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Labyrinth (1986) – Journey Into Sarah’s Subconscious

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By: Jay Dyer

It’s always fun to go back and watch the movies you grew up with. However, it can also be a laughingly disturbing experience, akin to finding out that uncle you had that was so cool was actually an alcoholic. One of the best examples of such nightmares that has receded into the recesses of the mind is the Jim Henson/George Lucas production Labyrinth (1986), starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly.  Famously known for Bowie as “Jareth,” the Spandex-sporting witch who can transform into an owl (and trap you in an Escher maze), Labyrinth is undoubtedly packed with Kabbalistic, Jungian and hermetic symbolism that is worth investigating.

Seemingly a childish mish-mash of various fairy tales into a puppeteer’s hodgepodge, I decided it was also necessary to re-write the very first Jay’sAnalysis analysis, and look back on my own development of thought almost a decade later.  I’m embarrassed to say the writing was sub-par, and quite likely ten years from now, this present writing will be equally as lacking.  So after ten years, and a few million reads later, let’s look at Labyrinth afresh.

The narrative centers around Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) on the eve of puberty and womanhood, yet still entranced by the ease and simplicity of her childhood fantasy world. Sarah’s mother has apparently run off to be an actress we derive from the Playbill issues in her bedroom, and predictably in fairy-tale fashion, Sarah hates her “wicked stepmother.”  Sarah’s obsession with fantasies thus derives from her inability to cope with the harsh reality of the emotional let-downs of the real world. The opening scene presents her in a park/garden, where she wears a virginal white dress emblematic of Edenic purity, reciting invocatory lines from the child’s book, The Labyrinth . The curious feature of these scenes is her placement in front of the phallic obelisks, foreshadowing the hermetic and masonic to come.

Before delving into the inner, psychical journey Sarah will take into her own subconscious (the labyrinth), it is worth considering the classic mythological significance of labyrinths.  Labyrinths have had a wide usage since ancient times, the most famous of course being the story of Daedalus in Homer, who constructs a dancing ground for Ariadne, and later is the architect of the labyrinth for King Minos in which Theseus battles a minotaur.  In Latin poet Ovid, the labyrinth is so skillfully crafted, even as the architect he has a difficult time escaping.  Ovid records in Metamorphoses VIII:

“The scandal concerning his family grew, and the queen’s unnatural adultery was evident from the birth of a strange hybrid monster. Minos resolved to remove this shame, the Minotaur, from his house, and hide it away in a labyrinth with blind passageways. Daedalus, celebrated for his skill in architecture, laid out the design, and confused the clues to direction, and led the eye into a tortuous maze, by the windings of alternating paths. No differently from the way in which the watery Maeander deludes the sight, flowing backwards and forwards in its changeable course, through the meadows of Phrygia, facing the running waves advancing to meet it, now directing its uncertain waters towards its source, now towards the open sea: so Daedalus made the endless pathways of the maze, and was scarcely able to recover the entrance himself: the building was as deceptive as that.”

Henson/Lucas’ labyrinth hearkens back to the labyrinth of classical mythology, as well as relating to the perennial journey of the hero on his quest to the underworld.  One can see how the transference of the earthen labyrinth and abyss-like waterways can be read as an allegory of the unconscious mind, the underworld of Hades and death, as well as being associated with the worlds in which we enter in our dream state.  This astral realm, intimately connected to the realm of the subconscious is the wellspring from which the archetypes of experience spring, corresponding to the archetypal forms in the outer world of phenomenal experience, as we will see below.

