go in there. Someone went to the trouble of adding this sequence of events to the script. Then someone dressed that set they put a stuffed whatsit in the bed.
So. What we have going on in this house is we have theatrical dreamer Sarah. She's suddenly become a big sister after years of being an only child. She idolizes her Mom, but lives with her whipped father, and more stringent, possibly religious stepmother. Stepmother is obviously the disciplinarian and the controller. She kind of clearly resents Sarah a little bit, probably because Sarah looks and behaves a hell of a lot like her mother, and because the divorce and remarriage have been very hard on Sarah. Sarah has retreated into a fantasy world. It's 1986, but Sarah's bedroom does not date the story by much, excepting the Cats musical poster. This is a teenage girls bedroom, and there is no sign of a burgeoning sexuality. She will later, in the movie, display an understanding and respect for the mechanics of story. It may be she does treat Stepmother like a wicked stepmother, we don't really know.
What we do know is Dad is a waifish presence who clearly doesn't know what to do to smooth feathers. His lines often include 'we' to stand for he and Stepmother. 'We were worried about you!' (Stepmother said nothing about this) "We've fed Toby and put him to bed" (Father seen holding Toby and bottle, Stepmother does not touch or look at child) "We'll be back around midnight" and 'We're home!'. Sarah cannot pull from him to be any kind of support. She has no allies in finding some kind of equal ground in terms of the power situation in her own home. Does she do housework, like her super dramatic speech implies? No. I don't think so. But I do see a frustrated and sad girl, who feels replaced and ignored, so much so that she conjours up a magical king to love her.
Gooood. All on the same page?
My love for this movie is unrepentant and unbreakable. It appears to be eternal, as well, since it has not diminished in my affection for the past twenty years. It is, instead, my relationship with the movie that alters, and it has changed from being an awesome fantasy movie to an interesting coming of age film.
I decided to talk about this film now because, well A; it's about time I stopped bitching and shared the love, and, B, mostly I see that guys write and talk about this movie more than women do. When I wear my Jareth shirt, more often than not it's a male who will call me on it. I thought I would shed some like on why I still love this movie, and how it is so filled with STUFF.
Recognition of course has to go to the many minds who brought this about. Jim Henson, Dennis Lee and Terry Jones (of Monty Python) are credited with story and screenplay, while the producers include George Lucas, two Henson regulars Martin G. Baker and David Lazar, and Eric Rattray, who had worked a number of jobs for movies such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Dragonslayer, and First Knight. Bowie and Trevor Jones are responsible for the synth soundtrack, which I admit a softness for. Jennifer Connley is the effective child star.
To hear some of these men discuss how the movie came about, is to hear about goblins, and the desire to cast a rock star as the Goblin King (Micheal Jackson and Sting were the other options, people. QUAKE IN FEAR.) There is very little talk of the fact that this is a coming of age story centering around a female, and it is her story which is the framework. Honestly, I have no idea what forces gently pushed this movie, but somewhere, something did, and while it could be better, there's a fine balancing act going on. This is a FRUEDIAN movie is ever there was one, and while no one breathes a word about sex, it's kind of all over the movie.
But, let's start at the beginning, shall we?
The first few 10 minutes of this movie actually unload a fuckton of information about Sarah, and you have to be paying attention to get a lot of it. Me, I make a few intuitive jumps, but that's just me. Feel free to think that I'm nuts, or, consult the movie and symbolism repository of your choice.
Atop content, I am going to talk a lot about set dressing. Now, I know, Set Dressing, you say. But the truth is, that house Sarah lives in does not exist. It was built on a soundstage at Pinewood Studios. Therefore, everything was created from the ground up, and choices were made in regards to decorating and dressing that set. Costuming and Sets are some of the little appreciated aspects to film, but a huge amount of thought and character can go into a room or an article of clothing. Also, what you're seeing in the background in terms of background action. This is all important, for though the camera might not to a specific close up, like a painting film involves composition and symbolism.
Let's start with Sarah.
