Willow

Synopsis

A farmer discovers a baby destined to bring down an evil queen.

Which is already more responsibility than most people want on a Tuesday.

What follows is a journey across a fantasy world filled with sorcery, warriors, trolls, brownies, witches and one of the most unpredictable mercenaries ever committed to film.

Against overwhelming odds, a group of people with wildly different skill sets somehow manage to save the world.

Which, if you’ve ever worked on a large technology project, will sound strangely familiar.

Review

Willow has always been one of my favourite fantasy films.

Not because it’s perfect.

Not because it has groundbreaking special effects.

And not because it contains the greatest battle scenes ever filmed.

I love Willow because of the character himself.

At the start of the film, Willow isn’t a great sorcerer.

He’s a farmer.

More importantly, he’s a farmer who wants to become a sorcerer.

The problem is that nobody else seems particularly convinced he’s ready.

He’s not the most experienced.

He’s not the most powerful.

And if we’re being honest, he’s not even a proper sorcerer yet.

But while everybody else is busy explaining why things can’t be done, Willow keeps learning.

He adapts.

He makes mistakes.

He gets things wrong.

Then he gets better.

As somebody who has spent years working in technology, I find that incredibly relatable.

Most architects didn’t start as architects.

Most consultants didn’t start as consultants.

Most experts didn’t start as experts.

We all started somewhere.

Willow started as a farmer.

The journey is what makes the character so enjoyable to watch.

Then there’s Madmartigan.

Every project eventually discovers a tool that nobody quite understands.

The thing that wasn’t part of the original design.

The thing nobody expected to become important.

The thing that looks like it might cause a major incident.

That’s Madmartigan.

Initially he appears to be little more than a liability.

Then he causes chaos.

Then he causes more chaos.

Then somehow he becomes one of the most valuable assets on the entire mission.

He’s unpredictable.

He’s reckless.

He’s occasionally ridiculous.

And he’s absolutely brilliant.

Of course, deploying Madmartigan directly into production without testing first carries a significant level of risk.

But when things get difficult, you’ll be glad he’s available.

The supporting cast are equally memorable.

The adventure never slows down.

The humour still lands decades later.

And unlike many modern fantasy films, Willow never feels the need to take itself too seriously.

It understands exactly what it is.

An adventure.

A fun one.

The special effects have aged in places.

The brownies operate with all the discipline of an unsupervised change advisory board.

And some scenes are gloriously over the top.

But that’s part of the charm.

Modern films often spend so much time trying to be clever that they forget to be enjoyable.

Willow never makes that mistake.

Final Verdict

Willow isn’t the biggest fantasy film ever made.

It isn’t the most technically impressive.

And it certainly isn’t trying to be.

What it delivers is something much more valuable.

Heart.

You care about the characters.

You enjoy the adventure.

And by the end of the film you’re rooting for the farmer who nobody believed in.

There are bigger fantasy films.

There are more successful fantasy films.

There are certainly more expensive fantasy films.

But few are as endlessly watchable.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen Willow.

I suspect I’ll watch it many more times.

Completely Unqualified Verdict: Every architect started somewhere. Willow started as a farmer.