Upon entering the labyrinth learns quickly that things are not as they appear – fairies bite, not bless. Doors are not where they appear and missing where they should be. In the medieval world, labyrinths were a symbol of making our way though this wayward world to heaven. In Jung, the Labyrinth is also an image of the individual’s unconscious psyche. We will see Sarah fall several times in the film, deeper and deeper into the labyrinth. In “The Process of Individuation” by M.L. von Franz in Carl Jung’s Man and His Symbols, the author   explains of the meaning of the labyrinth as subconscious:

“The maze of strange passages, chambers, and unlocked exits in the cellar recalls the old Egyptian representation of the underworld, which is a well-known symbol of the unconscious with its abilities. It also shows how one is “open” to other influences in one’s unconscious shadow side and how uncanny and alien elements can break in.” (pg. 176)

Sarah has entered another world, an alternate from our own, which seems to purposefully mirror all the elements in her bedroom.  Considering Henson’s usage of kabbalistic and gnostic imagery, symbolism and tradition in his The Dark Crystal, it is not outside the sphere of possibility to posit a kabbalistic version of alternate worlds in the case of Sarah’s psyche/subconcious.  Kabbalisitc scholar Gershom Scholem explains in his famous Kabbalah of these worlds:

“The common element in all these doctrines is supposition that during the first steps toward emanation, certain abortive developments took place which had no direct effect on the actual creation of the present worlds, although remnants of these destroyed worlds did not entirely disappear and something of them still hovers disruptively among us….Most kabbalists agreed that there is no essential break in the continuity of the influx of emanation which led to the development of additional areas of creation as well, such as the world of the intellect, the world of the spheres and the lower world.  But they maintained that whatever preceded these secondary stages was part of the divine domain, which they symbolically portrayed as a series of events in the world of emanation, whereas from this point on.” (pg. 117)

This quote gives a clue into what is going on within Sarah: In her bedroom we see Escher’s maze, the various creatures that populate the maze, a small marble labyrinth, the Wizard of Oz , other fairy tales, and a statue of Jareth.  In other words, the world construct of Jareth’s labyrinth is actually a construct of Sarah’s subconscious, where the transference of her pain over her mother manifest in the beastly and foreign forms of the other-worldly maze.  Upon entering the labyrinth learns quickly that things are not as they appear – fairies bite, not bless. Doors are not where they appear and missing where they should be. In the medieval world, labyrinths were a symbol of making our way though this wayward world to heaven, which is here Sarah’s journey through her own inner psychical world towards individuation.

Clearly the phallic/mason images come to the fore as Sarah travels through the Labyrinth, and given Jim Henson’s, Monty Python’s Terry Jones’ and George Lucas’ penchant for such masonic myopia, we should not be surprised.  However, seven years ago, I read this through your average conspiracy-theorist’s goggles, and now I have a different take.  The usage of the masonic and kabbalistic imagery concerns Sarah’s process of leaving childhood for adulthood, and specifically puberty.  Previously clad in virginal white, the Sarah encounters numerous instances of bodily functions and base desires, such as Hoggle urinating and the Bog of Eternal Stench, prior to her sexual awakening. The mental process itself is conceived of as an alchemical transformation, since the body itself “transforms” as it grows through puberty.

The masked ball sequence may have a reference to Eyes Wide Shut style orgy parties, and the two scenes are reminiscent of one another, but I think the most natural reading is that of Sarah’s sexuality.   You’ll note the penis shape of many of the noses at the ball, and the hints of her dalliance with orgies, which I read as the curiosities of a person coming of age.  It is certainly possible that there is a deeper reference to sex slavery and the manipulation of alter personas to follow a “programming” that leads to the type of lifestyle the models and beauty queens live in Eyes Wide Shut . Yet whether this was intended by Henson and Lucas, I can’t say.

In regards to Jareth and his owl powers, in ancient mythology the owl denoted Athena to the Greeks, goddess of wisdom. In Labyrinth , however, the imagery seems to be similar to that of it’s meaning to the Romans – mystique and bad luck. Lilith is associated with this as well, and in certain traditions and in terms of the Illuminati proper, the owl was a symbol of autonomous reason and rationality, based on the research done by Terry Melanson . While there may be some exoteric association with the “Illuminati,” in Henson and company’s mind, it appears to be more of a bad omen and outright witchery – not Illuminati rationalism. Indeed, Jareth is more of a witch, which in Latin is strix , form which comes the Italian strega , meaning “witch.” He is the king of the goblins in the film, and in real life, witches aren’t always women, and in the final sequence Jareth is revealed to be merely a phantasm of Sarah’s displaced fantasies.

