That's what makes the film so intriguing, is that its deliberately ambiguous.
Their are hints that it could all just be Sarah's imagination...when we first enter Sarah's room and the camera pans over her bookshelves and stuff if you really pay attention you'll see things from her adventure all over...
(Hoggle is a bookstop, Sir Dydimus is a stuffed animal, she's got a Labyrinth boardgame and a Escher poster on her wall, her music box plays the tune 'As the World Falls Down', etc) so the film is open ended enough to be interpreted either way.
And with regards to Jareth, Brian Froud who helped create the character with David Bowie has said in the commentary track of the film that he deliberately created Jareth to be the embodiment of all Sarah would find enticing...he has to be a temptation for her and the start of her sexual awareness as a young girl transitioning into a woman. So he's a hodgepodge of many things, in Brian's own words...he's a Knight from Grimms Fairy Tales, he's a bit of Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, he's got a bit of Japanese kabuki influence, he's also a rebel from the wild bunch, and finally he's a rockstar aka David Bowie
If we view the film as taking place in Sarahs imagination, we see clearly thatJareths ultimate purpose is not just to be an obstical for her to overcome but to also symbolize the fact that she is growing up. Why else would Sarah turn her adversary into a badboy wearing skintight pants and leather? Because every teenage girls weakness is the badboy with the motorcycle right, lol? If she were a prepubescent child she probably would have imagined him as a goblin with warts and all.
reply
share