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I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! Today we rejoin Jen on his quest, 21:44-24:35 on the Blu-ray.

In the previous scene, the Dark Crystal showed the Skeksis an image of Jen, and some in the audience might be wondering how it did that. The next shot is a closeup of a Crystal Bat, watching Jen through its camera-like eye. Of course, we’re not meant to know yet that it’s a Crystal Bat. To the first-time viewer, this is just some weird-lookin’ robot thing. I’ve noticed that a lot during this rewatch, that the movie shows us various creatures and characters before properly introducing them. I guess that speaks to the fully-immersed-in-this-world effect the filmmakers are striving for.

Jen is climbing up the side of a huge rocky cliff face, and based on the background, he’s way up high. (This is a matte painting, of course. I miss matte paintings in fantasy movies.) It fades to another shot, showing the passage of time and Jen’s progress. He is now walking through a bunch of rocks with big pink vines all around. He trips, making a nice, and all the vines spring to life, retreating into caves and holes in the walls. I love watching this scene with people who’ve never seen the movie before. It blows their minds!

Jen’s voiceover says “What in the world?” and, humorously, “This place is weird.” OK, why is Jen speaking in voiceover? He’ll do this several times in the movie, so get used to it. As the story goes, the original version of the movie had very little dialogue and no narration or voiceover. Depending in which version of the story you read, all those scenes with the Skeksis in their castle were in an alien language with subtitles, or in an alien language with no subtitles, for the truly immersive experience. Early test audiences were understandably baffled by what they were seeing, so the narrator was added, the Skeksis were redubbed into their awesome voice they now have, and we’re privy to Jen’s thoughts via voiceover. The Dark Crystal is often criticized for characters explaining things more than once. That’s because of all the head-scratching done by those confused early test audiences.

As such, Jen reminds us that he’s looking for Aughra, by following the path of the Greater Sun for a day. He seems to have travelled a long way for one day, which raises questions as to how the passage of time works on this world. Jen shows a little bit of humor, wondering if the one little crab-like creatures scuttling around could be Aughra, and then he gives us a hint of his darker side by asking “What if she murders Gelflings?”

Jen wanders into a bunch of vines (a different kind from the ones before) only to get caught up in them. Then, the vines lift him up off the ground, Ewok trap-style. He looks around for a few seconds, and then looks down and reacts with surprise. We see what he’s reacting to and… are you ready for this? It a grubby hand holding an eyeball, and the eyeball is able to move independently, looking around. It’s a real “how did they come up with this stuff?” moment. This stranger speaks in another language for a few seconds, and then we see who it is. This is, for lack of a better description, and old lady, with a wrinkled, frumpy face, long grey hair, and, uh, ram’s horns. She places the eye into its socket, with the other socket remains grossly empty. On her forehead is a circle, which many have speculated is the mystical “third eye.” Indeed, the info at DarkCrystal.com states she is three-eyed, with two blind eyes.

Yes, this is Aughra. You know it’s Augrha, I know it’s Aughra, everybody but poor Jen has figured out this Aughra. Instead of speaking in the other language, she speaks so we can understand and asks “Are you a Gelfling.” Jen says yes and introduces himself. Aughra responds with shock, and then exposits that all the Gelflings are dead, and that the Garthim killed them all, and that Jen can’t possibly be a Gelfling. She then states that Jen looks and smells like a Gelfling, and she starts convincing herself that yes, he is a Gelfling.

Jen says he’s looking for Aughra, and that his master, wisest of the Mystics, has sent him. Aughra asks “Where is he? Around here?” Can we take this to mean the Mystics at some point left the valley and visited Aughra in person? Then, we get an important exchange. Jen says his Master is dead, and Aughra responds, “Could be anywhere, then.” First, this is the most definitive statement we’ve got in the movie of these characters’ belief in an afterlife. Second, this line is allegedly taken straight from the spiritual sci-fi novel Seth Speaks by Jane Roberts, which Jim Henson, Brian Froud, and screenwriter David O’Dell had all read during preproduction. In his afterward for the second Creation Myths graphic novel O’Dell cites Seth Speaks as being a big influence on The Dark Crystal.

Jen finally puts two and two together and asks “Are you Aughra?” Aughra shows her darkly comic side by saying “Are you afraid of me? Think I’m going to eat you?” Jen doesn’t seem too freaked out by this, and says he’s seeking a crystal shard. Aughra says “Drop him,” and the vines do so at her command. She gives some more commands, this time in another language, and more vines rise up to reveal a cave entrance. She enters, without beckoning Jen to follow. It’s unspoken, I guess, because he follows anyway.

