Hudson Hawk
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. Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, David Caruso, Lorraine Toussaint, Frank Stallone, Sandra Bernhard and Richard E. Grant are also featured.[3]
Hudson Hawk
- Michael Kamen
- Robert Kraft
- May 24, 1991
100 minutes
United States
English
$65 million[1]
$97 million
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 à 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.
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).