MovieChat Forums > The Legacy (1979) Discussion > What's up with the oranges?

What's up with the oranges?


In the very beginning there is a table full of oranges and Katherine Ross tosses one to Sam Elliot. The opening credits start to roll and they are buying more oranges. Then they go to the mansion leaving the oranges behind. They did not bring much luggage so I assume they did not bring them with them. The oranges must have spoiled. What is up with that?

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I was wondering the same thing...

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I havent seen this entire movie, but normally Oranges are a symbol of death...if youve watched coppola movies, he juxtaposes oranges with other objects to symbolize this. Anyway, maybe thats why they are present in this film as well.

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Yea in the godfather if u see an orange its a sign someone is going to die. in a spoof Old School has a bowl full of oranges when mitch finds out his girlfriend is cheating on him.

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Interesting. I hadn't known that about oranges (and I'm not sure I understand *why* they're used as a symbol of death), but after reading this, I took a look at how many oranges Maggie handles. She throws one to Pete, and at the market she picks out four more, for a total of five oranges. Six came to claim Jason's legacy, five died. Only one survives: Maggie, and Pete is the first to receive the ring after the others are killed. Is it coincidence that Maggie picks five oranges, and five people die?


"I've always lived for and by the unusual."

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but how is an orange supposed to symbolize or foreshadow death? just a question

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Oranges are evil.

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Someone on here wrote about the similarities of the two main characters to Adam and Eve. The phone call being Satan tempting Eve with the $50,000 check and talking Adam into going with her and accepting it. Once he accepts she throws him the orange as another reference to the ancient tale.

I cannot take credit for this observation. Someone here at IMDB started a thread on it.






The Legacy (1978) - 5 outta 10 stars








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The thread is called (capitalised by OP) "SUBTEXT IN THE LEGACY" and is v. good.

Now, I'll admit it's been about 15 years and memory is dim but I remember, as do we all, Daltrey choking, the trachaeotomy, the pool, and the dying monster-Jason with the big hand! And I dated a girl who looked like Katharine Ross. She was really fit!

I've always noticed that, at the end, Maggie gets the Space: 1999 "Dragon's domain sound effect" shotgun metallurgy power (and others) and position, becomes unafraid and part of the house and the covenant ("You see, it IS me!" a bit a la Damien, Omen II), and Pete becomes her first 'disciple' in a matter of seconds and then the horrific deaths and the environment of Evil becomes "lala happyland" for them, almost as if they're 'instantly evil' or they've done this before and they were faking all the time. The MASSIVE changes in character, tempo, atmosphere and narrative motivation feel horribly "tacked" on for a REALLY FAKE "Happy ending" (it isn't, the cycle restarts and Maggie is now The Devil's bitch!) with few symbols from Marquand, who is a pretty perceptive Director and uses semiotics throughout the film but... I just don't buy the 3-minutes-before-the-end-rapid-switch-everything's-fine-and-we're-satanists-now event.

I seem to recall she gave a knowing look at the girl in the pool but it was so ambiguous as to be inconspicuous and I'm sure the dying MountOlive (Judas's death tree) was behind all those and might even have said so as he dies.

It's crazy how we, like Pete and Maggie, go from shock and horror at these gruesome deaths to sort of humming along to the happy end theme which switches a 180 and tells of a great future as reborn Apostates of Hell! The bad guys win but it's OK because the nice couple get a big house and an inroad into the nobility from which the Lady was secretly descended. A bit like the Vicar of Dibley finding Love and happiness through induction to the New World Order!! It's a bit much...

And is thematically wrong.

Very messy character development, Maggie's latent powers seemed to be unconscious up to this point and suddenly they're in full bloom, signposted, and we're shown the start of a new cycle of Evil, pain, suffering and ultimately horrific death?

Nah.

Maggie shoulda had a consistently developing unshockable darkness, and Ross shoulda played it so.

I Love the film but it is far from perfect.

I don't recall dying - must have happened when I was too drunk to give a flying FU.....

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LOL
Not sure how you can say you loved the film with your extensive explanation of the film's huge flaw which is in fact the "tacked" on ending where all of the sudden everything is hunky dorey. But you are also right in the fact that it is EXACTLY like Damien: The Omen II where Damien at first is like "OH nos not I!" and then comes to embrace his role as the Prince of Darkness. However in this film it just seems worse. More shoehorned in. They really should have been a bit more tactful about it.


Decent idea but bad writing and worst execution.







The Legacy (1978) - 5 outta 10 stars












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It just hurts that much more when a film's ending is no resolution after an inspiring and scary build up.

I felt totally deflated by the tacked on ending, as you righly describe it.

The preceding 90 odd minutes were bloody genius but the writer screwed the pooch bigtime by not developing Maggie's character and making Pete and herself look weak, fickle and stupid.

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A Brief History Of Oranges And Their Role In Foreshadowing Death: http://uproxx.com/tv/2013/06/a-brief-history-of-oranges-and-how-they-foreshadow-death/

The article says it began accidentally with the 1972 film "The Godfather". The book was published in 1969. (It began as a mere coincidence in 1972’s The Godfather — the set designer peppered several scenes with oranges to give the somberly dressed sets some color — but because everyone seemed to die with an orange (or oranges) in sight, the coincidence took on new meaning.)

A Clockwork Orange - the film came out in 1971 but the book was published in 1962.
So, technically, A Clockwork Orange (the book) came out first.

Old world belief that Blood Oranges are a symbol of blood (religious beliefs).

I really don't know the answer - but your question was good and had me wondering about it too.

:D

"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me." ~ The Invisible Man

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A Brief History Of Oranges And Their Role In Foreshadowing Death: http://uproxx.com/tv/2013/06/a-brief-history-of-oranges-and-how-they-foreshadow-death/

The article says it began accidentally with the 1972 film "The Godfather". The book was published in 1969. (It began as a mere coincidence in 1972’s The Godfather — the set designer peppered several scenes with oranges to give the somberly dressed sets some color — but because everyone seemed to die with an orange (or oranges) in sight, the coincidence took on new meaning.)

A Clockwork Orange - the film came out in 1971 but the book was published in 1962.
So, technically, A Clockwork Orange (the book) came out first.

Old world belief that Blood Oranges are a symbol of blood (religious beliefs).

I really don't know the answer - but your question was good and had me wondering about it too.

:D

"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me." ~ The Invisible Man

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MIND THE ORANGES, MARLON!

Google it.

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And I thought it was merely a segue between being in America and being in England. Silly me.

The Long Walk stops every year, just once.

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