So, who is this Aughra, anyway? That’s actually a huge question to try to answer. Both of the Creation Myths graphic novels and Brian Froud’s book The World of the Dark Crystal have tons of background info on Aughra. She’s more or less the main character of both books. Basically, she’s “Mother Earth” of this world. She was created first, and she’s seen the entire planet’s history come to pass. The books show growing tree-like when she meditates, and describe how she lost her eye during the first Great Conjunction, and how she was present at the chaotic second Great Conjunction.

Just what is all this talk about conjunctions? What’s their function? We’ll get to that in detail… next time.

Next: The angle of eternity.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! Today, the titular crystal comes into play, 19:31-21:43 on the Blu-ray.

We’re still in the Skeksis’ throne room, just after the Chamberlain has been banished and had his clothes ripped from him. A strange, almost electronic sound rings through the air, and all the Skeksis react to it. The General declares, “The Crystal calls!” and he adds, “To the Crystal Chamber!” (Even though he’s the new Skeksis emperor, I’m going to keep calling him the General, to avoid confusion between him and the emperor who just died.) Instead of freaking out this time, the other Skeksis dutifully turn and start walking toward the Crystal Chamber in an orderly fashion. As they march down a hallway, we can hear them quietly muttering to each other. The subtitles have one of them saying, “Hurry,” and I swear I can hear another one say “The Crystal,” but beyond that, I can’t make sense of their mutterings. They enter the Crystal chamber, the one we saw at the beginning of the film, again on a ramp and not stairs. They gather beneath the Dark Crystal.

So just what is the deal with this Dark Crystal? Why’s it so important? The canon describes it as the “heart” of this world, and goes on to describe how it once provided balance and harmony throughout the world. Now, though, it is cracked, and the world is all messed up with monsters and darkness and whatnot. Its shape is described as “rhombohedral.” A lot of folks over the years have asked how the Crystal is just floating there in the middle of the room, and what’s holding it up. The official, canonical answer is that it is “supported by its own gravity.” Sure, why not?

There’s a funny bit where the General snarls menacingly at the Skeksis to his sides, reminding them who’s in charge now, before turning his attention to the crystal. An image of Jen climbing a rock wall appears on or perhaps inside the Crystal’s surface. Now is when we see the easily-excited nature of the Skeksis, where just seeing a Gelfling makes them freak out. “The prophecy!” one Skeksis cries. There’s just enough time for the audience to ask, “What prophecy?” when another Skeksis responds, “The prophecy says Gelfling will destroy us.”

This is the only time in the canon that we see the Crystal call to the Skeksis like this. How often does it do this? What else has it shown them? We don’t know. The big unanswered question is why the Crystal shows them Jen. Is the Skeksis’ command of the Crystal so great that it has truly bent to their will and serves them completely? Or, is there a higher intelligence at work, so that the Crystal, by showing this, is somehow setting events in motion to where it’ll eventually be healed. That’d be an interesting interpretation of the film – that the Crystal is manipulating everything that happens in its favor. But would it hold up? Either way, this scene at least demonstrates that there is an intelligence of sorts behind the Crystal, as it acts on its own and communicates in its own way. (Yeah, yeah, it’s also a matter of plot convenience, because the Skeksis have to learn about Jen to up the stakes, etc.)

The General calls out, “Garthim! Attack!” and we get our first real good look at the Garthim – the henchmen or stormtroopers of the film. They’re basically giant bugs, a big black shell with all kinds of twitchy arms, legs and claws. The canon informs that the Garthim are not natural to this world. They are artificial constructs created by the Skeksis from “memories of sea creatures” from the Skeksis’ original world. (Yes, another world. There’ll be more detail about this in another post.) The Garthim were created for the sole purpose of hunting Gelfling, which is why they’re all gone now. I love that the Garthim’s eyes are the same purple light of the Dark Crystal, so that the audience immediately identifies them as being connected to it and to the Skeksis. This also reinforces how they were built by the Skeksis, with the Skeksis using the Crystal for their own, ahem, dark purposes.

The Garthim emerge from all around the Crystal chamber to show off how cool they are. The Skeksis’ commands to the Garthim are oddly contradictory. One says to find the Gelfling and bring him to the castle, and another says to kill the Gelfling. So, which is it? Then there’s a shot of a bunch of Garthim rumbling down a hallway, joined by a few more entering from alcoves alongside the wall. It’s basically a little trick to convince the audience that there are a whole lot of Garthim, instead of just the ten or so puppets made for the movie. The Garthim continue down the hall, and we see the Chamberlain lurking there, watching them keenly. He does the whimper again, so there’s no question it’s him, and he follows. Throughout the middle part of the movie, some might wonder how the Chamberlain gets around, and how he knows where to be. This scene is your answer: He follows the Garthim the whole time.

