Review of Ladyhawke (1985) by Allan C — 14 Jul 2016

I know this isn't a great film and I also know that it has quite a few flaws, but it's a film I have quite a fondness for. Matthew Broderick (grossly miscast) plays a medieval pickpocket and starts the film off by escaping from an inescapable castle dungeon.

He's chased by castle guards, but is saved by Rutger Hauer and his hawk. After a bit of time and puzzlement, Broderick figures out that Hauer and the hawk are cursed. A jealous tyrant who loved Michelle Pfeiffer cursed her and Hauer so that each night he turns into a wolf and each dawn she turns into a hawk, making it so the two can never be together as lovers.

Hauer then wants Broderick to help him get into the castle he escaped from so he can exact his revenge. It's a solid medieval fantasy story and the film features excellent production values, along with excellent photography by Vittorio Storaro.

The parts that don't work so well are that Ferris Bueller really shouldn't be anywhere near medieval fantasy, the out of place synthesizer prog rock score by Andrew Powell that also includes a number of period appropriate music seems inconsistent, along with Richard Donner's direction, which at times seems too flashy for a medieval tale, though I must also credit Donner with some very elegantly directed scenes at well.

However, the film's oddly 1980s version of medieval England does work for me, although I'm not sure it would work for everyone. I also have to admit that I really like Andrew Powell's synthesizer heavy score, even if synthesizers seem wholly inappropriate for a tale of knights and maidens.

One scene in this film always stuck in my head and was still quite good, which is the one where Hauer and Pfeiffer at one dawn manage to see each other in their human form for a few moments before their transformations happen.

It was a scene that really stuck with me as a kid and it still works well now, which I think I would credit to the performances by Hauer and Pfeiffer. This film also reminded me of what a tragedy it is that Hauer had so few good films as a leading actor.

Not including his Dutch films, he really didn't have many good films to his credit outside of "Blade Runner," "Flesh + Blood," and this one. Sure, I enjoyed "The Hitcher," "Blind Fury," and "Wanted: Dead or Alive" but those films are really just corny fun.

Even "Flesh + Blood" and "Ladyhawke" are flawed films. "Blade Runner" is his only film that's a true classic, but his performance in that film will be enough to ensure he is remembered forever as an actor.

But back to "Ladyhawke," Hauer did a great job as a romantic leading man, and this is the only of his English language films where I can recall that he played a romantic lead, which he pulls off quite successfully.

Overall, for better or for worse, this is a very 1980s of film that I dearly love and may have lost all objectivity on, but regardless, I really like it.