Hudson Hawk

 

Stealin’ Groovy

Hudson Hawk
USA 1991
Directed by Michael Lehmann
Signal One Entertainment
Blu Ray Zone B

For some reason I’ve never really been able to get the hang of this movie. I remember going to see it on its initial cinema run back in 1991 because I quite liked Bruce Willis and the plot looked amazing. I remember coming out of the cinema thinking... well, it’s watchable, just about but, it didn’t really do much for me. However, my dad absolutely loved this movie from the first time he saw it and so, since he’d not seen it in a long while, I grabbed him a Blu Ray of this for a birthday and sat and watched it with him. I have to say... I still think it’s a bit of a mess.

The film starts off with Leonardo DaVinci who, unlike the real life version, has just invented a machine that turns base metal into gold. Why he uses a metal looking crystal which can be split into three parts rather than a single, sturdy component is anybody’s guess but, for some reason known only to himself, the machine goes unused after its initial test run and the three parts are hidden in three of Leonardo’s objects (a statue, a model and his codex). Cut to 1991 and Bruce Willis enters the story as Hudson Hawk, a cat burglar extraordinaire who is released from prison after ten years. He is met by his friend Tommy Two Tone, played by Danny Aiello but, alas, everybody and everyone wants him to steal the three artefacts that hold the three, interlocking components of the crystal. This includes an interested division of the church... with their nun secret agent Anna, played by Andie MacDowell... and a fair few villains who are all working together such as the CIA guy played by James Coburn and the over the top husband and wife team played by Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard.

Shenanigans follow as The Hawk, Tommy and Anna try to stay alive and on top of the frustratingly fluid plot line as pretty much every scene is played for laughs and kinetic energy. And it’s got great actors, as you can see... keeps moving at a fair lick and has some outstanding gags and set pieces. It must also have been a complete nightmare to edit, too and I understand some of the shoot was a bit chaotic here as well.

There are also some great movie references in here too. Coburn’s character, for instance, is foreshadowed by some computer encoded handcuffs placed on Willis which sound the same Jerry Goldsmith melody used for the presidential hotline phones in the Flint movies. Another nod to Coburn’s Flint films comes in a scene where Andie McDowell is drugged and believes she is speaking Dolphin, although the sounds she makes are not quite like those uttered by Coburn when he’s conversing with the dolphins in In Like Flint. Even Coburn’s character name in Hudson Hawk is a famous movie reference... George Caplan, aka the name of the fictional agent Cary Grant gets mistaken for in North By Northwest. Interestingly, the director of Hudson Hawk is Michael Lehmann and the writer of the Hitchcock movie was Ernest  Michael Lehman although, spelling aside, I can’t find anything on the internet to confirm or deny that there’s a family connection there.

And it is a fun film, there’s no denying that. The two cat burglars using perfect timing to old songs they sing to synchronise their movements is a really nice element, for sure. But then again the notorious 1967 version of Casino Royale was also a fun film but, it can still be quite gruelling to sit through in one session. Ultimately, I think there were so many script rewrites and ideas thrown out on the set (which I understand, from what I’ve heard from other directors, is kinda typical of what it’s like to work with Bruce Willis) that the film is kind of like an overcooked pudding with two many ingredients all fighting with each other. I think maybe the film is just not tight enough and, the chaotic nature of it aside, maybe could have done with a few less laughs and a little more focus. My understanding is that, from the point of view of many of the actors, it’s not that well liked a film... with many of the people who worked on it (including Willis himself) not having too much of a kind word to say about it. Which is a shame because I can’t help but think there’s a much better film still trapped in the stone waiting to be chiselled out, so to speak, than was realised at the time. The film is completely silly... something I would normally support in most any film... but it’s kind of overwhelming in the intensity to just cram everything and the kitchen sink in when it comes to the amount of jokes piled into the scenes.

The late, great Michael Kamen’s score is okay but, the action, sound mix and gag rate do kind of get in the way of trying to appreciate it a lot of the time and, perhaps a stand alone listen would be more useful when it comes to appreciating just how good or bad the scoring is. It seems appropriate to the tone but this doesn’t really allow for any melodic recognition throughout the picture to tie things together on an emotional level, it seems to me.

At the end of the day, I’d have to say that, while Hudson Hawk is certainly an interesting diversion for people who want to see just how a movie can, maybe, go off the rails a little (enough to bankrupt the company bankrolling it, is my understanding... it was a huge flop) and it hasn’t aged all that badly, truth be told. It’s still a bit of a mess though and probably one of my least favourite Bruce Willis films, for sure.