We cut back to the Crystal Chamber for a close-up of the Dark Crystal, still showing the image of Jen. The Skeksis comment, “Ugly!” and “Hideous Gelfling!” for a quick laugh.

Next: “This place is weird.”

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! I took a break over the holidays, but now I’m back and ready for the famous “trial by stone” scene, 14:22-19:32 on the Blu-ray.

The scene takes place in the Skeksis’ throne room. There’s no establishing shot of the castle beforehand, as the audience is now familiar enough with the Skeksis to know that’s where they are. Even in this first shot there are some interesting details to notice. Both the Garthim and some Podling slaves are milling about in the background, before being properly introduced. Also, there are stairs off to one side. I could be wrong, but I believe this is the only time we see stairs in the movie, as most of the architecture prefers big ramps to stairways. This is of course easier to accommodate puppeteers and cameramen moving around the sets, but it also gives the structures an organic feel, especially after reading passages in the tie-in books that describe the characters’ homes as “grown” or “shaped” rather than built.

The Skeksis gather in this room, expositing that the Emperor is dead, and a new one must be chosen. The Chamberlain confidently declares, “It should be me,” while the General growls, “Not him. I must rule.” It’s hard to tell, but it looks like Skeksis are divided, without about half gathering in support of the General, and half in support of the Chamberlain. Given what we’re about to see, it’s hard to imagine the Chamberlain having supporters, but in these few moments, he does. One Skeksis even calls him “My Lord Chamberlain,” showing that he has some status and high regard over others of his kind. I bring this up because as we go through this rewatch we’ll see that, despite his mewling whimper, the Chamberlain is really… a man of action.

Chamberlain says it’s time for him to make his move, that move being merely walking up to the throne and reaching for the emperor’s scepter. The General goes to stop him, and the two face off, hissing at each other. Notice the General’s back, how the robes on his back rise up as he gets angry. We’ll get back to this. The General says, “I challenge!” Then there’s a nifty bit of puppet acting on the Chamberlain as he blinks a few times – a very realistic-looking blink pattern – and he responds, “Trial by stone.” It’s interesting that one Skeksis makes the challenge, and the one being challenged gets to choose what the challenge is. This suggests that the Skeksis have these customs or rituals in place so they’re not just always clawing at each other. But wait, in the manga Legends of the Dark Crystal, when the Chamberlain challenges SkekLach, it’s the Chamberlain’s idea to make it trial by fire, and SkekLach goes along with it. In the manga, SkekLach was betraying the emperor, so perhaps the Skeksis’ customs were changed after his betrayal was (I’m assuming) eventually discovered.

Everyone in the tie-in books always talks about how the Skeksis are cunning and scheming, but after Chamberlain says “Trial by stone,” we see another aspect of the Skeksis’ personalities, which is how easily excitable they are. They freak the hell out, running around crying “Trial by stone! Trial by stone!” The Skeksis’ Slave-master gets his big scene, in which he commands the castle’s slaves to “raise the stone.” Then the Podling slaves enter, their faces shriveled and their eyes blank and white. Interesting that this is how the audience is introduced to the Podlings, before even knowing what a Podling is.

The slaves pull a bunch of ropes, triggering an unseen mechanism that brings a giant black stone up out of the ground. The stone has two huge swords affixed to it. We get our “action movie” shot in which the Chamberlain and the General raise their swords, yell with anger, and clash them together. That final part is captured in a close-up of the swords clanging into each other. Chamberlain and the General circle the stone while still hissing and growling at each other, but this is no high-flying swordfight. The General swings his sword and strikes the stone with a mighty blow, to which all the other Skeksis cheer for him. So this trial is a test of strength, whoever can ding the stone the hardest wins. During this, the Blu-ray’s subtitles have one of the Skeksis in the background saying “I’m taking it.” Does this mean they’re gambling on the outcome?

Then the Chamberlain takes his swing. Remember that shot in The Shining where Jack Nicholson is trying to break through the door with the axe, and Kubrick’s camera manages to follow the path of the axe back and forth as he swings it? They do that same shot here, as the camera follows the sword as Chamberlain first rears it back, and then swings forward, cutting a large gash into the stone’s surface. The Skeksis show how ever-changing their loyalty is by immediately switching sides and cheering for the Chamberlain. The fact that he does well in the contest again shows that the Chamberlain is a man of action. But it’s not over. The General wipes some drool from his chin (nice little bit of grossness there), and he swings. He strikes the stone so hard it breaks in a burst of sparks and smoke, glowing red-hot pieces of it falling onto the floor. There’s a moment of silence as the Skeksis look on, shocked.

