leeper@ahutb.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (04/15/85)
LADYHAWKE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Based on boxoffice results, I may be one of the very few people in the
world who liked DRAGONSLAYER. I very simply thought that it was the best
historical fantasy film that I had ever seen. Up to that point, I would
have judged films like THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD and JASON AND THE
ARGONAUTS as my favorites. But DRAGONSLAYER for the first time had a plot
that would have made a decent fantasy novel, and that was head and shoulders
above anything similar I'd ever seen on the screen. When I saw the coming
attractions for LADYHAWKE, for the first time I thought a film was coming
out that could be comparable in quality to DRAGONSLAYER. Well, it didn't
replace DRAGONSLAYER as my top historical fantasy but it easily comes in
second.
LADYHAWKE is a beautiful fantasy film set in Medieval France. It
follows the adventures of a likeable young pickpocket played unexpectedly
well by Matthew Broderick. He escapes from the evil bishop's dungeons and
is about to be re-captured when he is saved by the mysterious stranger
Navarre (Rutger Hauer) who travels with a hawk on his arm. At night man and
hawk disappear and are replaced by a beautiful woman who is often seen in
the company of a large and fierce wolf. The man and woman, it seems, are
lovers forever together but forever apart. A curse by the jealous bishop
turns Navarre into a wolf at night; his lover Isabeau becomes a hawk by day.
The story has a marvelous feel of real legend about it, and a haunting
beauty in the way it has been visualized on the screen.
Matthew Broderick's Phillipe is the main character and at the same time
comic relief. Broderick incessantly talks to God like Tevya does in FIDDLER
ON THE ROOF, but not always so reverently. He seems much better in the role
than I expected. Rutget Hauer is nearly perfect as the mysterious Navarre.
And lovely Michelle Pfeiffer of SCARFACE and INTO THE NIGHT is terrible as
Navarre's lover. The problem is that she talks like an American and wears
lipstick and eye-liner. She fits into the Medieval setting only slightly
better than Pacman.
And speaking of things out of place, Andrew Powell's rock score is
totally inappropriate. He takes scenes that otherwise have a beautiful
period and wreaks real havoc with the spirit and texture of the film. A
couple more faults, if you please. The camera work is usually very good,
but the use of color filters, particularly for the sky, is overdone. And
speaking of the sky, if you watch the moon and know some astronomy, you will
see something happen that is actually an impossibility. The script is
generally good, but too much of the legend we are simply told rather than
shown. Also note the anachronistic use of terrycloth.
Yet with all these faults, and more, this remains one beautiful and
enjoyable fantasy film. The settings, the photography, Hauer's acting, the
idea of the story are all marvelously realized. If this film dies at the
boxoffice the way DRAGONSLAYER did, perhaps modern audiences don't deserve
good fantasy.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!ahutb!leeper
But, on May 1, I become ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeperdwight@timeinc.UUCP (Dwight Ernest) (04/16/85)
We saw LADYHAWKE this weekend. I must take issue with several of your points, and add a couple of comments, after reading your fine review, Mark. First, on Michelle Pfeiffer as Isabeau: We thought she was extraordinarily appropriate in the role. She's beautiful, impetuous, strong-willed, and, yes, anachronistic in these strengths and in her power and her sexuality. But it's attractive to speculate how a "modern woman" would fit into these medieval times, and LADYHAWKE does just that. Your review was more than just a mild spoiler, incidentally-- perhaps I'm slow, but one of the most marvelous parts of the film was in slowly making the connection between the hawk and Isabeau, and between the man and the wolf. I'm glad I didn't know about that before I saw it. And you didn't mention the horse--Goodness, that horse--the black stallion--was just incredible. Perhaps, given your other cast-related comments, you could at least have given credit to someone, somewhere, for having made a most extraordinary casting decision when they found that horse. Verdict: Don't miss it. Enjoy it. Especially with your SO--for the scene at the end is perhaps one of the most romantic and delightful scenes ever filmed, although it's simple. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --Dwight Ernest KA2CNN \ Usenet:...vax135!timeinc!dwight Time Inc. Edit./Prod. Tech. Grp., New York City Voice: (212) 554-5061 \ Compuserve: 70210,523 Telemail: DERNEST/TIMECOMDIV/TIMEINC \ MCI: DERNEST "The opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Time Incorporated." -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
leeper@ahutb.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (04/18/85)
