The Legend of Bad Acting

I first saw Legend as a child, a young, naive, child who didn't know about the agony in watching bad acting. I fell in love with the Prince of Darkness. I wanted to be Lilly and I wanted Jack to rescue me. Fast forward a few decades, and I find myself still in love with Tim Curry as the Prince, still in awe of Mia Sara’s unearthly beauty. But Tom Cruise… well he makes me want to cry, and not in a good way.

Legend is the tale of Lilly and Jack. Lilly is a princess who wanders the woods with her friend Jack. Jack is a child of the wilds and knows the ways of the Wood. Meanwhile, in the castle - the Prince of Darkness sends his little goblins out to kill the unicorns. When they are dead - the world will fall into darkness and he will rule. The Unicorns are pure and no mortal has touched them. Jack brings Lilly to see the unicorns frolicking in a stream. She touches one, in a moment of innocent wonder, and brings about a whole lot of chaos. One unicorn is killed and the other is stolen away by the Prince’s minions. Lilly knows she has done wrong and runs off to the castle to make things right. Meanwhile, Jack and some of the forest folk have also decided to get to the unicorn so they may save the world. Lilly is tempted by the Prince, agrees to kill the unicorn with him. Instead of killing the creature, she breaks the chains that bind it, and Jack kills the Prince. The End.

I think as a kid I was so caught up in depth of the world, that I didn’t account for the horrific acting. Everything is overdone, overwrought and was not over soon enough for me. The costumes and makeup were spectacular and still hold up. But Tom Cruise never shows emotion. He seems perpetually startled, which then, in turn, shocked me. How someone be that awful and become on of the highest paid Hollywood actors years later? It boggles the mind.