I kept telling everyone about how I needed to see Ladyhawke and everyone's response was, why? I feel like people know of it, but no one has actually seen it. One of my friends asked if there was time-traveling in the plot. Spoiler Alert: there is not. There is, however, a tragically romantic curse that keeps the lovers apart while they are together. (Aren't those always the best kind? I want people to suffer for their love. To love is to burn, to be on fire... ) By day the lady is in the form of a hawk and by night her lover, the knight, takes the form of a wolf. Thus preventing them from being human together at the same time. Aww...
Unfortunately, for a having the film named after her, there is not nearly enough lady (plenty of hawk). Instead, we are saddled with a fresh-faced Matthew Broderick as a thief named Mouse. They should have named the film Ferris Bueller Annoyingly Talks to Himself in a Quasi-British Accent for Two Hours. It was seriously grating. I'm not sure what he was trying to do with that character.
Since the transformations revolve around sunrise and sunset, there were some beautiful long-shots of mountains and lakes bathed in golden light. But, just like when I visit a museum, I'm not here for landscapes. I need a face. Luckily, the film has one of the most gorgeous faces to ever grace the screen, Michelle Pfeiffer. I was a little obsessed with her Catwoman as a kid. I may or may not have walked around the neighborhood with a one-handled jump rope wrapped around my body to simulate her look with a whip. And Ladyhawke is one of her few films that I hadn't seen–and really the only reason I was watching the movie now. After a torturous, Pfeiffer-less first half-an-hour of the film, I was starting to get antsy. Just give me what I came to see already! Finally, at about the 24 minute mark, the pay-off:
I'm not really sure what else happened in the movie–something about an archbishop and a drunk priest and breaking the curse while going through a sewer. I kinda just let it play in the background and came back if I heard some Michelle or if I felt like rocking out to the 80s-tastic synth score (cause that was a good choice for a period piece–electronic music). But, my one take-away is: nothing makes a tragic lover look more chic than an amazing hood.
After the jump, a celebration of the hood.
I like your line "not nearly enough lady plenty of hawk". I can never get enough of Michelle, especially wearing that hood!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your entry and it's always a pleasure to meet another Pfeiffer pfan.
thanks for the compliments! it's true, michelle is the best part of 'ladyhawke' and she rocks a hood like a boss.
ReplyDeletenice to meet a fellow pfan as well. i'll see michelle in anything. even 'dark shadows'...