Sarah’s desire to remain in adolescence and retain her freedom from motherhood and responsibility is due to her anger with both her mother and stepmom.  She does not want to babysit Toby and instead invokes a curse in anger that the Goblin King (Jareth) would come and take him away. Bowie enters as an owl in a flurry of glitter and spandex nastiness as the androgynous, calling to mind again alchemical doctrines, where the union of opposites into one is seen as the highest form of unity, relating back to the sublime source from which all arises, the One.  Sarah’s fascination with his androgyny is associated with her own confused ideas about sexuality due to her dysfunctional family life.  Sarah learns quickly that things are not as they appear – fairies bite, not bless. Doors are not where they appear and missing where they should be.  This is ultimately another reference to her own confusion about the world as it is.  Families break up, relationships fizzle, people leave sexual partners for new, and nothing is as it seems.

Sarah confronts this apparent duality and contrariety of reality particularly as she figures out the relationship of male to female.  Presuming as youth does that it has it all figured out, she assumes she has solved the Scotty-dogs’ riddles, but as a result, ends up falling even deeper into her subconscious. Ending up in an oubliette, a place of forgetting things, Sarah is tempted to forget her brother and her responsibilities.  Worth noting here is the Platonic notion of forgetting our precious existence from which we have fallen, the realm of the forms, into the lower, base existence of materiality.  Sarah’s fall into her own inner fantasy world is a mirror of the platonic doctrine of being trapped in the world of appearances where truth is lost for the ease and simplicity of lies and phantasms.

After battling a golem, the Jewish tradition of an animated mechanical man, Sarah has a staring contest with Jareth inside the M.C. Escher strangeloop maze.  Escher is significant here because of the mathematical and metaphysical implications of his artwork.  The mathematics and ontology of an Escher work are generally styled in the form of a Mobius strip, where the ending is in a state of eternal recurrence with the beginning.  For Douglas Hofstadter, this has tremendous relevance for our own psyche, as we seem to experience this same phenomena in a multitude of forms in life, from music to math to art.  For the psyche, it raises questions of immateriality and what, exactly, consciousness it.  In the Labyrinth narrative its usage is Sarah’s own entrapment in her mind.  Her pain and resentment has become a psychic prison from which she is unable to mature into adulthood.  If Sarah does not face her own shade, Jareth, and come to accept reality, she runs the risk of enslavement in her own perpetual arrested development.  Thus, the classic quest of the hero is here applied to the journey of the individual psyche into maturation.

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"Labyrinth" is a movie that obviously was made with infinite care and pains, and it began with a real inspiration: Why not create a fantasy out of some of the drawings of M. C. Escher, who is famous for visual paradoxes such as a room with staircases that go "up" in every possible direction? The movie is an impressive production that is often good to look at. Some real thought went into it and the David Bowie soundtrack is fine, yet there's something missing. It never really comes alive.

The film takes the form of a nightmare that visits the heroine, an adolescent girl named Sarah ( Jennifer Connelly ) who lives in a dreamworld of magic and legend and fairy princesses and enchantments.

She's left to baby-sit for her baby brother, and when she teasingly wishes the goblins would take him away, she gets her wish. She is visited by Jareth (David Bowie), the ruler of the mystical world that is just out of sight of ordinary eyes. He sets her a task: She can get the child back, but only by finding her way through an endless labyrinth to the castle in the center.

Our first view of the labyrinth is impressive. Indeed, all the special effects in the movie are impressive, showing the director, Muppets creator Jim Henson , working at the top of his form. Inside the labyrinth, Sarah faces a series of horrific challenges and meets a lot of strange characters. We are reminded a little of " Alice in Wonderland " (1976). I have a problem with almost all nightmare movies: They aren't as suspenseful as they should be because they don't have to follow any logic. Anything can happen, nothing needs to happen, nothing is as it seems and the rules keep changing. Consider, for example, the scene in "Labyrinth" where Sarah thinks she is waking up from her horrible dream and opens the door of her bedroom. Anything could be outside that door.