<this message may have been somehow screwed up in a previous posting> >We saw LADYHAWKE this weekend. I must take issue with >several of your points, and add a couple of comments, after >reading your fine review, Mark. Well, I can't complain if you take issue and in the same breath call it a "fine" review. Thanks. > >First, on Michelle Pfeiffer as Isabeau: We thought she was >extraordinarily appropriate in the role. She's beautiful, >impetuous, strong-willed, and, yes, anachronistic in these >strengths and in her power and her sexuality. That is not what I objected to. She just seems too American somehow. It doesn't help that I recently saw INTO THE NIGHT, but her accent seems all wrong. The makeup may have been a strong contributory factor, also. She just does not sound Medieval when she talks. Rutger Hauer, carried it off and I think Matthew Broderick was not too far out of place. I just never believed her character as coming out of that period. >Your review was more than just a mild spoiler, >incidentally-- perhaps I'm slow, but one of the most >marvelous parts of the film was in slowly making the >connection between the hawk and Isabeau, and between the man >and the wolf. I'm glad I didn't know about that before I >saw it. By the time I saw the film I saw the film I had heard the premise in presentations at science fiction conventions, in ads, on TV's At The Movies, in a presentation at a science fiction society by Joan Vinge who is writing the novel, etc. Also I contend it is almost impossible to review the film without giving that much away. Incidentally, none of these excuses would I find acceptable if the tables were turned and I had read just the USENET review before seeing the film. What can I say? I was desensitized by the advance publicity and I flubbed it. >And you didn't mention the horse--Goodness, that horse--the >black stallion--was just incredible. Perhaps, given your >other cast-related comments, you could at least have given >credit to someone, somewhere, for having made a most >extraordinary casting decision when they found that horse. Not a detail I am likely to notice. I thought that the horse looked good in BLACK STALLION, this one did not impress me so much, but it could be I just didn't notice. > >Verdict: Don't miss it. Enjoy it. Especially with your >SO--for the scene at the end is perhaps one of the most >romantic and delightful scenes ever filmed, although it's simple. I actually thought this scene was a bit drawn out and for reasons I won't mention here, unrealistic. (Well, it is mostly for what most of the people are doing or not doing in this scene.) Incidentally this last paragraph of yours is something of a minor spoiler in itself. I have to agree with your verdict. I was impressed with the film. Thank you for following up on my review. Mark Leeper ...ihnp4!ahutb!leeper
reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (04/20/85)
In article <144@timeinc.UUCP> dwight@timeinc.UUCP (Dwight Ernest) writes: > >And you didn't mention the horse--Goodness, that horse--the >black stallion--was just incredible. Perhaps, given your other >cast-related comments, you could at least have given credit >to someone, somewhere, for having made a most extraordinary >casting decision when they found that horse. > The horse apparently caused an incredible amount of trouble. It was one of those animals that likes its trainer but hates everyone else. Rutger Hauer and Matthew Broderick could count on it trying to bite them whenever they were mounted on it. It did look good, though. -- Peter Reiher reiher@ucla-cs.arpa {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher
@RUTGERS.ARPA:milne@uci-icse (04/20/85)
From: Alastair Milne <milne@uci-icse> > Based on boxoffice results, I may be one of the very few people > in the world who liked DRAGONSLAYER. I very simply thought that it > was the best historical fantasy film that I had ever seen. ... > DRAGONSLAYER for the first time had a plot that would have made a > decent fantasy novel, and that was head and shoulders above anything > similar I'd ever seen on the screen. Well, count me as at least one other who likes DragonSlayer. Though the plot was not exemplary to my mind, the production certainly was. In particular, whoever produced the dragon deserved an award. Whether flying, landed, near, distant, or close-up, it looked great. The blasts of fire washing over stone and tree (and people) looked marvelous. The landscapes were also magnificent, but then, they were northern Wales and the Isle of Skye, so it's to be expected. > LADYHAWKE is a beautiful fantasy film set in Medieval France. . . May I suggest an alternative classification? I think of LadyHawke as a love story with fantasy elements. > Matthew Broderick's Phillipe is the main character and at the > same time comic relief. . . . Rutget Hauer is > nearly perfect as the mysterious Navarre. And lovely Michelle > Pfeiffer of SCARFACE and INTO THE NIGHT is terrible as Navarre's > lover. The problem is that she talks like an American and wears > lipstick and eye-liner. . . . Now for a balancing opinion: I liked Broderick reasonably well, but