The tie-in fiction has a lot to say about this stone they’re using. It’s called the Haakskeekah, and it was the Skeksis’ attempt to create a second Dark Crystal. It’s not a second Dark Crystal, but it apparently has mystical properties, or at least the Skeksis believe it does. Knowing this adds a lot of dramatic weight to the General cleaving it in half. It means that in their hundreds of years inhabiting this castle, the Skeksis have never seen this happen before. It also speaks to how this world is broken and out of balance with the third great conjunction about to happen. Plotwise, this act means that the General is victorious, and there’s no way the Chamberlain can talk his way out of this one. The General immediately declares himself the emperor, and the Ritual-master speaks up, saying that, by law, the Chamberlain must pay. (Pay for what, though? The challenge was the General’s idea. I guess he must pay for making a move for the scepter to begin with.)

The stuff of nightmares: Then it’s one of the movie’s famous watch-from-between-your-fingers moments, in which the other Skeksis, now devoted to their new emperor, surround the Chamberlain. What makes this freaky is that we don’t really see or are told exactly what the other Skeksis are doing to him. They’re removing his clothes, that much is clear, but the way he’s screaming suggests he’s in horrid pain, so maybe, just maybe, this hurts him somehow? The General declares that the Chamberlain is banished. The rest of the Skeksis part ways, and we see the Chamberlain NUDE!!! He’s leaning against the wall, whimpering in humiliation. The effect is as mind-blowing as it is horrifying, because this is the filmmakers’ way of saying that there are not puppeteers under the Skeksis’ robes, but actual Skeksis.

Look closely: During all this, we can see that one of the Skeksis has a metal hook for a hand. Unless I’m mistaken, I believe that one is the Slave-master.

Scepter in hand, the General declares himself emperor and has all the other Skeksis bow down to him. All except for the Chamberlain, still shuddering in the corner. He bundles up some of the torn up rags that were once his clothes and walks off. One question fans ask is, “If the Skeksis and the urRu are connected, why don’t the Skeksis have four arms like the urRu?” In this shot of the Chamberlain, you can see a pair of tiny secondary arms growing on his back, with itty-bitty claws and everything. Some fans think the secondary arms are at the Skeksis’ bellies, but no. Earlier, when the General’s robes rose up, those were his secondary arms doing that. Also, Brian Froud’s sketchbook drawings in the back of the second Creation Myths graphic novel shows these small arms quite clearly on the Skeksis’ backs, holding up little flags and whatnot.

The Chamberlain does his famous whimper again as he heads for the exit. The scene isn’t over yet, but there’s a lot to say about what happens next, so we’ll end this one here.

Next: The Crystal calls!

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! Just a short couple of scenes this time, 13:01-14:21 on the Blu-ray.

We see one of the Mystics playing a harp-like instrument, using two of his four hands — the two on his right side — to play. The rest of the Mystics are standing in a circle inside their Standing Stones. This shows that the stones must do more than offer protection, as described in the canon. Instead, they must be a source of magic and/or energy for a variety of purposes for the Mystics. Without the movie having to tell us, we in the audience can just deduce this is the funeral for the Mystics’ Master. The Mystics all raise their arms in unison, and one of them says, “Dear friend, be well.” According to the screenplay, the one speaking is urZah, the Ritual-Guardian. Unless I’m mistaken, he’s the one we saw creating the painting in the sand earlier.

At the center of the circle are the Master’s belongings. We know this because the Ritual-Guardian says, “Receive your belongings,” and they disappear in a flash of blue light. I assume this is magic at work, as the how and why this is possible is never really explained. These belongings, by the way, are a cane and two nondescript bundles. Not exactly a pharaoh being buried with his treasure, but who am I to question these alien creatures? The Ritual-Guardian concludes the funeral by asking the Master to watch over Jen on his dangerous quest. This funeral is the most overt reference to the characters in this world believing in an afterlife.

Jen is watching this from atop the walls of the valley, looking down on the other Masters with sadness. In voiceover, Jen promises his Master that he’ll find the shard. It’s important to remember just how much Jen doesn’t know at this point in the story. He has to find the shard, but he doesn’t know why. He knows who the Skeksis are, and he’s heard talk of the three suns converging in the sky, but he I don’t believe he knows how these things are related. Many critics argue that Jen is “dumb” or even “useless” because he can’t grasp the situation, but I’m not sure I agree.

Look closely: As Jen leaves the valley, we can see the Mystics have already separated and are walking away from the stone circle. For as slow and meditative as they are, they obviously have a “keep it short and sweet” policy when it comes to funerals.

