High fantasy, which finds its roots in legend and folklore, had a richer silent film history than did its sister subgenre. DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS's The Thief of Bagdad (1924) was one of the greatest fantasy films in the history of Hollywood. If there were precedents for Fairbanks's opus, they could be found in D. W. GRIFFITH's Intolerance (1916) and Thomas H. Ince's Civilization (1916), both of which had sweeping, epic, fantastical settings and events. High fantasies often touch off deep primal emotions in their audience. Certainly, such was the case in the 1930s when one considers FRANK CAPRA's Lost Horizon (1937) and WALT DISNEY's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). On a smaller, more personal, level was the unforgettable Death Takes a Holiday (1934).
High fantasy took the low road in the 1940s with cheaply made Arabian Nights tales starring Sabu, Maria Montez, Jon Hall, and Turhan Bey. Bordering on high fantasy, however, was the ever-so-charming Douglas Fairbanks Jr. gem, Sinbad the Sailor (1947). The subgenre showed some life in the 1950s with films as different as Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1950), Ulysses (1955), and Brigadoon (1954). As with light fantasy, high fantasy had little to show for itself in the 1960s aside from such fare as Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Camelot (1967), but that began to change in the 1970s.
High fantasy began to appear far more regularly, if not terribly successfully, on the big screen in the late 1970s with Ralph Bakshi's animated version of The Lord of the Rings (1978). The 1980s saw a veritable rash of sword and sorcery films that are at the very heart of high fantasy, dealing as they do with legend and myth. Movies such as Dragonslayer (1981), Conan the Barbarian (1982), The Beastmaster (1982), Red Sonja (1985), and Ladyhawke (1985) filled movie screens with great spectacle, but with few exceptions the films were not big box office. Given their often large budgets, some of them, such as The Dark Crystal (1983) and Legend (1985), were out-and-out disasters. One of the biggest disappointments of the decade, however, was GEORGE LUCAS's Willow (1988).
Curiously, a combination of both light and high fantasy, Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride (1987), was both highly praised and commercially successful. As the 1990s got under way, traditional sword-and-sorcery fantasy movies fell out of favor while a string of modern-day fairy tales saw release. Movies such as Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990), Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King (1991), Groundhog Day (1993), the JIM CARREY vehicle The Truman Show (1998), and Pleasantville (1998) turned ordinary, everyday life on its ear and replaced it with emotional, psychological fantasies. They were less concerned with a spirit of adventure than with exploring the personal lives of their characters.
In these movies, strange, outcast people search for their place in the world, timid personalities learn to be true to themselves, and characters confront the fantastic world around them. More traditional fairy tales were delivered by the likes of STEVEN SPIELBERG's Hook (1991), Photographing Fairies (1997), a retelling of the Cinderella story Ever After (1998), The New Adventures of Pinocchio (1999), and Pinocchio (2002). In 2002 The Family Man, a heartwarming holiday fantasy in the mold of It's a Wonderful Life, appeared, starring NICOLAS CAGE.
More familiar types of fantasy movies arrived with the medieval dragon epic Dragonheart (1996), Dungeons and Dragons (2000), and Ang Lee's artful and compelling fantasy of medieval China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). By the start of the new century, however, it was clear that action ruled fantasy movies. Popular video-game adventurer Lara Croft made it to the big screen in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), but the real hits came the following year. In late 2001, both Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring were released, the remarkable bigbudget adaptations of the greatest fantasy books ever written that quickly shot to the top of the box office. A year later, when Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers appeared, they surpassed the success of their predecessors. There is simply nothing comparable to Peter Jackson's masterful adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's seminal fantasy trilogy nor to the faithful and entertaining filming of J. K. Rowling's beloved children's books.
With Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) making its way to theaters, Jackson's amazing epic is, for the time being, the last word in fantasy movies. Whether the subject matter is mermaids, dancing caterpillars, ghosts, spirits, leprechauns, would-be Santa Clauses, barbarians, ancient kings, visitors from Atlantis, or hobbits, both the light and high fantasy traditions remain firmly rooted in American cinema.
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