‘Willow' a fabulous fairy tale

Press, 19 December 1988, Page 14

‘Willow ' a fabulous fairy tale

Roemer

hans petrovic

There should be few complaints this year at the lack of suitable holiday fare at the cinemas. No doubt, by far the most popular will prove to be the cartoon-real life fantasy, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (Savoy); followed by “Scrooged” (Savoy), a modern-day version of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”; as well as a Dudley Moore sequel comedy, “Arthur 2 On the Rocks” (Westend); and a documentary on the controversial Beatle, “Imagine: John Lennon” (Avon).

The two new ones this week are “Willow” (MidCity and Hollywood, Sumner), a fabulous fairy tale produced by George (“Star Wars”) Lucas; and “Never Say Die” (Regent and Hollywood, Sumner), a light-hearted actioncomedy by the New Zealand director, Geoff Murphy. WILLOW

Directed by Ron Howard Screenplay by Bob Dolman

When I first saw “Willow” at a special preview several months ago, my friend said, with a slightly awe-struck voice, “They never made films like that when I was a kid.”

How true! Certainly, 40 years ago, the Disney Studios were producing first-rate feature-length cartoons, from “Snow White” onwards,” and there were other great magical entertainments like Alexander Korda’s “Thief of Gam Bagdad.” Thanks to the special effects, brought to a fine art in their own right only in the last decade, however, it is only now that fantasy has been given full rein to freely fly whichever way it wishes.

These fantasies have usually bordered on the science-fiction field (George Lucas’s “Star Wars” trilogy, Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”), with a couple of excursions closer to childlike wonder (Spielberg’s “E.T.” and “Gremlins”). Coming ever-closer to the realm of the fairy tale, there have been such quest films as “Krull,” “Labyrinth, “Legend,” “The Dark Crystal” and “The Princess Bride,” which proved only moderately successful.

It seems we have had to wait for the magic of Lucas to bring all the right ingredients together

to finally present us with the kind of fairy tale we have all been waiting for since childhood.

From ancient myths he has brought up the theme of the baby, born-to-rule, rescued from the river; as well as the betraying mother in the form of the wicked queen. There are also ethereal good fairies, brownies, evil trolls, dragons, witches and magicians, and a dwarf-like people who seem to have stepped out of the pages of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.” To the rescue, come a brave and liberating hero, and the power of love.

NEVER SAY DIE Written and directed by Geoff Murphy

Temuera Morrison, who plays the hero in “Never

Say Die,” may not be a Rambo or James Bond, but he still manages to get himself into, and out of, sufficient tight scrapes to provide an afternoon’s good, light-hearted entertainment.

At first glance, this car chase the length and breadth of New Zealand is strongly reminiscent of “Goodbye Pork Pie,” the highly successful film by the same writer-director, Geoff Murphy.

But almost a decade has passed since the making of “Pork Pie.” Times have become more cynical and materialistic, Murphy says, and this is reflected in his latest film. In the 19705, no-one would have believed that a person living in this country could be the victim of an international assassination plot. Even in “Never Say Die,” the heroine (Lisa Eilbacher) says, “Who would want to kill you here? This is Auckland, not Chicago or Shanghai.” But since, we have had Springbok-tour riots and the Rainbow Warrior incident, demonstrating most uncomfortably that we are no longer too far

away to remain unaffected by international shenanigans. In “Never Say Die,” when an investigative journalist (Morrison) and his beautiful girlfriend (Eilbacher) return to New Zealand, they narrowly escape death when their home is blown up.

Clearly, Morrison has stumbled across a secret that somebody wants to keep hidden — but what? Unable to convince the unco-operative police (Tony Barry) that someone is really out to kill them, our couple are forced to solve the mystery themselves. The over-all plot, which is only a thin excuse for the car chases, shoot-outs and explosions, does not bear any close analysis, for I still do not believe that most of the things that happen in this film could happen in New Zealand — or anywhere else, except possibly Beirut after the ending of the observances of Ramadan.

Such niggling is besides the point, however, for Murphy’s sole stated reason for making “Never Say Die” is to entertain. As such it succeeds.