Then we get the image that was in all the movie’s original commercials, the over-the-shoulder shot of Jen looking out over the vast, green wilderness. This is our “sense of wonder” moment as Jen begins his quest. In voice over, he says he’s not ready to go alone, but then immediately changes his mind with, “All right, alone then,” and he marches forward. See, he’s not useless. This is him being the courageous hero.

Travelogue! The next shot has Jen standing atop a massive rock with two waterfalls on either side. A lot of people on the internet swear they can see the image of a Skeksis face in the rocks here. I can sort of see it, but was this really intentional on the part of the filmmakers? That’s highly debatable. The music continues to swell as we transition to the next shot, of Jen making his way down a grassy mountainside.

There’s a lot to say about the next scene, so we’ll end here for now.

Next: Trial by stone!

****

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I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! After all that exposition, it’s time to have some fun, and by “fun” I mean “unimaginable Skeksis horror.” 9:46-13:00 on the Blu-ray.

Time for another establishing shot of the castle, much like the beginning the film. This time, I noticed a pattern. When lightning flashes in the sky, it’s followed by a similar electrical flash from the cracks in the ground around the castle. Is the castle drawing power from the lightning, like something out of Frankenstein? It’s possible, as one of the Skeksis is a mad scientist.

Inside, we get a long shot of a hallway, where a Skeksis emerges from a doorway and walks toward us. What the heck is that huge stick-figure sculpture on the wall? I thought for sure this thing would be featured in The World of the Dark Crystal book, because it has descriptions of all the symbols in the backgrounds, but no luck. The Skeksis we see seems to be breathing heavily as he walks. A second Skeksis darts out in front of him and for the first time we hear… the whimper.

“hmmmMMMMMmmmm.”

The two Skeksis circle one another, eyeing each other like two wild animals. The bigger one, the one we saw first, is the General. The second, the one making the funny noise, is of course the Chamberlain. These two are the main villains throughout the film, with the Chamberlain getting the most screen time. The canon tells us that the Chamberlain’s name is SkekSil, and the General is SkekUng, but these names aren’t used on screen. After staring each other down, the two Skeksis then merely turn and march side by side down the hallway. Interestingly, this bit with them circling each other isn’t in the screenplay, which has the scene beginning with the two of them just walking down the hall. I think this exchange says a lot about the Skeksis. They hate each other, but they have their formalities, so although circling like animals, they keep their rage in check and do not openly attack each other.

The General breaks the tension by saying, “I hate your whimper.” The Chamberlain does the whimper again, perhaps intentionally to mess with his opponent. We fade to not much later, as the two reach their destination at the end of the hall, with the Chamberlain still whimpering. OK, what’s the deal with this whimper? Like I’ve said before, sorting out which Skeksis is which can be maddening. They each have their individual looks and personalities, which is great, but if I were to ask you to point out which one is, say, the Ornamentalist, you’d have to go to the internet and then go through the Skeksis scenes freeze-frame-by-freeze-frame to spot him. The Chamberlain is the most important Skeksis to the story, so the filmmakers have made it perfectly clear which one he is – he’s the one always making that whimper. Every time we hear the whimper, we know exactly which Skeksis we’re dealing with. A first-time viewer won’t know he’s SkekSil, and might not even get that he’s the Chamberlain, but the whimper nonetheless identifies him as “that one guy.” Also, the whimper is funny! Let’s never forget that The Dark Crystal has a sense of humor.

The General tells the Chamberlain to be quiet as they enter a room full of Skeksis. I could go on and on about all the details of the Skeksis’ clothes, but, interestingly, it appears that the general is wearing a piece of crystal around his neck. Or maybe it’s a bird’s beak. Hard to tell. The Skeksis are gathered around a bed, where a frail, withered Skeksis is under the covers. Another Skeksis tells the Chamberlain, “He is not dead yet.” (The first person to make a Monty Python reference gets slapped.) Based on the opening narration from the first scene, we can safely conclude the one in bed is the dying emperor. The General commands the others to bow, which they do. All except the Chamberlain, who reaches for the emperor’s scepter. The emperor springs to life and hisses “Mine!” at the Chamberlain.

 Stuff of nightmares: People often describe The Dark Crystal as “scary,” and I can totally see that. Images like the dying emperor snarling at the Chamberlain and then coughing and hacking on his deathbed are like something pulled straight from a very unpleasant dream.

In case we weren’t disturbed enough, the camera pushes in for a tight close-up on the emperor, as he orders the others back and, with his dying breath, espouses, “I am still emperor.” Only to wheeze, choke and finally die. The Chamberlain whimpers again, and the nightmare isn’t over yet, because now we get a close-up of the emperor’s dead face crumbling into flaky dust. His whole body collapses in this fashion, and all the Skeksis lean in close. They all exchange looks with each other, as if to say, “Now what do we do?”

