The good:
This has a great premise of two lovers (Hauer & Pfeiffer) doomed to never meet each other, placed upon the both of them by the Bishop of Aquila's curse. He turns into a wolf by night, she turns into a hawk by day. It also has great Italian scenery with beautiful castles and good cinematography. Donner did an excellent job as far as the location work goes.
The bad:
Matthew Broderick. Blah, what an idiotic character. His smirky comments were annoying and un-funny to say the least. I guess he was put in there to appeal to the then 1985 PG-13 teen crowd, but all it does is help ruin the film just to put in some corny laughs. If he kept his mouth shut more often, it might have worked.
The music by Alan Parsons, sucks.
An early-80s disco synth beat that's totally out of place for a film of this period. Once again, I guess it was to modernize the story for the teen-beat crowd. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to buy the soundtrack. Terrible.
If you want to hear how music should sound in a medieval film, then check out Paul Verhoven's FLESH + BLOOD (1985), the film Rutger Hauer did right after this one. It has an excellent Basil Poledouris score.
The ending fight scene.
This has to be one of the worst sword fights I've ever scene in a medieval period piece. They look like they could barely hold their swords up in the air. Lame.
I did like the horses charging one another in the church, but the rest of the bad guys just stand there looking dumbfounded and clueless. Why didn't they fight? Why didn't the flee?
It's sad that a film with a great premise like this would be so poorly executed.
Below average.
4 out of 10
This has a great premise of two lovers (Hauer & Pfeiffer) doomed to never meet each other, placed upon the both of them by the Bishop of Aquila's curse. He turns into a wolf by night, she turns into a hawk by day. It also has great Italian scenery with beautiful castles and good cinematography. Donner did an excellent job as far as the location work goes.
The bad:
Matthew Broderick. Blah, what an idiotic character. His smirky comments were annoying and un-funny to say the least. I guess he was put in there to appeal to the then 1985 PG-13 teen crowd, but all it does is help ruin the film just to put in some corny laughs. If he kept his mouth shut more often, it might have worked.
The music by Alan Parsons, sucks.
An early-80s disco synth beat that's totally out of place for a film of this period. Once again, I guess it was to modernize the story for the teen-beat crowd. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to buy the soundtrack. Terrible.
If you want to hear how music should sound in a medieval film, then check out Paul Verhoven's FLESH + BLOOD (1985), the film Rutger Hauer did right after this one. It has an excellent Basil Poledouris score.
The ending fight scene.
This has to be one of the worst sword fights I've ever scene in a medieval period piece. They look like they could barely hold their swords up in the air. Lame.
I did like the horses charging one another in the church, but the rest of the bad guys just stand there looking dumbfounded and clueless. Why didn't they fight? Why didn't the flee?
It's sad that a film with a great premise like this would be so poorly executed.
Below average.
4 out of 10