T w e n t y S i d e d

I originally thought a post on Labyrinth would be pretty large; epic even. The more I worked it over in my mind,the concepts got simpler and simpler (famous last words). My original premise was based on the observation that most people remember Labyrinth for, well; David Bowie’s balls. And the skintight pants prominently displaying his equipment. We must be honest, as well; David Bowie is a pretty sexy fella and the entire presentation of Jareth the Goblin King does nothing but accentuate this idea. Sooo…that means Labyrinth is about growing into sexual maturity, right?

No, it’s not. That wasn’t the original idea, it’s not in the script, and it’s not explicitly in the movie. It’s just that everything related to the Goblin King, especially *in the second half of the movie* carries sexual overtones.

And to explain: I keep saying “overtones” instead of “subtext” because subtext implies an intentional theme. Which as I said, I cannot find anywhere in production *other* than speculating that Henson embraced the idea based on his willingness to address sexual concepts in something perceived as “children’s’ entertainment” and the other changes he made that began with adapting the script into a musical so that he could feature one of several pop/rock artists for the soundtrack *and possibly performing a role in the movie*. You can find several takes on the singers considered, which frequently mention Freddie Mercury, Prince, Michael Jackson, and Mick Jagger. While Jackson is most frequently referenced as “almost” getting the role, my own reading indicates the two that were actually most likely to be cast before Jim’s son, Brian, argued for Bowie were Rod Stewart and Sting. The elder Henson appears to have wanted a flamboyant performer. This indicates to me that he always had in mind the idea that the singer would play a role in the film, despite the assertion such was not originally planned.

Labyrinth began as an untitled future project for Jim Henson and Brian Froud, the artist who worked with Henson to design The Dark Crystal. Henson and Froud enjoyed their time working on that film, and agreed to produce another movie together. Froud went away and drew some concept art which was highly goblin-centric. The art was then packed off to former Monty Python cast member, writer, and director Terry Jones to create a story based on Froud’s work.

Comments by Froud indicate that his art included the main characters for Jones to base the story on. Further, Comments by Jim Henson imply that Jones was likely presented notes to frame the story around some kind of mix of The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. I take from all this that Terry Jones probably started from the point of a young girl visiting a world populated by fantasy creatures. Nothing I have found indicated Froud or Henson provided Jones with an story arc, a moral, or a conclusion to guide his story.

Terry Jones has stated the filmed script doesn’t have much to do with his version. Although, like many such claims, there a various bits of trivia that indicate many “scenes” and basic outlines have been present from his first draft. Following Jones’ version, it has been claimed that many notable writers contributed efforts to the script including Executive Producer George Lucas, Henson associate Laura Phillips (Fraggle Rock), children’s’ writer and poet Dennis Lee, and even legendary comedian, writer, and director Elaine May. The last two names have noteworthy implications. Some iteration of the script came to the attention of Maurice Sendak, or at least his agent, and they were *pissed.*

It is not known what was actually in the script Sendak’s people objected to, but it is easy to understand why an earlier version might have felt very similar to Maurice Sendak’s incredibly popular book Where the Wild Things Are. The barest summary of the plot of Sendak’s book is: a boy named Max causes havoc in his wolf suit. Max is sent to bed without supper. His bedroom transforms into a jungle environment. Max then sails to an island populated by monsters call “The Wild Things.” He is declared the King of the land, but eventually becomes lonely and abdicates, triggering a massive battle throughout the monster city. Max manages to return to his bedroom, where he discovers supper has been left for him in his room.

Some version of all those events exist in the filmed version of Labyrinth, although many are more dissimilar than not. Henson and others have noted the filmed version differs significantly from the script Maurice Sendak’s agent saw, but the movie still bears a credit acknowledging the work of Sendak as being influential. It is also possible that Dennis Lee’s connection to the script, and possibly work he contributed, may have drawn comparisons to Sendak’s own work. I say this only because Lee and Sendak published work in the same sphere of influence. However, it is *more* important to note that Henson was working with Lee on the same project with Laura Phillips: Fraggle Rock (debuted in 1983.) So…yeah. Especially considering Lee was working on song lyrics, and Henson modified the idea for the movie to be more musical after production had already started. That’s probably where Lee came in to the movie.

Elaine May’s involvement was likely spurred by the Hensons’ insistence that Jones’ script “wasn’t funny enough.” Jones did get at least one re-write, and probably multiple, as he has referenced Henson asking for more jokes and comedy; *and* asking for “space” for songs and music to be added. Not the songs themselves; that was apparently always meant to be given to a pop/rock star. In the late 1970’s through the early 1980’s May was considered a genius of comedy writing and one of the most talented directors in Hollywood. If Henson wanted more comedy, she would have been the #1 name to touch up a script. By the same token, I would consider the stories that she worked on jokes for Labyrinth to be apocryphal at best. It’s possible…certainly it is, but it’s unlikely a puppet/fantasy film with modest expectations would have lured her interest.

You can see why I keep coming back to the idea that the final version of Labyrinth is very like a product of Jim Henson’s ideas and vision. And I want to be clear, I don’t mean that in some mystical, mysterious way. Simply that Henson had control of the project every step of the way, so it seems improbable that any notable element, including sexual overtones, appeared in the movie by accident.

The essence of the story is about the transition from childhood to adulthood, or maturity. The audience is introduced to the heroine Sarah playing pretend: she is acting out her favorite fairy tale book like a play, taking on the role of the Princess protecting her own kingdom from the nefarious Goblin King. Then comes a rain storm, and a reminder from a clock that she is supposed to be at home fulfilling a responsibility: she is to babysit her infant step-brother while her parents have a night out. She is unhappy about having to end her playtime and this “grown-up” infringement on her childhood happiness. This is exacerbated when she sees that her step-brother has been given her favorite childhood stuffed bear. Literally, her parents are stealing her childhood and giving it to her brother. Pressured by the baby’s cries and the intensifying storm she recalls an idea presumably found in her favorite book, and wishes the goblins would come steal the baby away.

