Bear Ribs
Well-known member
There are certain prerequisites for movies to exist, some of which no longer apply for movies like Willow. That's why specific ages have certain types of movies appearing in bulk, not just because movie producers copy each other (they do) but because the prerequisites for those movie types exist.
You need actors who can play the part. The 80s, f'rex, were blessed with actors who were good at playing manly-man action heroes. Arnie is the definitive Conan the Barbarian. If he didn't exist, maybe Sylvester Stallone could have been Conan. Could Tom Selleck? Eh, he'd have been lackluster, he's not Conan material really. How about Tom Hanks? If you said yes, you're wrong.
Another good example is Errol Flynn. Tying into my comments about how expert framing and cinematography turned a relatively lackluster actor into the terrifying General Kael, Erroly Flynn couldn't have existed with Basil Rathbone. No really. Errol Flynn barely knew which end of the sword to hold while Rathbone was an Olympic-grade fencer of superlative skill. In their many many duels where Rathbone is the villain, in reality he was using his supreme master of fencing to guide Flynn's idiotic wild swings and turn them into skilled-looking strikes at himself. Rathbone was amazing and without him, Errol Flynn couldn't have been all those amazing swashbuckling duelists. Of course without Flynn Rathbone wouldn't have gotten anywhere either as he had a villain's face and needed a guy with the charming smile to be the hero for him to lose to.
Similarly society needs to accept certain tenets for a type of movie to work. F'rex to produce good tragedies, society in general (and the artists more specifically) need to accept two things, that life can be unfair (else no tragedy), and that individual humans are capable of greatness and heroism (else the tragedy isn't moving, it's just grimderp). Modern society accepts unfairness but doesn't accept that individual, non-powered ordinary humans are heroic and great, hence all modern tragedies tend to be grimderp affairs.
Willow is a very dark, body-horror-esque movie that fundamentally requires the same beliefs as a Tragic film. The world is terrible, people get ganked for meaningless reasons, and yet ordinary people are capable of greatness in Willow. The handmaiden who smuggle Elora out in a basket and got stabbed buying a few seconds for the basket to escape into the river, for instance, that was a classic tragedy moment. The world was completely unfair but she was Great. Contrast modern fantasy like Game of Thrones, where she'd be naked for no apparent reason, probably be raped, and certainly ganked in a gruesome fashion. Elora would drown in the river moment's later and it would all be for nothing, because the world there is Grimderp instead of Grimheroic.
Edit: Should add, Heroic Fantasy also requires a belief in society that hard work pays off. This is absent from current society. Our heroes lack drive and don't train until they are skilled, all their powers come from accidents, fate, pills, or being given it by a goddess after being driven over with a truck.
Tai Lung trained until his bones cracked, Po was given the Dragon Warrior status purely by accident. Tai Lung would have been the hero in past ages, today it's Po.
My favorite scene in the movie is actually a fairly quiet simple one that epitomizes Willow's dichotomy of greatness and darkness. At their darkest hour, the heroes are captured by Sorsha and Kael, being dragged in chains behind the wagon, and all is lost, and finally Willow's strength in his small body gives out and he collapses and the wagon starts to drag him, and Madmartigan quietly picks Willow up and carries him. It's a perfect moment the encapsulates that dichotomy of tragic and heroic. It's Madmartigan's finest moment, far finer than him slaying Kael later on even though it's less exciting.
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