About the emperor: The tie-in fiction informs us his name is SkekSo. The World of the Dark Crystal says that he was once great, but that his greatness faded over time. He’s a main character in the Legends of the Dark Crystal manga, where we see all the other Skeksis vying for his loyalty, and him being suspicious of them all. He’s especially fond of SkekLach, an armored warrior Skeksis who appears in the manga but not in the movie. The emperor’s scepter has a claw shape at the top, which World of the Dark Crystal says is a symbol of Skeksis aggression.

We cut right back to where we left Jen and the Mystics’ Master at the end of the previous scene, showing that no time has passed between then and now. Jen says in voiceover, “I’ll go where you send me, though I barely understand.” The music gets really sad here, as the Master dies, fading away into nothingness with the help of some twinkling purple lights. His cloak falls around him not unlike the Skeksis emperor’s bedsheets. Here we see how the Mystics and the Skeksis have the ol’ “the same, but different” thing going on. When one dies, so does the other, at the same time. And yet, the Skeksis crumbles into dirt when he dies, while the Mystic ascends into light and air upon death.

How did the Master and the Emperor die? You’d think old age, but it’s here that the tie-in fiction takes off in directions not evident in the film. The canon states that the Master chose to die, to set events in motion for Jen’s quest and the ultimate healing of the whole world. Given that the Mystics are numb and set in their ways, this is an enormous sacrifice and risk on his part. The number ten, we’re told, is the number of balance, but the number nine is discord. With nine Mystics/Skeksis instead of ten, the door is now open for change – and, perhaps, the threat of chaos. So, now that there are nine and that means… stop. STOP! At this point, we’ve got to put on the brakes and ask ourselves just how much of the symbology and numerology in the tie-in fiction can enhance our enjoyment of the film, and how much is explaining stuff that never needed to be explained. I can’t answer that question. There is no answer, really. It’s something for every Dark Crystal fan to answer for his or her own self.

Next: A funeral, and a quest begins.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! Today, we meet the Mystics and our hero Jen as the movie’s opening exposition-a-rama continues on. Today we’re watching 4:09-6:25 on the Blu-ray.

After leaving the Skeksis’ castle, we get a shot of all three suns in the sky. Thanks to the canon, we know that the big white sun is the Great Sun, the medium-sized red sun is the Rose Sun, and the teeny purple one is the Dying Sun.

Before going further, I guess I should explain what I mean by “canon.” The entire continuity of The Dark Crystal is contained in the following sources:

1: The movie (duh)

2: The book The World of the Dark Crystal by Brian Froud

3: The graphic novel The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths volumes one and two

4: The manga Legend of the Dark Crystal volumes one and two

5: The reference material on the website DarkCrystal.com, which is more or less an abridged version of Froud’s book.

Sources not considered canon are the official novelization (even though that’s where we got the name “Thra”), the Marvel Comics adaptation, and the various kids’ books and making-of books that Universal’s marketing dept. churned out back in the day.

Back to the movie. The narrator repeats information we heard in the first scene, that a thousand years ago, the Crystal cracked. That’s when the Mystics retreated to their valley to “dream of peace.” The next shot is a painting, over sand, of a spiral pattern. In Froud’s World of the Dark Crystal, there’s a close-up detail of this pattern, where it’s explained that this is the history of Thra, with the beginning of time depicted in the center and events spiraling outward from it, with the most recent events at the outer edges of the spiral. There’s a lot of symbology in the book I won’t go into here, but this one I thought was particularly interesting.

The narrator says, “Their ways were the gentle ways of natural wizards.” OK, how are we to interpret that? The Mystics are also wizards? Or the Mystics are not wizards, but they lived like wizards? Also, wizards are a thing on this world? Then the narrator tells us the Mystics are a dying race, that there are only ten left, and they are lost in their ways, numb and forgetful. The narrator further says their rituals give no comfort and the wisest of the Mystics lies dying. This dialogue intentionally mirrors the narrator’s description of the Skeksis in the previous scene, reinforcing to viewers that these creatures are connected to each other.

The Mystics then “summon the one who must save them,” we’re told. They do this by… how do I describe this? They sing a single note, an “Uhhhh…” in a deep bass. This is their magic (yes, magic is a thing in this world) and we’ll later see it used in other ways. The movie’s screenplay calls this “chanting,” so I guess I’ll call it that too. Like the Skeksis with the light shooting into their eyes, we’re not really meant to understand how or why this deep chant of theirs works, just that it does. As they do this, we get glimpses of each Mystic wandering about the valley. The Mystics don’t get as much screen time as the Skeksis, so sorting out which Mystic is which is nigh improbable. It’d take a lot more freeze-framing and internet searching than I’m already doing – and I’m doing a lot!

