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Poster Description: The poster is white and features a vast, painted mural. A map of the labyrinth frames Jareth, who smirks while holding a glowing orb. Goblins of varying sizes and shapes spill out of the frame in shades of blue while Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Ludo are in red, standing back-to-back on both sides of a white castle. Sarah runs away from it, wearing her dramatic princess gown. The title sits below the mural. |
YouTube swayed me to revisit this. I follow a channel called Cinema Therapy where a licenced therapist and professional filmmaker discuss movies and specific characters; yes, I include add psychology in my list of things I’m nerdy for.
Recently, Cinema Therapy covered Labyrinth and it was clear from the get-go that Jonathan Decker and Alan Seawright did not like Labyrinth; their argument against was so compelling that it forced me to ask why I liked it. I wasn’t even sure I still did. Luckily, I’d written a review for it in 2016, so those thoughts will be highlighted in blue.
Now, come with me into my brain…
2016: I’ve been meaning to write a review for Labyrinth for a while now, ever since I got the DVD for my birthday two years ago. In the aftershock of David Bowie’s death, it feels only right that I do it now.
2024: Before we get to the plot, we have a massive elephant in the room to address, and that’s good ol’ nostalgia. I did not grow up watching Labyrinth, but I had become obsessed with Bowie and his music enough to want the DVD for a twenty-first birthday present to see what all the cult-following was about. I should also mention that period in my life was pretty special as it marked my first job and being called up for jury duty – like a “real” adult! Labyrinth’s soundtrack got me through those excruciatingly long waits before entering the courtroom.
2016: Sarah (Jennifer Connelly, The Day The Earth Stood Still) hates her life. Her father has remarried, and her stepmother apparently makes her babysit her baby stepbrother, Toby, all the time. Fed up with Toby’s crying, Sarah wishes that Jareth the Goblin King will take him away.
2024: Jareth arrives like a metaphorical gay epiphany in a cloud of glitter with storm winds a-blowing. That’s how extra he is. Bowie commands every scene with unexpected suaveness and a twinkle in those mismatched eyes. The costume designers knew exactly what they were doing with that wig and Those Tights – Labyrinth is, at its core, a straight girl’s coming-of-age story!
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GIF Description: The sky is black with flashing lightning. Black curtains billow into the room with a mighty wind that rustles the trees. Jareth (David Bowie) stands in the room with hands on hips. He is dressed in black with a cape and a high, curling collar. His hair looks like a wilted candelabra, and his eye make up is pointed like the wings of a bird of prey. |
No doubt, it would have been a very different film if the role had gone to the other choice….some guy named Michael Jackson.
2016: Sarah is immediately contrite, and vows to save [Toby]. There’s a catch, however. Sarah must navigate through Jareth’s labyrinth within thirteen hours, or else Toby will become a goblin.
2024: There is a lot they’re not telling us in the film that suggests a more intriguing narrative. When we meet her, Sarah is LARPing alone in the park. Does she have friends? We never find out. It could have been a decision from director Jim Henson or young Jennifer Connelly, but considering her little brother just vanished into thin air, Sarah seems remarkably chill about the situation. Slightly upset, yes, but not panicked at all.
2016: There are whispers of Alice and Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz throughout the film as, along the way, Sarah meets three creatures who would aid her in her quest.
2024: For Sarah, the twists and turns of the labyrinth start with meeting Hoggle, the dwarf…peeing in a fountain. She tries to use lateral and logical thinking with varying success throughout, but Sarah is not shy about resorting to manipulation and bullying to progress. As our heroine, it makes things a little difficult for the audience: it’s Sarah’s fault she’s stuck in this labyrinth in the first place.
2016: Hoggle is a particularly intriguing character on his own. He is a self-confessed coward, and Sarah blackmails him with a bracelet made of plastic, but he still manages to prove his worth to her in the end.
2024: He has more character development than Sarah has in the film.
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| Image Description: Hoggle has a giant head, like a walnut or possibly Keith Richards from The Rolling Stones. He has grey, wispy hair, big ears, thick auburn eyebrows over sad, blue eyes with a bulbous nose. Hoggle wears a red cap, a battered leather waistcoat and a white shirt. |
2016: The creatures are all puppets (unsurprising as the film is made by the creator of The Muppets). My favourite is the worm with the scarf.
