1991 film by Michael Lehmann
Hudson Hawk
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by
| Michael Lehmann
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Screenplay by
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Story by
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Produced by
| Joel Silver
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Starring
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Cinematography
| Dante Spinotti
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Edited by
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Music by
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Production
company
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Distributed by
| Tri-Star Pictures
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Release date
|
- May 24, 1991
(
1991-05-24
)
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Running time
| 100 minutes
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Country
| United States
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Language
| English
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Budget
| $65 million
[1]
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Box office
| $97 million
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Hudson Hawk
is a 1991 American
action comedy film
directed by
Michael Lehmann
.
[2]
Bruce Willis
stars in the title role and also co-wrote both the story and the theme song.
[
citation needed
]
Danny Aiello
,
Andie MacDowell
,
James Coburn
,
David Caruso
,
Lorraine Toussaint
,
Frank Stallone
,
Sandra Bernhard
and
Richard E. Grant
are also featured.
[3]
The
live action
film employs
cartoon
-style
slapstick
heavily, including
sound effects
, which enhances the film's signature
surreal humor
. The plot combines material based on
conspiracy theories
,
secret societies
, and historic mysteries, as well as outlandish "
clockpunk
" technology
a la
Coburn's
Our Man Flint
films of the 1960s.
[4]
A recurring plot device in the film has Hudson and his partner Tommy "Five-Tone" (Aiello) singing songs concurrently but separately, to time and synchronize their exploits. Willis-Aiello duets of
Bing Crosby
's "
Swinging on a Star
" and
Paul Anka
's "
Side by Side
" are featured on the film's soundtrack.
The film was a huge critical and commercial failure in the United States, only grossing $17 million and earning three
Razzies
(including
Worst Picture
), but it was better received internationally and grossed $80 million for a worldwide total of $97 million.
Plot
[
edit
]
Eddie Hawkins?"Hudson Hawk" (from the bracing winds off the
Hudson
)?is a master cat burglar and
safe-cracker
with a penchant for using low-tech solutions against high-tech security systems and for conducting his robberies with precise, synchronized timing (later revealed to be a robust catalog of memorized music that he and his partner(s) sing along with during jobs).
Upon Hawk's release and on his first day of parole, he and his former partner, Tommy "Five-Tone" Messina, seek out a good cup of cappuccino. However, before Hawk can get it, he is
blackmailed
by various entities. These include his parole officer, the minor Mario Brothers
Mafia
family, and the
CIA
, who push him into doing a few art heists.
Hawk refuses each, despite mounting pressure and coercion, stating that his only real desires are to remain out of prison and enjoy a good cup of cappuccino -- though he is
repeatedly interrupted before doing so
. Hawk eventually relents and proceeds to
case
the art pieces.
Unbeknownst to Hawk, his blackmailers are all being manipulated by the American corporation, Mayflower Industries, run by husband-and-wife Darwin and Minerva Mayflower and their butler, Alfred. Headquartered in the
Esposizione Universale Roma
, the company seeks to take over the world by building La Macchina dell'Oro, a machine invented by
Leonardo da Vinci
that
converts lead into gold
.
An assembly of
crystals
needed for the machine to function are hidden in a variety of Leonardo's artworks: the
maquette
of the
Sforza
, the
Da Vinci Codex
, and a scale model of da Vinci's helicopter. Sister Anna Baragli is an operative for a secret
Vatican
counter-espionage
agency, working with the CIA to assist in Hawk's mission in Rome, though intending to foil the robbery at
St. Peter's
.
After blowing up an auctioneer to cover up the theft of the Sforza, the Mario Bros. take Hawk away in an ambulance. He sticks syringes into Antony Mario's face, falls out of the ambulance on a gurney, and they try to run him down with the ambulance as they speed along the highway.
The brothers are killed when their ambulance crashes. Immediately afterwards, Hawk meets
CIA
head George Kaplan and candy-bar themed codenamed agents?Snickers, Kit Kat, Almond Joy, and Butterfinger?who take him to the Mayflowers.