Cut to a waterfall, and the sound of a flute. The camera pans down, and the narrator introduces us to Jen, a Gelfling who lives in the valley of the Mystics. This is our hero, and… he’s NUDE! Calm down, everyone. He’s bathing at the base of the waterfall, relaxing and playing his flute. It’s all very “one with nature.” Why nude? Well, for one thing, it’s to convince us that these are living, breathing creatures. Throughout the rest of the movie, the audience knows that there’s a person’s body under those clothes, so of course it’s not a puppet. Also, it again reinforces that this is an alien world, different from our own. Remember that we’re only five and half minutes into the movie at this point, so everything is an establishing shot during this sequence.

Anecdote: The first time I saw The Dark Crystal when I was a kid, I actually didn’t know it was a puppets-only movie. I just assumed it’d be just another Star Wars ripoff. When I saw nude Jen, I remember thinking, “That’s not human!” (End anecdote.)

The narrator says the Skeksis killed Jen’s family and destroyed his clan (DarkCrystal.com has tons of info on the various Gelfling clans) and that only Jen survived. There’s a little clever wordplay going on here. Equivocation, even. We’re meant to think that Jen is the last Gelfling, but, because we’re going to meet Kira later, we now know that the phrase “only Jen survived” really refers to him being the last of his clan, and not all of Gelfling-kind. Well played, Dark Crystal.

Jen plays his flute (not a euphemism) as the narrator unleashes a huge info-dump on us. Jen was raised by the wisest and oldest of the Mystics. There is a prophecy. A thousand years have passed, and the world must now undergo a “time of testing.” The world must be healed. If it is not healed, it will fall forever into evil. Jen is (ugh) the “chosen one.” Chosen ones have quickly become my least favorite fantasy cliché. How is Jen “chosen,” exactly? Who chose him? It’s never specified. We get more info on this prophecy in a later scene, but it certainly doesn’t mention Jen by name.

Look closely: In the background, there’s a big wheel in the waterfall, presumably part of some machine built by/for the Mystics. This is probably where they get all their water from. I thought I’d be all clever by pointing out that wheels were never invented on this world (there are no wheeled carts or wagons anywhere) but no – here is existence of a constructed wheel.

A little rat-looking thing with antennae watches Jen from the bushes. This mammal-insect hybrid shows that nature in this world doesn’t play by the rules we’re used to. More on this in future posts. Then, dark clouds appear in the sky. That’s where we’ll leave things for now.

Next: Meet the Mystic Master.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! The first post in this series will examine the first scene and the opening credits, 0:00-4:08 on the Blu-ray.

There’s a lot to go over in this first scene, so I’ll try to be succinct as I can. The score, by Trevor Jones, begins over the Universal logo. Then, we get the first shot of the movie, the Skeksis’ castle. The castle is in the distance, surrounded by a rocky, dry terrain, and dark blue storm clouds. Lightning-like electrical flashes come from the cracks in the ground surrounding the castle. (What are those flashes, anyway? Something weather-related, or part of the castle’s energy, or some kind of subterranean machinery?)

The narrator begins his voiceover, saying, “Another world… another time… in the Age of Wonder.” Thanks to the canonical Dark Crystal tie-in fiction, we know that the world is the planet Thra. As for the time, this line is the only reference I can find to the “Age of Wonder.” The canon more accurately describes this as “the Age of Division,” the third thousand-year cycle this world has undergone. I hereby speculate that the “Age of Wonder” refers to all 3,000 years combined.

We hold on the shot of the castle as the narrator tells that a thousand years ago, the Crystal cracked, and a piece of the Crystal, the shard, was lost. Interesting that the movie skips over telling you that there is an all-important Crystal, and instead goes right into its history. I guess the filmmakers realized you already know the movie is called The Dark Crystal, so you can already guess there’s a Crystal of some importance.

Look closely: You can see a couple of mouse-like critters scurrying in the foreground as the narrator speaks.

The narrator continues, saying that when the Crystal cracked, two new races were formed, the cruel Skeksis and the gentle Mystics. (The canon prefers the term “urRu,” but the film for the most part sticks to calling them “Mystics.”)

We move inside the castle, where the narrator tells us, “the Skeksis took control.” The canon has occasional fleeting mentions of the Skeksis of hundreds of years earlier inviting the creatures of Thra into the castle for grand balls and such, but we don’t see anything like that in the movie. Instead, the castle is dark and gloomy on the inside rather than truly grand. This establishes the Skeksis as the villains of the piece, but also demonstrates how the world has fallen into strife.

