Ladyhawke (film)

Ladyhawke is a 1985 medieval fantasy film directed and produced by Richard Donner and starring Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer. The story is about a young thief who becomes unwillingly involved with a warrior and his lady who are hunted by the Bishop of Aquila. As he learns about the couple's past and secret, he chooses to help them overcome the Bishop's forces, and to lift an infernal curse.

In the same year, Joan D. Vinge published a novelization of the film, also titled Ladyhawke.

Plot
In medieval Italy, Phillipe Gaston, a thief known as "The Mouse", escapes from the Bishop of Aquila's dungeons before execution. He is recaptured at an inn by the Bishop's guards, led by Captain Marquet. The former captain, Etienne Navarre, shows up and defeats Marquet and his guards. As Navarre and Phillipe flee on horseback, Navarre's hawk scatters the other guards, aiding the escape.

Navarre and Phillipe ask for lodging at a farmer's barn. At dusk, the farmer sneaks up on Phillipe with an axe but gets killed by an enormous black wolf. Phillipe runs back to the barn to get Navarre's help. Instead he sees a beautiful young woman dressed in Navarre's cloak. She walks out and keeps company with the wolf.

Days later Navarre reveals he seeks to kill the Bishop, and asks Phillipe to help him get inside Aquila. Phillipe refuses and gets tied up to a tree. That night Phillipe sees the woman again and tricks her into cutting his bond. Phillipe gets caught by the Bishop's guards again the next day. He tells them Navarre is riding to Aquila.

The guards set up an ambush for Navarre. While Phillipe's attempt at escape alerts Navarre to the ambush, both Navarre and his hawk get hit by crossbows, and the hawk falls from the sky. Navarre fights on and manages to defeat the guards. The injured Navarre orders Phillipe to ride his horse and take the debilitated hawk to the ruined castle of a monk named Imperius for help.

Imperius sequesters the hawk in a room, but a curious Phillipe picks the lock and finds the beautiful woman inside, her chest struck with a crossbow bolt. After tending to her wound, Imperius explains that she is Isabeau of Anjou, who once refused the Bishop's unwelcome advances. After a drunken Imperius leaked the fact that Navarre and Isabeau had secretly wedded, the enraged Bishop put the couple under a satanic curse which turns Isabeau into a hawk by day and Navarre a wolf by night. Even though they stay by each other, the curse keeps them eternally apart.

The ruined castle is invaded by the Bishop's guards at daybreak. They chase Isabeau and Phillipe up a tower, and Isabeau falls over its edge. Despite Phillipe's effort to hold onto her, she falls after all, but gets transformed and saved by the first sunlight and flies away as a hawk.

Navarre catches up to the castle and dispatches the last of the guards. Imperius tells him that the curse can be broken if the couple face the Bishop as humans on "a day without a night and a night without a day". Navarre dismisses Imperius as an old drunk, and continues on his way to Aquila, intent on simply killing the Bishop for revenge. Phillipe volunteers to join Navarre and "Ladyhawke", and bids Imperius to follow them.

After the group's perilous encounter with Cezar, a wolf trapper sent by the Bishop, and Phillipe saving the Navarre-wolf from a frozen river, Phillipe convinces the couple to try breaking the curse. At night, Imperius and Isabeau smuggle the Navarre-wolf into Aquila, while Phillipe dives through the sewers to get to the cathedral.

Seeing no divine sign on the day that he and Isabeau are to appear as humans together, Navarre reverts to his original plan to kill the Bishop. He asks Imperius to euthanize the Isabeau-hawk should the cathedral bells ring, which would mean he had failed.

Phillipe infiltrates the cathedral and unlocks its doors. Navarre rides in and duels with Marquet. Suddenly noticing a solar eclipse through a window, Navarre realizes Imperius has been right. He tries to get back to Imperius, but fails to keep the guards from ringing the bell. Despairing that Imperius has killed Isabeau, Navarre continues his fight and eventually kills Marquet.

As Navarre is about to strike down the Bishop, a human Isabeau enters the cathedral and stops him. Together they face the Bishop and break the curse. The maddened Bishop tries to kill Isabeau, only to die by Navarre's sword. Isabeau and Navarre finally embrace in joy.

Cast
Akeela, Kollchek, Levi, and Sasha—a quartet of melanistic Siberian wolves—as Etienne's lupine form. Gift (c. 1979 – 2 or 3 December 2014) and Ladyhawke (d. May 2007) (named Spike II until 2000) —two female red-tailed hawks—as Isabeau's avian form.
 * Matthew Broderick as Phillipe Gaston, a young thief known as "The Mouse".
 * Rutger Hauer as Etienne of Navarre, the former captain of the guard of Aquila, who is hunted by the Bishop.
 * Michelle Pfeiffer as Isabeau of Anjou, the Comte d'Anjou's daughter, who is hunted by the Bishop.
 * Leo McKern as Imperius, an old monk living in a ruined castle who used to serve the Bishop.
 * John Wood as the Bishop of Aquila, who is obsessed with killing Etienne and capturing Isabeau.
 * Ken Hutchison as Captain Marquet, the current captain of the guard.
 * Alfred Molina as Cezar, a wolf trapper who serves the Bishop.
 * Giancarlo Prete as Fornac, a guard lieutenant.
 * Loris Loddi as Jehan, a guard lieutenant.