This happens.

Jareth the Goblin King appears and offers her a deal: she can try to reach his castle (her closet is now the entrance to the Goblin Kingdom) beyond his labyrinth and past the goblin city, where the baby is being kept; or she can abandon the baby and receive a crystal globe the size of a baseball, which will always display her dreams and desires to her. NOT, notably, make her dreams come true or anything like that; the crystal will only show her visions of her dreams. Visions she can get lost in, just as she wishes to stay lost in her make-believe play. You could say we are also introduced to vague sexual elements here, even though nothing is said about this in the script, nor by Henson in any interview that I have found. While Jareth appears cloaked and kingly here, the fact that the Goblin King certainly doesn’t look “like a goblin,” which we HAVE seen already in glimpses, leads us to make note of his striking appearance. And it is difficult to deny there are sexual characteristics to Bowie’s makeup, costume, and demeanor. And yet, it is not nearly as overt as it will become later. Jareth also introduces the crystal balls, of course. Everyone, I’m sure, has heard the jokes about the Goblin King “playing with his balls,” and that begins here. Although it is merely a curiosity at this point. Much slight of hand is used to make the balls appear and disappear, and multiply in number. None of which was actually performed by David Bowie, incidentally. A magician who specialized in this type of sleight of hand stood just behind Bowie with his arm through a hole, appearing as if it was Bowie performing the tricks very casually.

Sarah chooses to rescue her step-brother, a responsible decision that disappoints Jareth. However, Jareth’s bet is that Sarah will be incapable of achieving the maturity needed to solve the labyrinth. He gives her thirteen hours on a thirteen hour clock to reach him in the castle, an absurd reference that reinforces the notion that Jareth is fully a being of fantasy; or of play. His goal is to tempt her to abandon adulthood and remain a child.

Sarah now proceeds to learn several important lessons.

She encounters the dwarf, Hoggle, spraying fairies with fairy spray to kill them. Sarah stops him and chastises his behavior for killing such beautiful creatures, and is immediately bitten by the one she was holding and protecting. This is, of course, what fairies do. They bite people, whether they are beautiful to look at or not. Hoggle also repeatedly shows Sarah that doors aren’t always where one would expect, which reinforces the notion that a simple, straight-forward view of the world, i.e. a child’s view, is insufficient.

Once inside the labyrinth, Sarah is unable to find openings in the walls, perceiving this first passage to just extend endlessly in both directions. She misapplies Hoggle’s lesson that things aren’t always what they seem and concludes that the infinite passage *can’t* be infinite and if she just keeps running she will find an opening. After giving up, she is greeted by a worm, who tells her she just isn’t looking the right way. After all, there’s an opening just in front of her. Once she passes through the optical illusion, she is able to see the openings all around her. She thanks the worm and starts off again, only to be stopped by the worm and advised to go the other direction. After she thanks the worm and leaves, the worm worries that if she had continued on her original path, she would have gone straight the castle. Ba-dum tsh. But of course, even another lesson: just because people give you very nice-sounding, well-meaning, polite advice doesn’t mean they are correct or even useful.

Sarah begins marking her path with lipstick. Only when she reaches a dead end does she realize the stones she has been marking are being rotated by some force under or behind the tiles (the script literally calls them “tile-changers.”) Sarah exclaims “It’s not fair!” I believe for the first time. You can see where this is going.

Sarah confronts two doors, one of which leads to the castle while the other leads to *certain doom.* Also, this is the classic “one of us always lies, the other always tells the truth.” The solution to this logic puzzle is to ask *either* door what the other door (or guard of the door, if that’s the version you’re familiar with) would say is the correct door. In both instances, the door indicated will be the bad door, so you take the other one. Sarah reasons it out (for the first time, she notes) and chooses the door that leads to the castle. Upon entering the door, she immediately falls through the floor. Now, you can get meta on this argument if you want, but I will point out that without intervention, Sarah would have fallen hundreds of feet to a rock floor with no *known* exit; (one of) the oubliette(s). That is to say, it didn’t really matter which door Sarah chose; life isn’t fair and being able to solve a riddle doesn’t mean you get to win, unlike in make-believe.

Sarah is caught by “helping hands,” which offer to raise her back to the surface or let her down. She chooses down and the hands mock her in delight. She asks if that was the wrong choice; the hands only reply that “it’s too late now!” You don’t get do-overs in real life.

This is a transition point in the movie. Jareth, in his castle, is upset that Sarah has reached “the oubliette,” because she should have given up and chosen to return to her easy, childish life by now. He sends Hoggle to “rescue” Sarah and lead her *out* of the labyrinth. Once she realizes she has to start over, she will give up. If it wasn’t clear before, almost everyone in the Goblin Kingdom “works” for the Goblin King whether they feel strong allegiance to him or not. Some are tricked, some are threatened, some have such simple tasks and relationships that the why’s and wherefore’s don’t really matter. Sarah’s interactions with the labyrinth so far have taught her that the lessons of childhood and the laws of make-believe won’t help her. Being responsible, being an adult, doesn’t follow the same rules and life isn’t fair. Sarah is about to start applying some of the things she has learned, and Jareth will confront her not with simple realities, but actual (and metaphorical challenges) meant to show Sarah just how difficult being an adult can be. At the same time, the sexual part of the story will start to kick in, where Jareth will attempt to seduce Sarah with “adult” fairy tales: love at first sight, dancing with the Prince, and yes; the temptation of sex.

All in Part Two!

Paige Francis He/him