Therefore, we're wasting out psychic energy by caring. In a completely arbitrary world, what difference does anything make? "Labyrinth" is intended as another extension of Henson's muppetry, in which the creatures he creates are more scary and real than ever.

But they are still Muppets, and I think the Muppet idea works better when humans visit the Muppet world (as in the Muppets movies), rather than when Muppets turn up in the human world.

One of the key characters in this film is Toby (played by Toby Froud ). Froud is a midget who has been given a Muppet head to wear. And although the head is a good special-effects construction, I kept wanting to see real eyes and real expressions. The effects didn't add anything.

One other problem is that the movie is too long. Without a strong plot line to pull us through, all movies like this run the danger of becoming just a series of incidents. There's no structure to the order of the adventures. Sarah does this, she does that, she's almost killed here, almost trapped there, until at last nothing much matters. Great energy and creativity went into the construction, production and direction of this movie, but it doesn't have a story that does justice to the production.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Labyrinth (1986)

113 minutes

Natalie Finland as Fairy

Toby Froud as Toby

Shelley Thompson as Stepmother

David Bowie as Jareth

Jennifer Connelly as Sarah

Screenplay by

• Terry Jones

Produced by

• Eric Rattray

Based On A Story by

• John Grover

Directed by

Photographed by.

• Alex Thompson

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What was the intended meaning/interpretation of the movie Labyrinth (1986)?

The movie Labyrinth seems to work on a variety of levels and I myself interpret it in different ways.

Did the makers of the movie ever give out a statement or something similar, as to how they intended the main plot of the movie and the major themes to be interpreted by viewers?

If they did so, what was it?

• 1 In terms of themes, the major concept seems to be the "putting away of childish things". Her new-found maturity (essentially an epiphany she had that evening) leads her to a new relationship with her step-mother and brother. We also see her taking her birth-mother's pictures down to be placed in a memory box. –  Valorum Commented May 10, 2015 at 9:01
• 2 There's also a strong undercurrent of her burgeoning sexuality. Note how she dislikes having it rubbed in her nose that he father is a sexual being. It's also pretty undeniable that she's attracted to Jareth and seriously considers what that will lead to. –  Valorum Commented May 10, 2015 at 9:05
• 1 @Richard The major and central themes of the work. It seems pretty straightforward to me. There is an answer to that, at least a partial one, from interviews with Terry Jones. –  Avner Shahar-Kashtan Commented May 10, 2015 at 12:55
• @ValCroft - angelfire.com/la2/withinyourheart/monty.html –  Valorum Commented May 10, 2015 at 12:57
• oddpla.net/realm/?p=29 - " Jim wanted it to be about a young girl coming to adolescence and putting her childhood behind her and growing to face the world. " –  Valorum Commented May 10, 2015 at 12:58

2 Answers 2

If you feel that there are multiple, possibly conflicting interpretations, there's a good reason for that. Terry Jones, who is credited with writing the screenplay, has spoken several times in interviews about the rather disjointed creative process for the movie: it was originally conceived by Jim Henson with creative input by Brian Froud, and resulted in a 90-page novella of the basic idea. This was reworked by Jones, then bounced back and forth between the two, leaving an end result that Jones said he was generally pleased with, but didn't feel very close to:

I didn’t feel that it was very much mine. I always felt it fell between the two stories. Jim wanted it to be about one thing, and I wanted it to be about something else.

from Life Before and After Monty Python - – The Solo Flights of the Flying Circus

As to what those "one thing" and "something else" were, we can find bits in another interview, where Jones mentions specifically the themes he and Henson worked into the script:

Jim wanted it to be about a young girl coming to adolescence and putting her childhood behind her and growing to face the world. That wasn't a story that meant a lot to me. In the story I wrote the Labyrinth got wilder and wilder. It never obeyed any rules. It kept on cheating. Eventually the girl learnt there was no answer, no solution. The only thing you could do was to go with it and enjoy it. When she did that she got to the centre of the Labyrinth.

Published in Starburst magazine.

Most interviews with Henson I could find dealt either with the history of the screenplay or the technical aspects of the film, rather than analyses of the themes he was aiming for, but it seems we can take Jones' interpretations as the general feel he was going for.