- In her first scene in the park there is a swan in the lake over her left shoulder. Swans are symbols of grace, beauty, but also connect with water-based things like dreaming, fluidity, creativity, intuition and, in the case of the Ugly Duckling, beauty and self esteem from within.
- Sarah's Bedroom. Now, of course we see the fieries, Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo, an Escher poster, the Labyrinth, and a representation of the Goblin King (in the widescreen version), but the real gem here is the Scrapbook. Sarah apparently keeps a scrapbook with articles about her mother, Linda Williams. Linda Williams appears to be a stage actress, and the articles refer to her on-again-off-again romance with an un-named gentleman. Who is Bowie.
- Sarah also has pictures of herself and her mother, herself and her father, and her mother with this mystery man tucked around her mirror.
- Also Sarah's Bedroom: Sarah's wallpaper is comprised of what I believe to be poppies. Poppies synbolize Sleep, Peace, Death and Rebirth.
- When Sarah moves through the hall after wishing Toby away, she passes a picture of a mermaid. Mermaids can mean intuition, femininity, transformation.
- Sarah is a character charcterized by patchwork, furls, lots of clutter and color.
- Stepmother. Ohh Stepmother. In your pink 80's blouse and heels.
- In the entry way the set dressing includes a stroller by the door, pink in the wallpaper, pink flowers on the table. The framed pictures seem to be of flowers, some sketches of faces.
- Then we go into the master bedroom/nursery. Please note the pink ruffled canopy bed that the happy couple sleeps in. Toby is apparently shoved in one corner, when, through an archway Stepmother has her own antechamber with vanity, which is separate from what is likely the bathroom, since we see a Goblin darting in and out of it.
- Also worth noting; at least two different items (a mirror and a picture) in the bedroom depict sunflowers. Sunflowers are symbolic of spiritual faith.
- Peacocks make up another Christian symbol in the picture above Toby, this time of immortality and Christ, and His Eyes Watching.
- The hallway picture of the Mermaid also represents feminity, and a siren call of danger and bewitchment.
Dad and Toby
Dad is seen in the front hall because his briefcase rests on the table. There is no tangible sign of him in the bedroom. Toby's crib and baby area share the master bedroom. He has no space of his own.
Jareth
- Enters the scene as an owl. Though we think of wisdom, owls have quite the reputation; they largely stand for journeys and transitions, due to the frequency with which they are involved with moving souls between worlds. The owl is a spirit guide, an announcer of death, and, specifically, the white barn owl is symbolic of holding secrets and valuables in a private place.
Snake; the snake is a complicated symbol; both male and female, but, again, it is a symbol of cycles, death and rebirth and transition.
Okay. Those are our spaces and our symbols.
Now lets look at what is going on.
Sarah begins the movie enacting a power fantasy, exchanging dialogue from her book which is her announcing her defiance to the unknown listener, but she cannot remember the integral line, hell, the fricken point of the speech: You Have No Power Over Me. This is fitting, because as we will soon see, Sarah is both without power or responsibility and where one goes so should the other.
She realizes time has gotten away from her, and she rushes home, late to babysit. "Ohh, it's not fair!" she cries, presumably, that she has to have her Terribly Important Teenage Things be interrupted by any form of responsibility. Cry us a river, Sarah.
We meet Stepmother, who is miffed, and gets on Sarah's case about her being tardy. Oh, Sarah's being a petulant and whiny teen, but here is what we learn from Stepmother:
- Stepmother does not assume Sarah has or was with any friends.
- Stepmother's solution for making Sarah happy is for her to get a man.
- It is unclear about whether Stepmother actually DID ask if Sarah was otherwise engaged, either way, Sarah did flake out.
- Stepmother is really, really thin for having popped out a kid as recent as Toby. Clearly, this is a goal oriented woman.
Dad appears and it's he who voices concern 'We we worried!' he says, because heck knows that Stepmother didn't seem at all worried her Stepdaughter was out lost for an hour in the dark and the rain. Dad meanwhile is heroically trying to make the whole encounter between these women as pleasant as possible.
