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From: leeper@ahutb.UUCP (m.r.leeper)
Newsgroups: net.movies,net.sf-lovers
Subject: LADYHAWKE
Message-ID: <664@ahutb.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Apr-85 08:02:08 EST
Article-I.D.: ahutb.664
Posted: Mon Apr 15 08:02:08 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Apr-85 04:59:31 EST
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                                 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!leeper