Hawk successfully steals the Da Vinci Codex from another museum, but later refuses to steal the helicopter design. Tommy Five-Tone fakes his death so they can escape. They are discovered and attacked by the CIA agents; Kaplan reveals that he and his agents stole the piece but, unlike them, had no problem killing the guards. Hawk and Tommy escape when Snickers and Almond Joy are killed, and pursue the remaining agents. Kit Kat and Butterfinger take Anna to the castle where the Macchina dell'Oro is being reconstructed.
The showdown is in the castle between the remaining CIA agents, the Mayflowers, and the team of Hudson, Five-Tone, and Baragli. Kit Kat and Butterfinger are killed by Minerva, although Kit Kat frees Baragli before dying. Tommy fights Darwin and Alfred inside the speeding limo, and Hudson fights George Kaplan on the roof of the castle. Kaplan topples from the castle, landing on the limo. Alfred plants a bomb in it, escaping with Darwin; Tommy is trapped inside while Kaplan is hanging onto the hood. The bomb detonates as the limo speeds over a cliff.
Darwin and Minerva force Hawk to put together the crystal powering the machine, but he intentionally leaves out one small piece. When the machine is activated, it malfunctions and explodes, killing the Mayflowers. Hawk battles Alfred, using his own blades to decapitate him.
Hawk and Baragli escape the castle, using the da Vinci flying machine, discovering Tommy waiting for them at a cafe, having miraculously escaped death through a combination of airbags and a sprinkler system in the limo. With the world saved and da Vinci's secrets protected, Hawk finally gets to enjoy a cappuccino.
Cast
[
edit
]
Soundtrack
[
edit
]
The soundtrack album was released by
Varese Sarabande
in 1991. There are eleven tracks in all. The film's score (represented by tracks 4-9) was composed and conducted by
Michael Kamen
with
Robert Kraft
. Kraft also wrote "Hawk Swing" and co-wrote the film's theme with star Bruce Willis.
- "Hudson Hawk Theme" -
Dr. John
(05:38)
- "
Swinging on a Star
" -
Bruce Willis
and
Danny Aiello
(02:53) - Sung in incorrect order of verses (the plot device in the movie refers to the original track length as 5:32)
- "
Side by Side
" - Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello (02:18) (the plot device in the film refers to the original track length as 6:00)
- "Leonardo" (04:55)
- "Welcome to Rome" (01:46)
- "Stealing the Codex" (01:58)
- "Igg and Ook" (02:22)
- "Cartoon Fight" (02:54)
- "The Gold Room" (05:57)
- "Hawk Swing" (03:41)
- "Hudson Hawk Theme" (instrumental) (05:18)
The song "
The Power
" by
Snap!
is featured, although not included on the soundtrack, when Hudson Hawk is taken for the first time to the headquarters of the Mayflowers. Minerva Mayflower, played by
Sandra Bernhard
, is sitting on a desk and sings the song while it plays on her headphones.
Reception
[
edit
]
On
Rotten Tomatoes
, the film has a rating of 31% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6 out of 10. The site's critics consensus: "
Hudson Hawk'
s kitchen-sink approach to its blend of action and slapstick results in a surreal, baffling misfire."
[5]
On
Metacritic
, the film has a weighted average score of 17 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".
[6]
Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.
[7]
In the
Chicago Tribune
, Terry Clifford observed that: "The end result is being thrown up on
selected
screens this weekend, and the suspicion that this was a pooch turns out to be undeniably correct. Boring and banal, overwrought and undercooked,
Hudson Hawk
is beyond bad."
[8]
As
Kenneth Turan
wrote in the
Los Angeles Times
:
The saddest thing about
Hudson Hawk
is that director Lehmann and co-screenwriter Waters were previously responsible for the clever, audacious
Heathers
, a film that represented all that is most promising about American film, while this one represents all that is most moribund and retrograde. Perhaps they both earned enough money here so that they won't be tempted to indulge themselves in similar big-budget fiascoes. Here's hoping.
[9]
Roger Ebert
and
Gene Siskel
gave the film a "two thumbs down" review on their
At the Movies
TV show. Ebert described the film as a complete disaster: "every line starts from zero and gets nowhere". Siskel's review was marginally more positive, saying that Willis had a few funny moments and furthermore that the film might have been salvaged if Willis and Aiello had been the only zany characters against a cast of
straight men
, as opposed to a cast full of
overacting
, where everyone tried too hard to make each line funny.