Stepmother concludes her stay in this movie but spitting this petulant line at her husband; "She treats me like a Wicked Stepmother in a fairy story no matter what I say!". Well, except for the fact that the decor of the house seems to reflect her, and her alone, and she easily snipes at Dad who is the one caring for Toby.
So Dad volunteers to talk to Sarah. He knocks on the door, says wants to talk to her. And Sarah tests him. 'There's nothing to talk about. You better hurry, you're going to be late' she says. And Dad takes the offered out and avoids her and any discussion entirely. Instead, he just starts discussing Toby's needs. And Sarah feels that sting as he fails the test. He fails to give a shit. How many times has he utterly failed to give a crap? How many times has he not even bothered to open the door to talk to her? How pistol whipped is this guy?
Then, there's Lancelot.
This one is basic, and I didn't pick up on it for a long time, but it really colors a kind of behavior that is going on in this house. You have Sarah, very very attached to her possessions, to such a degree that her stuffed animals have their own little homes. She likes her shit, everything is named and hers and, as we see later in the movie, has names and value and importance.
What kind of parent just decides to appropriate something from their daughter and give it to their other kid? Think about it. Either Dad or Stepmother CONTINUOUSLY goes into her bedroom without her permission to take some stuffed animal and put it in Toby's crib. You and I both know this has happened before, and Sarah raised the mother of all bitchfits, and yet ... SOMEONE KEEPS DOING IT. Whether or not you feel Sarah should be developmentally beyond this obsession with her possessions, it speaks to a disregard for her privacy, wishes and a particularly underhanded statement about her position in the household, moreso when you realize Toby already has some stuffed what-sit in the crib with him, when Sarah does in!!
Seriously, someone in that house prefers to piss off the teenager rather than paying the ten bucks for Toby to have his own fucking stuffed bear, if it just hasss to be a bear. But it's not really about the bear. It's about Sarah being late, so someone went into her room to take something of hers to give to the other child as a kind of petty vengeance. And I think we all know it's Stepmother. Stepmother who thinks Sarah should be dating, and not so anal about her toys, because Dad? He did not set foot in Sarah's room without invitation, and as we see, the door was not locked. He's clearly a little oblivious to the power struggle going on in the house.
Now, you say, WTF, Shugawhim, stop making up bizarre shit. To that I say, no, seriously. Because this doesn't have to be there, technically speaking. Toby could just be sobbing his brains out, and Sarah would have to go in there. Someone went to the trouble of adding this sequence of events to the script. Then someone dressed that set they put a stuffed whatsit in the bed.
So. What we have going on in this house is we have theatrical dreamer Sarah. She's suddenly become a big sister after years of being an only child. She idolizes her Mom, but lives with her whipped father, and more stringent, possibly religious stepmother. Stepmother is obviously the disciplinarian and the controller. She kind of clearly resents Sarah a little bit, probably because Sarah looks and behaves a hell of a lot like her mother, and because the divorce and remarriage have been very hard on Sarah. Sarah has retreated into a fantasy world. It's 1986, but Sarah's bedroom does not date the story by much, excepting the Cats musical poster. This is a teenage girls bedroom, and there is no sign of a burgeoning sexuality. She will later, in the movie, display an understanding and respect for the mechanics of story. It may be she does treat Stepmother like a wicked stepmother, we don't really know.
What we do know is Dad is a waifish presence who clearly doesn't know what to do to smooth feathers. His lines often include 'we' to stand for he and Stepmother. 'We were worried about you!' (Stepmother said nothing about this) "We've fed Toby and put him to bed" (Father seen holding Toby and bottle, Stepmother does not touch or look at child) "We'll be back around midnight" and 'We're home!'. Sarah cannot pull from him to be any kind of support. She has no allies in finding some kind of equal ground in terms of the power situation in her own home. Does she do housework, like her super dramatic speech implies? No. I don't think so. But I do see a frustrated and sad girl, who feels replaced and ignored, so much so that she conjours up a magical king to love her.