he unsettled me several times when he tried several times to sound English, and finally gave up. VERY few Americans succeed in sounding English: Richard Gere in "Beyond the Limit", and William Hurt in "Gorky Park", come as close as I've ever heard. EVERYBODY in this film (except for the bishop) sounds American. I expected a slight German colour to Hauer's voice, but no: he just sounded American. (Of course, since I'm British, it may fall differently on my ear than it does on American ears.) I really liked Michelle Pfeiffer, at least as much as Hauer. Her quiet dignity and courage on awakening with a crossbow bolt in her breast, her gentle manner with Phillipe (whom she awed), on the one hand; and her outrage when she saw the furrier with a pelt on his pack horse, her charge into the soaking, black forest to kill him, and the contempt in her face as she threw her jesses at the bishop, on the other, impressed me much more than Navarre's constant bluffness (whether this was the character, or Hauer himself, I can't say). He seemed to delight in throwing away chances and rejecting advice and aid (though I don't deny, if he was suspicious, and not thinking clearly, he certainly had cause). > And speaking of things out of place, Andrew Powell's rock score > is totally inappropriate. He takes scenes that otherwise have a > beautiful period and wreaks real havoc with the spirit and texture > of the film. I agree totally. Fortunately, rock occupies a relatively small part of the score, usually occurring when the bishop's men are searching for Navarre and Philippe. The effect is terrible when it happens, though: a powerful, captivating mode is suddenly broken and rendered trivial when rock breaks in. It is, after all, essentially trivial music. Oh well, it could have been worse: John Williams might have imported more of Star Wars, as he did with Raiders, and E.T., and who knows what else. > . . . And speaking of the sky, if you watch the > moon and know some astronomy, you will see something happen that is > actually an impossibility. As opposed to a man's turning into a wolf, and a woman's becoming a hawk? :-) Seriously, though, I don't really worry about that sort of thing. How about the broad, 20th century roads winding about the hills in the distance behind Imperius' castle? I suspect the relevant Ministry of Transport was unwilling to have its roads muddied and narrowed just for the sake of a film. And as long as shooting takes much longer than the time depicted in the film, the moon will appear out of phase in the film. Or did you have something else in mind? > Yet with all these faults, and more, this remains one beautiful > and enjoyable fantasy film. The settings, the photography, Hauer's > acting, the idea of the story are all marvelously realized. I can't resist. To my mind, the most beautiful and moving scene of the film: the four of them (Phillipe, Imperius, Isabeau, and Navarre in wolf form) had spent the night in a trench below the snow. Isabeau and Phillipe were awake and out as the sun was coming up. Isabeau was watching Navarre, and Phillipe, from a distance, was watching them both. As the light grew stronger, Navarre transformed. He was lying with his back to Isabeau, unaware that she hadn't transformed, and she was reaching for him, but not close enough to touch. He turned over, and saw her, with the light strong behind her, streaming through her fingers. He was astonished, and you had to wonder: would she be spared the transformation this time? He started to reach for her --- and she transformed. He threw back his head, slammed his fists in the snow, and roared in pain. Unnoticed, Phillipe turned away, his face wet with tears. That scene has stayed with me as nothing else in the film did. > If this > film dies at the boxoffice the way DRAGONSLAYER did, perhaps modern > audiences don't deserve good fantasy. Perhaps they don't. Personally, I am waiting for somebody to do a film of Lord of the Rings which really does justice to the book (unlike Bakshi, who virtually threw the book away). I am, of course, prepared to wait a good, long time. But if and when it comes, if it is not acclaimed at the box office, then I will say that modern audiences most definitely do not deserve good fantasy. Alastair Milne
root@trwatf.UUCP (Lord Frith) (04/22/85)
> And you didn't mention the horse--Goodness, that horse--the > black stallion--was just incredible. Perhaps, given your other > cast-related comments, you could at least have given credit > to someone, somewhere, for having made a most extraordinary > casting decision when they found that horse. Yes, the stallion in LadyHawke IS amazing. He cantors... he gallops.... he does EVERYTHING right and with complete precision. And he doesn't do anything when he isn't supposed to. I'm still trying to figure out what breed of horse he is! Any clues here? He's far too large and muscular for an arabian. -- UUCP: ...{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!trwatf!root - Lord Frith ARPA: trwatf!root@SEISMO Or as Jabba the Hut would say, "Brrrruuuuuurrrrrrrpppppp!"