[10]
Variety
called the film "a relentlessly annoying clay duck that crash-lands in a sea of wretched excess and silliness. Those willing to check their brains at the door may find sparse amusement."
[11]
Peter Travers
of
Rolling Stone
said of the film: "A movie this unspeakably awful can make an audience a little crazy. You want to throw things, yell at the actors, beg them to stop."
[12]
James Brundage of
AMC filmcritic
said the film was "so implausible and so over the top that it lets inconsistency roll off like water on a duck's back."
[13]
Janet Maslin
in the
New York Times
called the film "a colossally sour and ill-conceived misfire" and denounced the film for "smirky, mean-spirited cynicism."
[14]
Writing in
The Washington Post
, Joe Brown said: "To say this megamillion Bruce Willis vehicle doesn't fly is understatement in the extreme...
Hudson Hawk
offers a klutzy, charmless hero, and wallows dully in limp slapstick and lowest common denominator crudeness."
[15]
Chris Hicks wrote in the
Salt Lake City
Deseret News
: "What is most amazing is the pervasive silliness that has the cast acting like fools without ever getting a laugh from the audience. It's hard to imagine a major, big-budget movie that could come along this year and be worse than
Hudson Hawk
, a solid contender for the longest 95 minutes in movie history.
[16]
Owen Gleiberman
in
Entertainment Weekly
called the film "a fiasco sealed with a smirk."
[17]
Jo Berry from
Empire
gave it three out of five stars, noting that it "reached UK screens with the added burden of having been slaughtered by US critics who likened it to famous big budget turkeys like
Raise The Titanic
and
Ishtar
. True, the film has its flaws, but the positives do outweigh the negatives, with Bruce Willis at his wisecracking best in the title role."
[18]
Jane Lamacraft reassessed the film as one of the "Forgotten Pleasures of the Multiplex" for
Sight & Sound
'
s June 2011 magazine.
[
citation needed
]
In his autobiography,
With Nails
,
Richard E. Grant
diarises the production of the film in detail, noting the
ad hoc
nature of the production and extensive rewriting and replotting during the actual filming.
[
citation needed
]
Willis went on to become one of the leading box-office stars of the 1990s, but has not made any further forays into screenwriting.
[
citation needed
]
Box office
[
edit
]
The film performed poorly in the United States, partly because the film was intended as an absurd comedy, yet was marketed as an action film one year after the success of
Die Hard 2
.
[19]
It grossed only $17 million in the United States and Canada.
[20]
Internationally, it performed much better, grossing $80 million
[21]
for a worldwide total of $97 million. By the end of its theatrical run, the film had lost the studio an estimated $90 million.
[22]
The film performed well on home video
[23]
and by 1995 started to pay out to profit participants, including Bruce Willis.
[24]
Accolades
[
edit
]
It received three
1991 Golden Raspberry Awards
for
Director
(Lehmann),
Screenplay
and
Picture
with additional nominations for
Actor
(Willis),
Supporting Actor
(Grant) and
Supporting Actress
(Bernhard). It was also nominated for Worst Picture at the 1991
Stinkers Bad Movie Awards
.
[25]
Home media
[
edit
]
The film was released on
VHS
and
LaserDisc
in late 1991. Upon its home video release, the tagline "Catch the Excitement, Catch the Adventure, Catch the Hawk" was changed to "Catch the Adventure, Catch The Laughter, Catch the Hawk".
[26]
Despite the film's failure at the US box office, the film was successful on home video.
[23]
It was released twice on
DVD
, first in 1999 and again in 2007 with new extras. In 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment released
Hudson Hawk
on
Blu-ray
for the first time; it was included in a set with
Hollywood Homicide
. All extras were dropped for the latter release.
[27]
Video game
[
edit
]
A video game based on the film was released in 1991 under the title
Hudson Hawk
for various home computers and game consoles.