The next shot reveals the Skeksis standing around a giant purple gem that could only be the Dark Crystal. Despite its name, the Dark Crystal the brightest thing on screen, standing out so we really notice it. The narrator calls this the “sacred chamber.” We can see symbols painted on the tiles around the crystal as it floats in the center.

Look closely: One of the Skeksis’ henchmen, a Garthim, can be spotted hanging out in the background.

More exposition, as the narrator tells us that both the Skeksis bodies and wills are hard and twisted. They’ve ruled for a thousand years, and there only ten of them left alive. (The canon is sketchy on this, but it’s generally believed that they started with eighteen.) The narrator describes them as a “dying race,” and says they gather at the Crystal as the first sun climbs to its peak. That’s right, first sun. This planet has three suns, and we’ll soon learn why that’s important. The narrator’s words are ambiguous here, saying that the Skeksis are using the power of the sun to cheat death, here in this ravaged land.

We get our first close-up of one of the Skeksis. It’s the “Schwarzenegger shot,” with the camera at a low angle looking up at him, so he can appear all giant and imposing. Playing the which-Skeksis-is-which game can be maddening, but I believe this first one we see up close is SkekZok the Ritual Master, with his Ed Grimly-style upward pointy hair spike. The narrator says the ritual of the sun “provides no comfort,” and that “an emperor lies dying.” (Remember these two phrases, we’re going to come back to them.)

Look closely: A bunch of hooded figures can be seen at the top of the screen, watching. These are the Skeksis’ slaves, who will be revealed proper in a later scene.

There’s a triangle-shaped hole in the ceiling. As the sun moves into position over the hole, a beam of light shoots down and then splits, prism-like, into purple beams shooting out from the Dark Crystal and into the Skeksis’ eyes. They stand motionless as this happens. What’s going on here? Well, the narrator already said they do this to cheat death, so there’s that. Later scenes will give us more detail on the Skeksis’ desire for eternal youth. It’s also the filmmaker’s shorthand to say right up front to the audience that this is a whole other world, with rules and customs and creatures all its own. We don’t have to understand these rules and customs, just understand that they exist.

The opening credits run over this part:

A film by Jim Henson: Co-creator of the Muppets and Fraggle Rock, Henson was a puppeteer, filmmaker, writer, songwriter, artist, and all-around Renaissance dude.

Conceptual designer Brian Froud: An artist and painter, Froud has published several art books featuring his paintings of mythological creatures such as trolls and fairies. He created the “look” of most of the creatures and environments in the film.

Director of photography Oswald Morris: Cinematographer who had worked with Stanley Kubrick and Sidney Lumet, and who lensed classic films such as The Guns of Navarone, Moby Dick, and Goodbye Mr. Chips. The Dark Crystal was the last film he worked on.

Film editor Ralph Kemplen: An editor since 1932, Kemplen has a huge list of credits, editing classics like The African Queen, Oliver! and A Man for All Seasons. Like Morris, The Dark Crystal was the last film he worked on.

Production designer Harry Lange: He brings serious geek cred to the movie, having worked on The Empire Strikes Back, 2001: A Space Odyssey and even Hyper Sapien!

Music by Trevor Jones: He’s scored dozens of films and TV programs from the start of the ‘80s to today, in all kinds of genres, from Excalibur to Arachnophobia to Notting Hill and many more.

Executive producer David Lazer: My pick for coolest-sounding name in the credits, he’s part of the Henson organization, coming to this film from his work on The Muppet Show.

Screenplay by David Odell, story by Jim Henson: Odell was another veteran of The Muppet Show, where he wrote the famous Star Wars episode, among others. He also wrote the screenplays for Supergirl and Masters of the Universe, and went on to work on cult TV shows Monsters and Tales from the Darkside.

Produced by Jim Henson and Gary Kurtz: Kurtz hit it big producing Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back alongside George Lucas. After Kurtz and Lucas parted ways, Kurtz spent the rest of his career trying to recapture the sci-fi blockbuster success of Star Wars, with mixed results. The Dark Crystal is the better of those efforts, followed by Return to Oz and the disastrous Slipstream, which nearly bankrupted him. IMDB shows Kurtz has two films in the works for 2015 and 2016 releases, so maybe he can still make his big comeback.

Directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz: Another Muppets co-founder, Frank Oz went on to have a successful career as a director, crafting such films as Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Bowfinger. He also portrayed Yoda in the Star Wars films and he originated the roles of Bert, Grover, and Cookie Monster on Sesame Street.

Back to the movie. The sun moves past the triangle-shaped window, and the screen goes dark. It then cuts to an outside shot where we can see all three suns in the sky. That takes us to the next scene, which we’ll get to… next time!

Next: We meet our hero, the Mystics, and get a lot more exposition. But no more credits, I promise.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.