A Halloween of Legend

Wednesdays are my busy days this semester.  It starts with a hybrid class at 8:30 in the morning at CWI in Nampa, after which I meet with students during office hours, grab a quick bite for lunch, rush over to BSU in downtown Boise for an engineering lab in the afternoon, then rush back to Nampa for a stats class followed by another math class, and then another quick bite to eat for dinner followed by my one-a-week stats class that starts at 7:00 pm.  By the time that class starts I’m beat, let alone when it finishes.

So when my sister and I talked about her bringing her kids by to visit and show off their Halloween costumes, we recognized the realities of my schedule on Wednesdays.  I said I would text her when I got in.

And I did.  Since I didn’t know how long it would be before they came over, I started chomping on a jack o’ lantern pizza I had picked up on the way home and started a movie.  I’ve got several choices appropriate for Halloween in my collection, but this year I decided to watch Legend, the 1985 classic cult fantasy film starring a very young Tom Cruise as well as Mia Sara (think Sloane from Ferris Bueller) and Tim Curry.

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Curry does an outstanding job with whatever he does, but his portrayal of the evil character Darkness is hands down outstanding, especially buried beneath all that prosthetic for his costume.  This was 1985, so no green screen or CGI at work here.  His look is absolutely impressive, and when you combine it with his superb acting skills, you get a real dynamite performance.  Sara also delivers a solid performance, and Cruise — well, Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise, especially in the early portion of his career.  There’s a certain innocence to this performance, though, because he is awfully young.  Plus it’s well before he went crazy while married to Nicole.

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At length, the kiddos arrived, and they looked great in their costumes, especially my almost-two-year-old niece dressed as a hippo.  She was rambunctious and full of energy as always.  My nephews, on the other hand, were really interested in the movie Legend.  So I gave them a brief introduction, and let them watch the movie while I visited with my sister.

It wasn’t long before both of those boys became mesmerized with the movie.  I can’t say I blame them.  We were watching the theatrical version with the Tangerine Dream soundtrack.  Jon Anderson of Yes fame (one of my favorite rock groups growing up) has a style that is perfectly fit for this film.  I’m sure the Jerry Goldsmith track on the director’s cut is great, too, but come on.  I know it’s Jerry Goldsmith, but it just doesn’t work as well for me as Tangerine Dream.  Too bad that version of the film is really hard to purchase.  I don’t even own a copy; I have to watch it streaming through my Amazon Prime account.

At length, my sister needed to go, and so I offered to let her boys come back and finish watching the movie another time.  They eagerly agreed and then expressed excitement for our play date tomorrow — which reminds me.  I need to get to bed.  It was great to have them visit and see their costumes.  I’m not sure what next year will bring since I’m likely to be out of state somewhere attending grad school, but whatever the future brings, I’m not letting it stop me from enjoying the present.