Sony Imagesoft
released versions of the game for the
NES
and
Game Boy
, while
Ocean Software
released it for the
Commodore 64
,
Amiga
,
ZX Spectrum
,
Amstrad CPC
and
Atari ST
. It is a side-scrolling game where the player, as the Hawk, must steal the
Sforza
and the
Codex
from the auction house and the Vatican, respectively. Then Castle Da Vinci has to be infiltrated in order to steal the mirrored crystal needed to power the gold machine. On his journey, Hawk must face many oddball adversaries, including dachshunds that try to throw him off the roof of the auction house, janitors, photographers, killer nuns and a tennis player (presumably Darwin Mayflower).
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Greenberg, James (May 26, 1991).
"FILM; Why the 'Hudson Hawk' Budget Soared So High"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
October 29,
2010
.
- ^
"Hudson Hawk"
.
The Washington Post
. May 24, 1991.
Archived
from the original on November 11, 2012
. Retrieved
October 28,
2010
.
- ^
"
'Hawk' Better Fly"
.
Chicago Tribune
. June 2, 1991.
Archived
from the original on June 14, 2012
. Retrieved
October 29,
2010
.
- ^
Plaskin, Glenn (May 19, 1991).
"Real 'Hudson Hawk'
"
.
Chicago Tribune
.
Archived
from the original on June 16, 2012
. Retrieved
October 29,
2010
.
- ^
"Hudson Hawk"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
.
Archived
from the original on May 30, 2016
. Retrieved
March 1,
2023
.
- ^
"Hudson Hawk"
.
Metacritic
.
Archived
from the original on May 17, 2016
. Retrieved
August 30,
2016
.
- ^
"Cinemascore"
. Archived from
the original
on December 20, 2018
. Retrieved
August 30,
2019
.
- ^
Terry, Clifford (May 24, 1991).
"Smug 'Hudson Hawk' Looks Like A Turkey"
.
Chicago Tribune
.
Archived
from the original on June 10, 2015
. Retrieved
October 29,
2010
.
- ^
Turan, Kenneth (May 24, 1991).
"Bruce Willis' 'Hudson Hawk' Fails to Fly as Comedy Caper"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
Archived
from the original on November 3, 2012
. Retrieved
October 28,
2010
.
- ^
Siskel and Ebert review Hudson Hawk
– via
YouTube
.
- ^
"Hudson Hawk"
.
Variety.com
. December 31, 1990.
Archived
from the original on August 9, 2017
. Retrieved
December 11,
2017
.
- ^
Travers, Peter.
"Hudson Hawk"
.
Rolling Stone
. Archived from
the original
on June 16, 2008.
- ^
Brundage, James.
"Hudson Hawk"
.
Filmcritic
. Archived from
the original
on November 6, 2007.
- ^
Maslin, Janet
(May 24, 1991).
"Review/Film Bruce Willis as a Hip Cat Burglar"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on September 13, 2016
. Retrieved
August 30,
2016
.
- ^
Brown, Joe (May 24, 1991).
"Hudson Hawk"
.
Washington Post
.
Archived
from the original on March 4, 2016
. Retrieved
August 30,
2016
.
- ^
Hicks, Chris (May 27, 1991).
"Film review: Hudson Hawk"
.
Deseret News
.
Archived
from the original on October 7, 2016
. Retrieved
August 30,
2016
.
- ^
"Hudson Hawk"
.
Entertainment Weekly
. May 31, 1991.
Archived
from the original on June 6, 2016
. Retrieved
August 30,
2016
.
- ^
"Hudson Hawk Review"
.
Empire
. July 1991.
Archived
from the original on January 12, 2020
. Retrieved
January 1,
2020
.
- ^
Fox, David J. (May 28, 1991).
"No Blockbusters Among This Crop of Memorial Day Movies"
.
The Los Angeles Times
.
Archived
from the original on November 4, 2012
. Retrieved
December 20,
2010
.
- ^
"Hudson Hawk"
.
Box Office Mojo
.
Archived
from the original on June 30, 2009
. Retrieved
August 3,
2009
.
- ^
Archerd, Army
(October 24, 1991). "Just For Variety".
Daily Variety
. p. 2.
- ^
"Hear me out: why Hudson Hawk isn't a bad movie | Movies"
.
The Guardian
. May 14, 2021
. Retrieved
May 16,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Putzer, Gerald (January 6, 1992). "
'Terminator 2' Takes Ring In $200 Million Year".
Variety
. p. 5.
