Hawk Tale

In a recent discussion about "movies you loved when you saw them years ago as a kid," I mentioned Willow as a prime example. I'm fairly sure I went to see it four times in the theater. And today, I'm basically terrified of ever seeing it again, as I'm almost certain it's going to fall far short of my lofty memories of it.

Somewhere in the conversation, another movie came up which I confessed to never having seen: Ladyhawke. I pledged to give it a try, but also planned to keep my expectations in check.

What a truly strange concoction this movie is. It wants to be a period piece, set in some unspecified medieval time in our real world... and yet magic is at the core of the story in the form of a curse that separates two lovers by having each alternately change into animal forms with the rising and setting sun.

It wants to be comedic, in that the tale initially revolves around Matthew Broderick's character, a strange blend of wittiness and helplessness, of Ferris Bueller and his buddy from that movie, Cameron Frye. But it then evolves into a very straight and sincere love story revolving around the characters played by Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer.

I would have thought that of the two, I'd prefer the "Matthew Broderick movie." I was quite surprised instead to find myself rather bored with the first 45 minutes or so of the film, but suddenly engaged when the movie got serious. I wish the entire film had had more of the tone of the last half. The less of Broderick's now-you-hear-it-now-you-don't vaguely British accent, the better.

But the thing that barred my initial access to the movie more than anything else was the just plain awful musical score. It's pure 80s synth rock, which manages to do triple damage to the movie every time it comes on. First, it hopelessly dates the movie to the time it was made. Secondly, it completely rubs against the film's attempts to establish a credible medieval setting. Third, it turns every serious scene it underscores into a joke. I think if you could somehow replace the score with some cuts from, say, Howard Shore's work on The Lord of the Rings, the film would instantly jump a full letter grade or more in my eyes. Or ears, I suppose.

I wanted to like the movie more. And if I had just skipped the first act, I probably would have. As it was, though, I think it was only about a C+ for me. I talked of remakes recently; this feels like a prime candidate to me. There's a great story at the core of this that I think just wasn't realized quite right.