HOWARD THE DUCK - A Fun Revisit!

[AndyDursin]

8/10



Been a while but we had long tagged this as a Friday Movie Night view for Theo, and I have to say -- this film has aged really well. Especially in lieu of the generic super-hero tripe we've seen over the years, this infamous box-office bomb was pretty much ahead of its time in a number of ways.

Now, I've always been a fan of this movie anyway -- my Mom even enjoyed it when she took me to see it in theaters back in August of '86 (yes we are fast approaching this movie's 40th Anniversary!) -- but this picture serves up so much entertainment that it was fun to be reminded of it all. The story is reasonably engaging, the FX are great, the music is terrific, there's Lea Thompson giving a really great comic performance (I enjoyed watching her reaction shots especially this time as she's not taking it too seriously), Jeffrey Jones and Tim Robbins are fun also, and some of the set-pieces -- like the "Cajun Sushi Diner" -- are fabulous (the girl who played the waitress, Jorli McLain, is wonderful; she apparently left acting and passed away in 2010, but she makes that scene work).

Technically HOWARD is also top class all the way around. I like most any movie Richard H. Kline shot and the picture is colorfully designed (also looks dynamite in 4K) and ILM's effects are still terrific. Theo even was impressed, saying "wow that really IS a Dark Overlord" when the full creature popped up at the end, which he was not expecting -- those Phil Tippett stop-motion FX still have the magic, even with kids! The Ultralight plane sequence was designed/directed by Joe Johnston and works so well as a practical stunt FX set-piece at a time when there weren't computers doing it all for everybody. Loads of talented artists worked on this movie and it shows, making it one of the few quasi "practical" Marvel adaptations in existence.

I also have to say this soundtrack is one of my favorites from the era. John Barry's score is really inspired, the love theme is sweet, the main themes for Howard and his "transport through the galaxy" are as good (if not better) than anything in "The Black Hole", and his score carries the first half and the last half hour with ease. Paul dislikes the Levay tracks but I like them and think they work fine, giving a little more energy to the Ultralight sequence than Barry's traditional Bond-esque scoring. Even Thomas Dolby's songs are good -- Theo even was singing "Howard...the Duck" when it was over!

It's interesting that Theo noted how the last 30 minutes weren't very funny and the picture became more a "hardware movie" like a lot of 80s pictures (no more so than today of course). There's also a definite sense of GHOSTBUSTERS as Jones (instead of Sigourney Weaver) gets possessed leading to a big creature climax -- in fact I wondered if the Jones scenes at the end where he shows up and looks healthy, saying "the creature is out of my body", were a re-shoot due to test audience reactions (and/or keeping the character alive for a prospective sequel). If you notice he's not in any other shots with Thompson or Robbins in that ending sequence once he gets "freed" from the monster.

Admittedly, Huyck and Katz weren't that great at integrating "edgy" humor -- outside the opening bit and the condom in Howard's wallet (this is the second time I've been asked by my son what that is), it's not very raunchy, unlike the comic book, so perhaps that disappointed older viewers. Still, it's all charming and fun, and the movie gets better as it goes along too.

The 4K of this also looks fabulous. The colors in the Dolby Vision HDR on the Plaion (German) mediabook are sensational though I do prefer the original Dolby Stereo soundtrack instead of the 7.1 remix which overamplifies LFE (the original audio and Dolby Vision are on the Plaion release; Universal's domestic UHD is HDR10 and DTS:X remix only).

Overall this movie deserved better -- the "George Lucas Presents" line did little to help this or LABYRINTH find an audience, and raised expectations amongst audiences of the time that the picture couldn't deliver. Most of that was due to Howard's character suit, which was heavily criticized and yet was no less articulate than any of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes that hit box-office paydirt years later. As I felt as a kid, the movie was better than its rep, and it remains that way today.

[Monterey Jack]

One lucky ducky...



I've always enjoyed this film too, and it's weathered the years far better than a lot of critically reviled bombs from decades past (and especially in lieu of how bland and processed most comic-book movies have become over the last 20 years). Thompson is gorgeous, the F/X are top-notch, and both Barry's music and the songs are excellent (it's the rare combo soundtrack album where the songs are as enjoyable as the score).

[Paul MacLean]

I'm overdue to revisit Howard. Although very silly, I thought it was loads of fun when I saw it in the theater. A lot of people looked at me like I was some kind of anti-social weirdo when I said I thought it was entertaining -- but of course none of those people had actually seen it!

Paul dislikes the Levay tracks but I like them and think they work fine, giving a little more energy to the Ultralight sequence than Barry's traditional Bond-esque scoring.

I didn't think they ruined the scene, I just would have preferred Barry's cues have been kept (and I don't really like how he was treated by the filmmakers).

1986 was a weird year for Barry -- he was feted with the Oscar for Out of Africa at the '86 ceremony...but within months saw his score for Howard The Duck partially replaced, and his music for The Golden Child almost completely thrown-out.

I suspect the reason he leaned so heavily on the drum machines in The Living Daylights a year later is because he feared Hollywood was starting to think he was "old fashioned".