Production


Richard Donner had attempted to get the film financed for a number of years and came close to making it twice, once in England and once in Czechoslovakia. He eventually got the project up at Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, where it was green-lit by Alan Ladd Jr. Originally, Kurt Russell was cast as the male lead alongside Michelle Pfeiffer. The role of the pickpocket was offered to Sean Penn and then Dustin Hoffman, before Donner decided to go with Matthew Broderick. Eventually, Russell pulled out during rehearsals, and Rutger Hauer was chosen to replace him.

Writer Edward Khmara stated "The story of two lovers kept apart by taking human form only at opposite times of day was an inspiration that occurred to me while jogging on the roof of the Hollywood YMCA. The studio contention that "Ladyhawke" is based on an old legend is, in fact, a violation of Writers Guild rules, since it denies me full rights of authorship. The Guild undertook an action against Warner Bros, on this account … and a small amount of money was paid as compensation ... Warner Bros., or its publicity department, continues to circulate material restating the old legend story. The inspiration for the character of Phillipe the Mouse was Francois Villon. His "Testament" recounts his imprisonment and mistreatment by Bishop Thibault d'Aussigny, in the dungeons of Meung. When the Dauphin, soon to be Louis XI of France, passed through Meung on his way to the coronation, he freed the prisoners, including Villon. This incident was actually used in the original story of "Ladyhawke."

Filming locations
Ladyhawke was filmed in Italy; the Apennine meadow of Campo Imperatore in Abruzzo served as a prominent exterior location, while the monk scene was filmed at Rocca Calascio, a ruined fortress on top of a mountain, not far from real-world L'Aquila. In the region of Emilia-Romagna, the town of Castell'Arquato in the province of Piacenza and castle of Torrechiara in the province of Parma were also featured. Other Italian locations used include Soncino in the Lombardy region, Belluno in the Veneto region, and the Lazio region around Viterbo.

Soundtrack
Andrew Powell composed the score, and it was produced by Alan Parsons. Richard Donner stated that he was listening to The Alan Parsons Project (on which Powell collaborated) while scouting for locations, and became unable to separate his visual ideas from the music. Powell combined traditional orchestral music and Gregorian chant with contemporary progressive rock–infused material. At the time, it was part of a trend among 1980s fantasy films of abandoning the lush orchestral scores of composers such as John Williams, James Horner, and Jerry Goldsmith in favor of a modern pop/rock sound. The soundtrack album was released in 1985 and re-released with additional tracks in 1995. On February 10, 2015, a two-disc set was released by La-La Land Records; it includes previously unreleased music and bonus tracks and was limited to 3,000 units.

The film soundtrack, composed by Andrew Powell, has met some criticism, with some saying the synthesizer laden track is incongruous for a medieval themed movie,   while others were more critical, with one reviewer calling it the "cream of the crop when it comes to atrocious scores" and another saying it sounded like an "exercise video that got played on top of a low budget '80s sitcom". It has been placed at the top of a list of worst movie soundscores, and appears on three other lists of bad movie music. Another commentator calls it one of the most "widely mocked soundtracks in the history of film".

Powell has commented on the poor reception to the soundtrack, explaining that he did not in fact use a lot of rock music in it, and that the criticism was not warranted because even a "classical" soundtrack would still be anachronistic. He has not worked on many film soundtracks since.

Box office
The film was a box-office disappointment, grossing around $18.4 million against a $20 million budget and ranking 48th for the year at the North American box office.

Critical response
Ladyhawke has a rating of 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 30 critics' reviews. The site's consensus states: "There's pacing problems, but Ladyhawke has an undeniable romantic sweep that's stronger than most fantasy epics of its ilk."

Vincent Canby in The New York Times called the film "divided against itself", and went on to say that "scenes of high adventure or of visual splendor... are spliced between other scenes with dialogue of a banality that recalls the famous Tony Curtis line, 'Yondah lies my faddah's castle. Time Out called it "all rather facile sword-and-sorcery stuff, of course, but at times very funny... and always beautifully photographed". Variety described the film as a "very likeable, very well-made fairytale... worthwhile for its extremely authentic look alone". Siskel and Ebert both gave the film positive "thumbs up" reviews on their syndicated television show and thought Ladyhawke was beautifully filmed with the potential to achieve lasting success as a classic in its genre. Siskel's only major complaint was that Broderick's role was almost anachronistic in his 1980s-style jokes, while Ebert felt Broderick's comedic elements were fitting.

The New York Times singled out Matthew Broderick's skill in coming "very close to transforming contemporary wisecracks – particularly, his asides to God – into a more ageless kind of comedy", and said of Michelle Pfeiffer that her "presence, both ethereal and erotic, is so vivid that even when she's represented as a hawk, she still seems to be on the screen". Variety praised the casting of the lead actors, considering Pfeiffer "perfect as the enchanting beauty". Time Out called Rutger Hauer "camp" and Pfeiffer "decorative".

Colin Greenland reviewed Ladyhawke for Imagine magazine, and stated that "a singular tale of witchcraft, love and courage, with a fascinating idea that it almost makes the most of".

Accolades
Ladyhawke was nominated for two Academy Awards, in the categories of Best Sound (Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, Vern Poore and Bud Alper) and Best Sound Effects Editing (Bob Henderson and Alan Murray), winning neither. It won a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, and was nominated in the categories of Best Actress (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Best Music (Andrew Powell).