I feel the meaning is that there is a forbidden love between the two main characters (sarah and the goblin king). This is mainly portrayed in the ballroom scene because Sarah wearing all white showing her purity and the Goblin King wearing mostly black/blue showing his darkness. The song "As The World Falls Down" is adding him saying that even though they cannot be together, he will still always be there to watch over her.

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Home » Movie News » Labyrinth (1986) Revisited – Fantasy Movie Review

Labyrinth (1986) Revisited – Fantasy Movie Review

Jim Henson was made of magic. That magic spread throughout many of our childhoods with Sesame Street , The Muppet Show , and more. Henson created creatures we’d never seen but within all of them was a humanity that shown through every layer of felt or rubber that was used to make them.

In the 1980s Henson’s work took an even more fantastical turn, starting with The Dark Crystal (which we certainly will get to) and in 1986 venturing into a realm that bridged childhood and that time we all went through known as being a teenager…that disorienting and tricky labyrinth where we’re on our way to becoming that dreaded word…adult. Henson did this with the movie aptly titled Labyrinth and it would become one of the most beloved films of the 80s.

So, prepare yourself as we venture into the Goblin Kings lair where we’ll encounter David Bowie’s crystal balls (I swear there won’t be that many jokes like this…okay maybe not swear…) a bog full of epic gas, and Jennifer Connelly looking just as wide eyed entranced as we all would be if David Bowie waltzed us around a dance floor. Let’s Dance Magic Dance into 1986’s LABYRINTH .

If you like our fantasy reviews , check out some of our other ones below!

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Chris Bumbray began his career with JoBlo as the resident film critic (and James Bond expert) way back in 2007, and he has stuck around ever since, being named editor-in-chief in 2021. A voting member of the CCA and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, you can also catch Chris discussing pop culture regularly on CTV News Channel.

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This chapter focuses on narrative as the exploration of how a story is structured and organised in order to create meaning and generate a particular response from the audience. It explains how a film can be broken down into specific sections that contain particular events and have particular functions. It also discusses the narrative theory formulated by Tzvetan Todorov in his literary and cultural criticism, which defined three basic stages of a narrative's structure. The chapter describes Pan's Labyrinth 's narrative structure that can be read as retrospective due to its opening scene of an image of a dead child. It explains that the retrospective narrative provides a retelling of what brings Ofelia to this tragic position.

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Pan's Labyrinth Film Analysis: Political Message Behind the Movie

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Unraveling the Metaphors in “Pan’s Labyrinth”: A Film Analysis

“Pan’s Labyrinth,” directed by Guillermo del Toro, is a visually mesmerizing film that captivates audiences with its unique blend of fantasy and reality. Set during the Spanish Civil War, the movie tells the story of Ofelia, a young girl who escapes into a mythical labyrinth to cope with the harsh realities of her life. Through intricate metaphors and symbolism, “Pan’s Labyrinth” explores themes of escapism, power, and the blurred line between imagination and truth.

Escapism and Fantasy

From the opening scenes, we are introduced to Ofelia’s vivid imagination as she discovers an ancient labyrinth. This supernatural realm becomes her refuge from the brutality of war and her oppressive stepfather, Captain Vidal. The labyrinth represents a portal to a fantastical world where Ofelia can find solace and purpose.

Power and Oppression

Captain Vidal symbolizes oppressive authority throughout the film. His cold and ruthless demeanor reflects the authoritarian regime of Francoist Spain. The contrast between the mundane real-world setting and the mystical labyrinth underscores the stark divide between Vidal’s tyranny and the liberating power of imagination.

Furthermore, the Pale Man, a terrifying creature with eyes on his hands, serves as a metaphor for the corrupting influence of power. When Ofelia disobeys the Faun’s warning not to eat from the Pale Man’s table, she faces dire consequences. This scene highlights the dangers of unchecked authority and blind obedience, reminding us of the risks associated with succumbing to oppressive regimes.

