The Owl
Did you notice the amazing, beautiful composition in this shot? Of course, cuz it's poetry.
But this page is all about the details in Labyrinth that you may not have noticed.
As Jareth lands, you can briefly see something on his foot here. This may be the actor's leg band or part of his jess that's
been trimmed (?) but it shouldn't be there, as Jareth wouldn't be wearing either. But this owl is very cute. For a second, he gets totally distracted and looks straight up. What's he
lookin at? Mic up there or something.
The Obelisk
In the park
there, Jareth has
landed on an obelisk. This is meaningful, as obelisks reappear throughout the film:
In this first shot of the Labyrinth, the whole place is spiked with them. The Hedge Maze has them, too. And even the post thingie that
has the hands pointing uselessly in every direction is another one.
The Obelisk is a pyramid on a raised pillar. It was the Egyptian symbol for Ra, the sun god, and was considered a tribute or even
a sunlight-focusing shape (hence its sharp point to the sun). In practical terms, it was the best way to get a
pyramid (a god symbol) off the ground and closer to the sun. The tapered shape was also a convenience, because they carved these things (some very long and heavy) on the ground and then had to set them upright, which was damn difficult.
Jareth is the "God" of the Labyrinth,
so the obelisks could be tribute to him. Maybe that's why he lands on it in the park, establishing himself as
the focal point.
Trouble Urinating?
Hoggle takes a LONG TIME to finish doing his thing. This is the lower edge of the wide Labyrinth shot. You can see Hoggle in it, standing there by the water.
He's just standing there, not doing anything else except... Going? The sun even rises on him.
In runtime, he's there for almost a
full minute (!), but look how far away he is. This is at least fifty yards before Sarah approaches him, and
even then he's not done yet ! In narrative time this would have to be 3-4 minutes. How can he be
going that whole time?!
(How large can a bladder be on a guy who's 3'5" ?)
Maybe prostate trouble is as common in the Underground as in our world.
The Oubliette
This is a great scene in the Oubliette where Hoggle helps Sarah. It's innocuous enough until you look close.
The freaky Oubliette is populated with skeletons, at least three of them. There's also a loose skull
on the right that Hoggle actually kicks over when he opens the door.
More disturbing is that these seem to be Human remains, implying that other people have tried to navigate the
Labyrinth and ended up dying here. This could be what the Doors refer to about "Certain Death." However, some of these
skeletons are shackled and barely clothed, like deliberately imprisoned.
Totally Different Clocks
Clock #1 had a schedule conflict and was unavailable for the Underground underground sequence. A second clock
played the role and also never reappeared. The clock in the Fantasy sequence
is yet a third actor.
Apparently there are a lot of 13-Hour clocks in SAG, but no two are alike and they are all very busy.
The prevalence of these clocks suggests that this is standard time for the Underground, which seems to operate
on a 13-Hour day. Sarah begins her quest at Labyrinth Sunrise (13:00 "a.m"), it's evening/dark by about 8:00, and it seems to be a nearly-dawn sky again at 12:55 when she faces Jareth at the end. If the Underground has a "p.m," maybe they switch to it at 6:30.
We're not sure how a 13-Hour day works out with regard to meals. Maybe they eat lunch at dinner, and then just
not eat actual dinner. Also, this means that they probably only sleep on alternate days, and they only get paid
once a month. What a bitch.
However, what's most strange about the clock thing... Jareth says, "You have thirteen hours in which to solve the Labyrinth." But what's the point? Sarah does not have a watch, or any way of keeping track of the time.
The Jareth Faces
The best thing about this stonework is that, sans hair and eye makeup, it's more Bowie than Jareth.
It looked exactly like him at the time (how'd they do that? it's so cool!) and it's kinda how he looks today, thanks to some plastique. Also Bowie's face is so handsome that he just naturally looks like himself in all of this
super, chiseled awesomeness.
But there are a lot of Jareth faces in the movie and some of them are like digital placements of this exact image.
We don't cover all of them here (there are other sites for that. Try
This One!) because they're very hard to find in the
print
(despite some wide shots that deliberately include them and should be obvious once you start looking, but they're
still not).
The image in the middle actually is a Jareth Face, disguised as some streaky pattern on the ground that who the hell would
ever notice, we don't know. On the right, there's one of the few Jareth faces that are complete. It even looks
like him and seems to have an expression, looking off to the side.
We're not sure what the hidden Jareths mean, if they're just something for the audience, or if they're implied to be *in* the Labyrinth, like part of the actual stonework. Maybe they're non-physical, ghost images, to suggest that Jareth is always watching.
Strings Everywhere!
There are other sites that detail the goofs in Labyrinth. (Even imdb's coverage is extensive.) There
are a lot of strings showing in this film, but it's excusable because of the technology at the
time.
Between filthy projectors, speckly VHS quality, and Lo-Def Tube TV's in the 1980s, it was impossible to see stuff like
this, and directors didn't worry about it.
Odd Continuity Goof
This is an unusual technical goof, so it's noteworthy. The Junk Lady
gives the Music Box to Sarah, and then it appears again right next to her. Continuity is fertile ground for
editing mistakes, but it's weird for the actual subject of the scene (the music box) to also be the goof
itself.
Scariest Thing in Labyrinth
Some kids find this movie scary in the "darker" sequences. But the real horror is hiding in plain sight, during a cheerful point in Dance Magic. This cyclops goblin would scare any viewer of any age. The eye even moves.
Blood?
Some of the masks in the ballroom sequence have blood on them as part of their design (often
draining from an eye).
Wonder what it means?
Hot Set?
The crows on this set switch between real and fake. The Making Of mentioned that the crows were deliberately replaced because they wouldn't stay put, but maybe it's because they were heat-fatigued. The
human actors seem comfortable, but that could be acting. Both of these crows are panting in multiple shots. The nearer one is really whipped.
The Weird Dog "Shoes"
This fast shot is easy to miss. Ambrosius is supposed to be Sir Didymus's "Noble Steed," so he actually has metal "horseshoes" on his feet. But horseshoes only work because they don't hurt the horse (hooves don't have feeling in them), so you can hammer the nails in there.
On Ambrosius, the shoes clearly have nails or bolts (lots of them!) holding them on, and these have been
driven directly into his paws. (?)
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