After getting multiple requests to review 1985’s Ladyhawke, I suggested to my wife that we might curl up on the couch, hold each other close and watch a beloved romantic movie. Her response? “Hell no, that movie is f***ing awful!”
So much for romance. Still determined to watch this film, I therefore embarked on that most noble quest of husbands everywhere – proving their wife wrong.
Therefore, is Ladyhawke any good? For those who have not seen it (warning, spoilers ahead), Ladyhawke tells the story of the knight Etienne and the noblewoman Isabeau, both cursed by an evil Bishop who sold his soul to hell. As a result, Isabeau spends her days transformed into a hawk, while Etienne spends his nights as a wolf, the pair only seeing each other for a split second at the change of day. The circuit-breaker characters are the drunken monk Imperius and Phillipe “the Mouse,” a thief who acts as the messenger between the two lovers.
So what does Ladyhawke do well? For starters, the lead trio, Rutger Hauer as the dark knight, Michelle Pheiffer as the ethereal Isabeau, and Matthew Broderick as the upbeat Phillipe, are perfect in their roles. Hauer is every inch the brooding warrior, and Pheiffer commands the audience’s attention every time she is on screen. My favourite in the film is Broderick, who brings some much-needed humour to the role as the thief who constantly prays to God to get him out of trouble, knowing that he is going to go back to sinning the moment he wriggles out of things.
The overall pacing is a slow burn, the film revealing the backstory in a series of small reveals, and by and large this serves the story well. I also loved the use of physical sets, the film utilising real-life Italian castles Torrechiara and Rocca Calascio. Watching Ladyhawke made me realise how much I missed the presence of a real set over the constant green screens of today’s movies.
Ok, so where does Ladyhawke fall down? To put it bluntly, some of the writing. The opening setup is a tangled mess of sights and sounds, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I already knew the film’s central premise, nothing in the first twenty minutes would make a lot of sense. When the hawk/wolf relationship is finally revealed it… immediately shuffles into the background. There is such fantastic opportunity for Phillipe to watch in horror as each change occurs, to be terrified, mystified or excited, but the scenes switch from night to day in quick succession without any apparent comment. At the very least we should have had a scene of a buck naked Rutger Hauer swearing to himself as he blearily wanders around the forest every morning looking for his underwear.
A quirk of the dialogue is Phillipe making up love messages between Etienne and Isabeau, but this is another wasted opportunity. For a film based upon the eternal love of the knight and noblewoman, there is such little information about their backstory! The lovers could have used Phillipe to send real messages, each a little Two Line Story, referencing private understandings, shared jokes, memories or ongoing arguments. Unfortunately, it is not until the midpoint of the film when the very Aussie monk Imperius sits Phillipe down and just delivers the story as a block retelling.
The final problem (and I’m sorry if I’m being hard here) is the villainous Bishop, ably played by the intimidating John Wood. There’s no urgency to his presence, so Isabeau is not fighting some magical countdown where she will stay transformed forever. For a Bishop who sold his sold to hell, I thought he would be more of an active role, but he doesn’t seem to do much outside of sending out his soldiers and a fur trapper (a subplot which didn’t really seem to go anywhere). When the final conflict arrives, I thought he’d pull out some kind of cool demonic curse powers, but the Bishop just kind of stands there like a nonce until it’s too late to stop anything anyway. Again, a missed opportunity.
Alright then, what are we left with? Ladyhawke is far from perfect, but my wife gets the better of me far too often for me to just admit defeat on this one. I’d say Ladyhawke is a flawed but beautiful classic.
Agree? Disagree? Have another film you’d like me to watch? Please leave a comment below!
Leave a Reply