mupmalis@watarts.UUCP (mike upmalis) (04/23/85)
<<<<<>>>>> Ladyhawke! Did you see it? I'm still in shock over the fact that people actually applauded at the conclusion of the film. Ladyhawke is definitely a "B" grade movie. Isabeau and the Mouse are both too bloody american to be fantasy characters. There was no depth to the film. It is a film meant to satisfy the lowest common denominators in the viewing audience, which it does, but it left me high and dry. I like to be entranced when I watch a movie, but Ladyhawke just didn't have the enchantment necessary. Oh by the way, the bad guy gets skewered in the end. Big Surprise! Mark Taylor broadcasting from Elba..... -- ~~ Mike Upmalis (mupmalis@watarts)<University of Waterloo>
@RUTGERS.ARPA:Joseph.Henr@Xerox.ARPA (04/23/85)
From: Brenda <Joseph.Henr@Xerox.ARPA> I very heartily second everything in Dwight Ernest's review, plus would like to add a few comments of my own. In regard to Michelle Pfeiffer <<The makeup may have been a strong contributory factor, also>> to not thinking she looked the part. Did you happen to notice her hair?? I thought that this was an excellent touch. It bothered me that she had chopped hair, especially for the period, then I realized -- travelling only at night, never knowing where she was going to wake up, but mostly away from civilisation, she would soon chop off her hair, by herself - with her dagger, to make it easier to take care of. I thought this was an excellent touch, and nicely understated. >>Your review was more than just a mild spoiler, incidentally-- >>perhaps I'm slow, but one of the most marvelous parts of the film >>was in slowly making the connection between the hawk and Isabeau, >>and between the man and the wolf. I'm glad I didn't know about >>that before I saw it. >By the time I saw the film I had heard the premise in presentations >at science fiction conventions, in ads, on TV's At The Movies, in a >presentation at a science fiction society by Joan Vinge who is >writing the novel, etc. Also I contend it is almost impossible to >review the film without giving that much away. I'm very sorry you had already heard, and I noticed that every review I saw (luckily after I saw the film) gave away the secret. Its too bad -- a lot of enjoyment of the film from figuring this out. I totally disagree that you can't review this film without giving it away. Do people always give away the main plot device when reviewing mysteries?? Don't they find ways around it? >>the scene at the end is perhaps one of the most romantic and >>delightful scenes ever filmed, although it's simple. >I actually thought this scene was a bit drawn out and for reasons I >won't mention here, unrealistic. I think that this scene (well, admittedly only the two main people, but the rest were in a bit of a shock, and may have known the full story....) was very realistic. Think about the times invoved here. I'm trying not to make this a spoiler, but my G'd, if I had been through what they had,I would have done exactly that and there. I would not just calmly walk away to a nice private, more appropriate place like some movies have them do. Admittedly, this is not a perfect movie -- there are stereotypical characters, Mathew Broderick's on-again-off-again accent bothered me the first time I saw it. But I just went to see it again (after reading your review and three bad reviews in papers and magazines) and I still think that this is one of the best fantasy/love stories (my favorite genre) I've seen in awhile. I hope people go themselves to make up your mind -- I don't think yuo'll be disappointed. ~Brenda PS I took my boyfriend this time -- He introduced me to SF (has been reading it all his life), who likes to play D&D and read some fantasy (Zelazny's Dilvish, Niven's warlock, etc) but is not into love stories or all the fantasy I am into and he liked it. Also, for a very realistic, scientific, strong control over his emotions kind of guy, there were tears in his eyes at a certain sunrise scene.