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Image Description: The worm is fuzzy with wild blue hair and orange eyes. The worm wears a weathered red scarf long enough to dangle off the stone shelf he sits on. |
2024: This is remains true, but I have a soft spot for big beastie Ludo and Sir Didymus. As for those “helping hands,” they are such a simple idea with real hands in latex gloves painted green and blue, making faces with their fingers; as you would expect from a Jim Henson film, the labyrinth is full of imaginative settings and characters; most eponymously and iconically, The Bog of Eternal Stench. If it sounds like a Monty Python sketch waiting to happen, it’s because late Python Terry Jones mainly wrote the screenplay. He was the genius behind the cheery/grumpy door knockers and my favourite line from a sentient accessory:
“Ugh. It’s so stimulating being your hat!”
As if that wasn’t enough, Jones’ dog was the basis of Sir Didymus’s character design. It doesn’t explain why the terrier-fox’s voice sounds so tinny during the battle near the end.
2016: [Bowie] also wrote the songs in the film, for example the fan-favourite, ‘Dance Magic Dance’.
2024: You remind me of the babe! What babe? The babe with the power. What power? The power of voodoo…okay, I’ll stop now.
The tracks rely more on vibes than matching the lyrics to the scenes like a traditional musical. You get the impression Bowie was having a sort-out of his recorded songs that never made it into his albums: As The World Falls Down is a beautiful love song. However, it’s still used when an older man tries to distract/seduce a teenager in an unsettling fantasy.
(Side note: My sister and I had a dress for our Barbies that was shockingly similar to Sarah’s gown. It’s hilariously distracting).
Image
Description: Jareth
and Sarah pose like a couple in an 80s prom photo, standing at the foot of some
stairs surrounded by blue, trailing lights. Her dress is huge and white with
puffy sleeves and a voluminous skirt; Sarah’s hair is dark and permed with
silver and pearl decorations. Jareth wears a dark blue jacket and a high white
collared shirt. 
2016: The soundtrack has undoubtedly helped the film with its cult status…and it’s a great shame that Labyrinth seems to be being broadcasted more now because of Bowie’s death.
2024: Why is it a shame? It’s getting the acknowledgement it deserves.
2016: The film does visibly show its age in some of the special effects, for instance, when Sarah is confronted by some Fire Demons in an enchanted forest, although, in a way, it adds to the trippy atmosphere.
2024: And…breathe. Yes, those Fire Demons are unhinged and bizarrely Jamaican, but if you’ve made it through the film up until now, you just go with it.
2016: This may be a biased review as Labyrinth is one of my favourite films of all time, but it still stands strong thirty years on, with a strong, independent heroine, David Bowie being his best David Bowie, and an amazing soundtrack. If you haven’t watched it yet, I sincerely recommend that you do!
2024: Is Labyrinth one of my favourite films now? No, but I love it for all its flawed weirdness. Although Connelly’s Sarah is far from a sympathetic heroine, she’s still a teenager with some more growing up to do. David Bowie is still his best David Bowie, even if the soundtrack is a bit random, and the puppets get all the best lines. If you haven’t watched Labyrinth yet, I still recommend it!
My Rating:
2016: 4 STARS OUT OF 5
2024: 3 STARS OUT OF 5
My Sources:
Labyrinth poster: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/?ref_=ttsnd_ov_i
Cinema Therapy: https://www.youtube.com/@CinemaTherapyShow
Image – Jareth the Goblin King: https://www.tumblr.com/a-little-ray-of-fantasy/181854395131/youre-him-arent-you-youre-the-goblin-king
The history of Labyrinth: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/labyrinth-movie-history/
Image – Hoggle: https://labyrinth.fandom.com/wiki/Hoggle
Image – The Worm: https://labyrinth.fandom.com/wiki/The_Worm
Image – Jareth and Sarah: https://fuckyeahcostumedramas.tumblr.com/post/678832600571314176/david-bowie-jennifer-connolly-as-jareth-sarah
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