[AndyDursin]

At least his score in about 80% of HOWARD and has a lot of prominence when it plays. The entire open, ending, and the majority of it plays as intended -- and there's quite a lot of music in the movie too. Unlike THE GOLDEN CHILD where they pretty much just threw that score away. I don't like that score nearly as much as HOWARD though, and the movie is much worse also.

I do think, in general, his dramatic scoring didn't really fall out of favor as time went on but his "action" scoring did, leading to a few of the rejected scores he had etc. I think that's a great point Paul on THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS where I think he was trying to give the action more "pace" so to speak with the electronics. It really does seem like a response to his experience on HOWARD.

Now, I don't mean to criticize Barry or his style, but by the 80s, it had also changed a little. I don't think he was into scoring action or hardware so much, and it kind of showed.

That type of "action" scoring appeared to interest Barry much less than writing something more lyrical, emotive and character-driven. At the same time his action underscoring could occasionally come off as "heavy" and/or repetitious which I think was the case with HOWARD just in those sections they rescored (much of it they still used, it's like a quarter of the movie or less they didn't).

For me, I don't blame them for feeling that Ultralight sequence, which is kind of the centerpiece set-piece of the whole movie, needed little more pace/energy -- you can sense Barry trying different things from the different stabs he took at it. That first (and quite tuneful) attempt that ended up in the discarded YEAR OF THE COMET has pace but not tone, as it sounds like they're cavorting around a meadow, not being chased by cops. The others are 'heavy' and play out too much like a Bond score, which is a reaction on the opposite end. It's like he didn't quite find the right balance between the two, and the scene is supposed to be fun at the same time energetic.

Either way he shouldn't have been too disappointed as the score itself is really one of his best from that time period and holds up in the movie extremely well too. The person who should've been ticked is Thomas Dolby who went from having the sole duties on the movie to having his score thrown out entirely -- though again, arguably with good reason...I don't know if banging trash can lids were the right thing for that score.

[Paul MacLean]

7.5/10

On your recommendation, Andy, I returned to Howard for a later look.

I agree it's very entertaining. But I think it could have been trimmed -- we didn't need the tawdry massage parlor sequence. That gave the film an uneven tone. I'm not familiar with the comic (which I understand was pretty raunchy) but the overall tone of the movie itself really that of a kids' adventure film. Screenwriter Gloria Katz had a very different view of the comic from the social satire agenda of its creators, as she claimed "It's a film about a duck from outer space ... It's not supposed to be an existential experience."

I would not be surprised if the Unversal executives pressured George Lucas, Huyck and Katz to trim the movie to play-up the fun elements, and excise the "edgy" stuff (and Lucas probably refused).

I do think the action scenes go on a little too long, and aren't especially striking from a visual perspective. The most effective moments are those between Howard and Beverly. There is a palpable chemistry between the two characters, which is genuinely touching. This is all the more amazing when you consider Lea Thompson had to play off someone in a duck costume -- Thompson is what really makes these scenes work, helped in no small measure by John Barry's music.

Further on Barry's score, while I love it, I get a sense watching the film he never quite got a handle on the material. Then again the inconsistent tone would have made that difficult. Barry essentially opts for a "Bond score", while recalling Body Heat (albeit with a less sultry tone) for the opening scenes and "romantic" moments. Again, I love the score -- but I do wonder if Barry was the absolute best choice for the movie. Some of his action music was re-scored by Sylvester Levay (who, it must be acknowledged, did pump more energy into those sequences). I think someone like Elmer Bernstein might have complimented the humor and offbeat nature of the story more effectively.

[AndyDursin]

I'm good with Barry. Elmer was obviously capable but also had a tendency to go over the top at times. Plus having scored GHOSTBUSTERS I think it would've made the movie's obvious structural/tonal similarities even more glaring.

I think it works well with Barry's "grounded" approach, the love theme works great, and overall it was more than worth it for him to score it...the fact he had some issues with some of the action scenes -- which came off a bit heavy in his intended scoring as I wrote before -- notwithstanding.

They didn't want something heavy like a Bond score in those scenes, which I think is understandable. But Barry, also understandably, wasn't sure how to approach it otherwise -- hence the frolicking YEAR OF THE COMET music in one of those "Ultralight" takes and the heavy, Bond-esque scoring in the others. It's like he was trying to strike a balance he couldn't find. Levay, to his credit, didn't pull a Michael Kamen on LIFEFORCE and at least managed to use Barry's themes in his rescored tracks, and inject some orchestra around with the synths -- just giving some pace/energy to the Ultralight sequence especially.

The movie's tone I agree, I think they were all trying to make a comic sci-fi fantasy with wide appeal whereas the comic book was a lot edgier. At the time I was wondering if the movie would've been R much less PG-13 -- and it ended up PG anyway! Ultimately the edgy stuff was drowned out by the prevailing tone and the genre elements of the 2nd half, making it more like you said a kids movie for the most part with some PG portions housed within. But even Theo remarked how the comedy was mostly absent from the final 30 minutes, making it just kind of an oddball character and comic book to adapt to begin with where it was going to be tough to please everyone.

The movie is just a lot better than critics back then indicated. They were just salivating on destroying it before it even opened and had the knives out for Lucas based on Star Wars etc.