Why The Dark Crystal (1982) Had No Human Characters — And Why That Was the Point

Jim Henson's answer to this criticism, had he been inclined to give it, would have been that the criticism described the film's intention rather than its failure.

The conventional approach Henson refused

Every live-action fantasy film of the era solved the problem of an alien or fantastical world the same way: by placing a human character inside it. Luke Skywalker is the human who sees the wonders of Star Wars on behalf of the audience. Dorothy is the human who sees Oz. The human protagonist is a camera — a device that translates the fantastical into something the audience can relate to, because they can relate to a person having a reaction even when they cannot relate to the thing the person is reacting to.

Henson had been thinking about this convention for years, and he had come to believe it was a limitation disguised as a solution. Providing a human intermediary allowed the audience to stay at a comfortable distance from the world being shown. They were watching a person watch the world. Henson wanted them to watch the world itself.

Removing the human character removed the translator. The Gelflings, Jen and Kira, are close enough to human to carry emotional information, but not human enough to provide the comfortable identification that a human face provides. The audience cannot lean on the familiar. They have to meet the world of Thra on the world's own terms.

What the critics called "coldness"

Vincent Canby of the New York Times called the film "dramatically stillborn." Roger Ebert gave it two and a half stars and found himself unable to care about the characters. These were not dishonest reviews. They were accurate descriptions of an experience that the critics were measuring against the wrong standard.

A film that removes the human-face guarantee will, by design, produce a different kind of audience engagement: slower to arrive, less familiar in its texture, requiring something more from the viewer than identification with a recognizable emotional register. This is not failure. It is a different relationship between the film and its audience. The critics of 1982 measured it against the standard of instant emotional access and found it wanting. The audiences who have returned to the film over four decades have found, on the terms the film actually offers, something they could not find anywhere else.

The Skeksis as proof that it worked

If the film's emotional argument had truly failed, the Skeksis would be forgettable. They are not. The Skeksis, the decomposing vulture-lords who rule the Crystal palace and sustain themselves by draining the life from others, are among the most memorable screen creatures of their decade, and they are memorable not because they are physically spectacular but because they are legible. Their court is a dark farce. Their grief at the Emperor's death lasts approximately ninety seconds before someone starts measuring the throne. Their cruelty is habitual rather than passionate, the evil of beings who have been doing the same terrible things for so long that they have forgotten what evil costs.

Henson built these characters without a single human face in the frame, and they work more fully as social satire than most human-cast films of the era achieved. The absence of a human character to point at them and react does not make them less affecting. It makes them more direct. There is no interpreter between you and the Skeksis. They are right there, in the frame, and what they are is entirely visible.

FAQ: The Dark Crystal (1982) Characters and Design

Why are there no human characters in The Dark Crystal (1982)?

Jim Henson deliberately chose to make a film with no human characters, believing that placing a human protagonist inside a fantastical world allowed the audience to keep their distance from that world. Without a human intermediary, the audience is forced to engage with Thra on its own terms.

Who are the Skeksis in The Dark Crystal?

The Skeksis are the ruling species of Thra in The Dark Crystal, physically large and deteriorating creatures who sustain their existence by corrupting the Crystal's power. They are one half of the original urSkeks, split in an ancient accident. Each Skeksis has a counterpart among the urRu.

Was The Dark Crystal (1982) a box-office failure?

The film grossed approximately $41 million in North America against a production budget of approximately $25-28 million. The international performance was moderate. It was not a disaster, but it was not the commercial success the production's ambition had required.

What makes The Dark Crystal different from other fantasy films?

The film's complete absence of human characters, its cosmological argument that the story's darkness is not foreign evil but a separated part of the whole, and its willingness to end with loss and departure rather than a restored status quo distinguish it from virtually every other fantasy film of its era.

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