- ^
Archerd, Army
(October 19, 1995). "Just For Variety".
Daily Variety
. p. 2.
- ^
"Past Winners Database"
.
The Envelope at LA Times
. Archived from
the original
on January 6, 2007
. Retrieved
September 25,
2019
.
- ^
Fox, David J. (May 29, 1991).
"
'Backdraft' Burns 'Hawk's' Wings at the Box Office"
.
The Los Angeles Times
.
Archived
from the original on November 2, 2012
. Retrieved
October 3,
2010
.
- ^
"Double Feature - Blu-ray: Hollywood Homicide, Hudson Hawk"
.
millcreekent.com
. Mill Creek Entertainment.
Archived
from the original on July 14, 2017
. Retrieved
August 8,
2017
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Films written and directed
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Films written
| |
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TV series created
| |
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Related
| |
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Awards for
Hudson Hawk
|
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|
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1980s
| |
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1990s
| |
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2000s
| |
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2010s
| |
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2020s
| |
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|
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1980s
| |
---|
1990s
| |
---|
2000s
| |
---|
2010s
|
- M. Night Shyamalan
?
The Last Airbender
(2010)
- Dennis Dugan
?
Jack and Jill
and
Just Go with It
(2011)
- Bill Condon
?
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 2
(2012)
- Elizabeth Banks
,
Steven Brill
,
Steve Carr
,
Rusty Cundieff
, James Duffy,
Griffin Dunne
,
Peter Farrelly
, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham,
James Gunn
,
Bob Odenkirk
,
Brett Ratner
, and Jonathan van Tulleken ?
Movie 43
(2013)
- Michael Bay
?
Transformers: Age of Extinction
(2014)
- Josh Trank
?
Fantastic Four
(2015)
- Dinesh D'Souza
and Bruce Schooley ?
Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party
(2016)
- Tony Leondis
?
The Emoji Movie
(2017)
- Etan Cohen
?
Holmes & Watson
(2018)
- Tom Hooper
?
Cats
(2019)
|
---|
2020s
| |
---|
|
---|
1980s
| |
---|
1990s
|
- Daniel Waters
, James Cappe, and
David Arnott
?
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane
(1990)
- Steven E. de Souza
,
Daniel Waters
,
Bruce Willis
, and
Robert Kraft
?
Hudson Hawk
(1991)
- Blake Snyder
,
William Osborne
, and
William Davies
?
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
(1992)
- Amy Holden Jones
?
Indecent Proposal
(1993)
- Tom S. Parker,
Jim Jennewein
,
Steven E. de Souza
, and
various others
?
The Flintstones
(1994)
- Joe Eszterhas
?
Showgirls
(1995)
- Andrew Bergman
?
Striptease
(1996)
- Eric Roth
and
Brian Helgeland
?
The Postman
(1997)
- Joe Eszterhas
?
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn
(1998)
- Jim Thomas
,
John Thomas
,
S. S. Wilson
,
Brent Maddock
,
Jeffrey Price, and Peter S. Seaman
?
Wild Wild West
(1999)
|
---|
2000s
| |
---|
2010s
|
- M. Night Shyamalan
?
The Last Airbender
(2010)
- Steve Koren
,
Adam Sandler
, and Ben Zook ?
Jack and Jill
(2011)
- David Caspe
?
That's My Boy
(2012)
- Steve Baker,
Ricky Blitt
, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham,
James Gunn
, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda,
Bob Odenkirk
, Bill O'Malley, Matthew Alec Portenoy,
Greg Pritikin
, Rocky Russo,
Olle Sarri
, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro,
Jeremy Sosenko
, Jonathan van Tulleken, and Jonas Wittenmark ?
Movie 43
(2013)
- Darren Doane
and Cheston Hervey ?
Saving Christmas
(2014)
- Kelly Marcel
?
Fifty Shades of Grey
(2015)
- Chris Terrio
and
David S. Goyer
?
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
(2016)
- Tony Leondis
, Eric Siegel, and
Mike White
?
The Emoji Movie
(2017)
- Niall Leonard ?
Fifty Shades Freed
(2018)
- Lee Hall
and
Tom Hooper
?
Cats
(2019)
|
---|
2020s
| |
---|
|