Blurring of Reality and Imagination

“Pan’s Labyrinth” blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy, challenging viewers to question what is real. Del Toro seamlessly weaves together the two worlds, leaving audiences uncertain about the true nature of events. This deliberate ambiguity adds depth to the film’s metaphors and prompts introspection.

For instance, the ending leaves viewers wondering whether Ofelia’s mythical journey was merely a figment of her imagination or an actual occurrence. This ambiguity invites discussions on the power of storytelling and the ways in which narratives can shape our perception of reality.

“Pan’s Labyrinth” is a thought-provoking film that masterfully employs metaphors and symbolism to explore themes of escapism, power, and the blurred line between reality and imagination. Through the labyrinth, the Faun, and other fantastical elements, the film delves into the profound depths of human psychology and the desire to find meaning amidst chaos.

By unraveling the metaphors in “Pan’s Labyrinth,” we gain a deeper understanding of the film’s underlying messages. It serves as a reminder that even in the darkest of times, the power of imagination and the courage to challenge oppressive forces can lead to personal transformation and resilience.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Pan's Labyrinth — Pan’s Labyrinth: Cultural Context and The Film Elements

Pan’s Labyrinth: Cultural Context and The Film Elements

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Published: Jun 9, 2021

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Disobedience; the reason hundreds of thousands of lives were lost. The contrast between those who disobey courageously and those who obey blindly has been at the middle of conflicts throughout the existence of our modern world. [...]

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Essay on Pan’s Labyrinth Film Analysis

Not only do Soviet Montage, German expressionism, and French impressionism influence nearly every film we see today, it also molds and builds the appearance of films and help to evoke emotion from the intended audience. Montage can best be described as the selecting, editing, or piecing together of film to create some type of meaning, this is seen in some way, shape, or form, in every film. German expressionism is seen as a movement towards distorted settings, along with supernatural stories. Expressionism in simplest terms was, what the audience saw, was how they were feeling about the events or characters.

Lastly, French impressionism movement had a huge affect on film including: naturalistic acting, dream sequences, artistic camera use, and personal action/physiological stories. One of these characteristics can be clearly observed in every film. Analysis into two films, Pan’s Labyrinth and Run Lola, Run, both display the influence these three concepts have on modern film. Pan’s Labyrinth contains many intricate and underlying concepts that are conveyed through its artistic characteristics and ability to tug on the emotional strings of the audience.

Montage can be observed one way or another in almost any film due to the fact that most films are composed of a series of shots that are edited to condense time and space. In Pan’s Labyrinth, I believe the method of montage utilized is overtonal/ associational. This type of montage has very abstract and complicated affects on the viewers and it also evokes many different emotions from the audience. For example, the cut and recombination of scenes, the movement of camera, and intertwine of fantasy and real world into the same time line.

German Expressionism was clearly a very influential part in the making of this film due to the Mise-en-scene. Throughout the movie, color is a huge factor affecting the overall mood of the work. The people in the film are usually wearing in dark blue, green and grey, which presents a feeling of sorrow. The outside setting in the forest and labyrinth is full of trees and stones that make it grim, highlighting the heavy contrast between the real world and a fantasy. of the real world. The magic world is much brighter, and the warm colors are the theme.

For example, the tree hole is full of bright light, and the room of the inhuman creature is red. The color contrast makes the magic world enticing to Ofelia, and therefore, the audience. French impressionism also had a strong influence on this work through the use of naturalistic acting, artistic camera use, and personal story. Clearly naturalistic acting is present, as it is in most movies, but the artistic use of the camera is what really highlights the impressionistic aspect. In the beginning of the film, the camera angle is used to taking the audience from fairy world into the real one.

For example, the camera shoots from the dark castles underground to a series of stairs, and then continues until the sunshine and ground appear in the scene, indicating that the scene has changed into the real world. Through this artistic camera use, the film can switch within two worlds freely. Finally, the speed of the camera plays a large role in determining what the audience’s emotions will be. The speed of the film is not fast because it works synergistically with the style of the story and tone of sorrow throughout the whole film.

