MovieChat Forums > The Last Unicorn (1982) Discussion > What do the Unicorn and the Red Bull rep...

What do the Unicorn and the Red Bull represent?

posted 8 years ago by LaCountess
5 replies | jump to latest

You know the drill. In all these classic stories the good and evil are the fictional representations of something in real life: courage vs. cowardice, childhood innocence vs. adulthood disillusionment, freedom vs. oppression, progress vs. patriarchy. I'm usually good at guessing the story behind the story. This one however has stumped me. I can't tell what the unicorn who turns into a human and almost loses her will to fight, and the Red Bull who is in service of an old, gnarly king are supposed to represent? Does it have to do with feminism? Does it have to do with free will? Am I reading too much into this and the author just wanted to tell a story about mythical horned beasts?

--
To learn how to ruin a fine, popular TV show talk to Jeremy Carver or Russel T.Davies.

[–] alumbux 8 years ago

Hi LaCountess,

I don't know the original author's intended meaning (and don't think that matters, anyway - it's up to readers/audiences to find their own meaning, in my view!), but I enjoyed reading this interpretation very recently:
http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/06/19/feminism-meets-fantasy-in-the-last-unicorn

I hope you find it interesting too.

alumbux

[–] jwhale-17244 8 years ago

Personally, and I was just thinking about this a while ago, I think the story is a metaphor for innocence. Once there were thousands of unicorns roaming the forests (youth/innocence). But then, they were driven out of this world by the Red Bull, (adulthood, the time to put away childish things), and the world is a darker and drearier place for it. But one unicorn survived and lives in a wood where everything is happy and perfect. When the Unicorn learns that there used to be more of her kind, she sets off to find them, travelling into a dark and sometimes unfriendly world (harsh reality). The unicorns are eventually set free, and in doing so, joy is restored to the dark and dreary world. But, during her time in our world, our Unicorn has learned some ugly things about the real world. Yet she feels she's grown because of these things. Her life now seems to be a balance between whimsy and harsh reality.

Just my opinion.

[–] watcher101 7 years ago

I never really thought about it before, but I think I'd say that the unicorn represented beauty and innocence while the red bull represented reality and all the nasty things that go with it. You can run from it, but it will always chase you. You just have to face it down and overcome these hardships, going through changes. You may maintain your innocence if it doesn't corrupt you, but you still won't be the same as before.

[–] aliholly-62819 7 years ago

Why can't it just be a story about a unicorn that's hunted by a Red Bull that does its masters bidding?

[–] nadia-chauvet 7 years ago

Innocence and its loss is a great one. Truth versus lies would be another.

I was thinking more along the lines of Life versus Death. On her journey to the world, out of her forest, the Unicorn experiences the seasons, and as a young lady, death. She feels the body dying all around her. She experiences what being mortal means, and therefore, passions, quests, desires, and love as symbolized by the Prince, get into sharp contrast on the background of death. Her forest at the beginning stays in eternal spring, while she has no quests or desires of her own.

It is something King Haggard cannot experience anymore, something like youth. Something he thought he could touch again with his fingertips if he owned all the unicorns of the world. But you can't reverse time, or hold it prisoner. And actually, to release the unicorns, the heroes have to go through Time, through a clock on the wall.

Same with Mama Fortuna. She tries to trap this as well, the Youthfulness, and immortality. But she can't hold something so truthful and pure: it is not made for one human being. It is made for all the earth to enjoy, all humans, in a transient way. The unicorn can be loved by the prince, but she can't belong to the prince only. When Mama Fortuna finally meets the Harpy face to face, she meets her death. She basically had life and death in a cage.

The unicorn represents nature as well, as symbolized by all the different fields and forests and scorched earth she travels through. You can't trap nature or master it fully. Like Youth, it slips through your hands because it is not made for one human's enjoyment only.

Just a few thoughts!