But, it is observed that the speed becomes fast in some tense scenes. For example, when it comes to the sense of the inhuman creature running after Ofelia, the screen switches quick to portray a tense and suspenseful feeling for the audience. Describing the creature, the camera shots from the sight of Ofelia to present he is getting closer and closer and these two groups of scenes interweave to evoke a very suspenseful feeling. Run Lola, Run is a fast paced thriller that catches the attention of the audience through the use of the three concepts: ontage, expressionism, and impressionism.

Montage is the most crucial step to appearance and quality of the overall movie. The montage presented in this film is expressed as one incident is intertwined with the characters dialogue. It is clear that the scenes fall on places as dialogues are said at the same rate. The editing of the film and the timing and placement of the scenes and shots is really what made this movie so outstanding. The editing led to a clearer understanding of the viewers in regards to theme, characters, and plot in the film.

Expressionism is seen through mise en scene because it is based in reality. The lighting appears realistic, and Lola’s clothes are dirty with a messy room. She also lacks good make up, and the locations are realistic. The realistic mise-en-scene puts the audience in the same frame of thought as the characters, which increases tension to the scene and creates a connection the viewers have with the main characters about choice and consequence. In one scene in particular, there is a sense of sympathy for Manni knowing he is under pressure by an overbearing boss.

But also a feeling of hopelessness is present knowing that the punishment for losing such a large amount of money will be much more tragic. In this scene, they are shown on the phone in color while past events are shown in black and white. The black and white indicates the action is in the past and this displays how the use of color can affect the film in different ways. Finally, the film can be labeled as impressionistic because it is a physiological story and not to mention the naturalistic acting. The camera use was most notable in the scenes where close-ups were used frequently to emphasize certain objects or emotions of characters.

For example, there is a close up on the red phone because it has significant importance, as it is the starting point of all the events. It can also be observed that longer shots are taken when Lola and Manni are both running to be on time, to make the audience feel as if they are running with the characters. Most of the shots are eye level and we don’t see many oblique shots, but overall the artistic camera use significantly sets the stage of the film and all three concepts (montage, expressionism, and impressionism) assist in evoking a certain emotion from the audience, and come together to make a film like no other.

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Labyrinth (1986 Film) Literary Elements

By jim henson.

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Leading Actors/Actresses

David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly

Supporting Actors/Actresses

Toby Froud, Christopher Malcolm, Shelley Thompson

Musical / Fantasy

Nominations: British Academy Film Awards for Best Special Visual Effects Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and Best Costumes Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation

Date of Release

June 27th, 1986

Eric Rattray

Setting and Context

The film is partially set in the contemporary world and mostly in a supernatural realm of goblins.

Narrator and Point of View

The film is narrated through the musicals performed by Jareth. It is told from the point of view of Sarah.

Tone and Mood

Sinister, Nightmarish, Eerie

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist: Sarah Antagonist: Jareth the Goblin King

Major Conflict

Sarah wishes and casts his little brother Toby into the realm of goblins and has thirteen hours to solve the labyrinth and save him.

The climax of the film is the confrontation between Sarah and Jareth as she climbs the staircase towards Toby defying Jareth's request.

Foreshadowing

While reciting a play named The Labyrinth, Sarah forgets the last line, which she later says to Jareth during a confrontation in the labyrinth.

Understatement

Every time the Goblin King asks Sarah about her experience solving the maze, she answers it is a “piece of cake” despite the difficulty.

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

The film incorporated animatronic creatures from Jim Henson's Creature Shop. The puppets were radio-controlled and required a team of puppeteers to operate their every action. The entire set was built in a sound stage that utilized the biggest panoramic backcloth ever assembled.

The room the main characters have the final confrontation in is modeled after M. C. Escher's Relativity.

The Goblin King puts Sarah through a series of precarious obstacles yet claims he does it for her because of his love

Parallelism

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Labyrinth (1986 Film) Questions and Answers

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Study Guide for Labyrinth (1986 Film)

Labyrinth (1986 Film) study guide contains a biography of director Jim Henson, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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Essays for Labyrinth (1986 Film)

Labyrinth (1986 Film) essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Labyrinth (1986 Film), directed by Jim Henson.

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