Ladyhawke (Blu-ray) (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Fantasy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	121:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2	Directed By	Richard Donner
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Matthew Broderick Rutger Hauer Michelle Pfeiffer Leo McKern
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$24.95	Music	Andrew Powell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 French dts 5.1 German dts 5.1 Italian dts 5.1 Russian dts 5.1 Spanish dts 5.1 Hebrew Dolby Digital 2.0 Croatian Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.20:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Croatian Czech Danish English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish French German Dutch Italian Spanish Swedish Russian Greek Korean Mandarin Thai Turkish Hungarian Ukranian	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Phillipe “The Mouse” (Matthew Broderick), thief and pickpocket, escapes from the dungeons of Aquila. The tyrannical Bishop of Aquila (John Wood) cannot let anyone escape and sends his guards under Captain Marquet (Ken Hutchison) to scour the countryside and get Phillipe back. When they corner Philippe in a roadside inn, he is saved by Etienne Navarre (Rutger Hauer), a big man on a big black horse accompanied by a hawk. Navarre has plans for Phillipe; but that night Navarre disappears and Phillipe instead discovers the lovely Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer) and a large black wolf who seems to love her. He learns that as a result of a curse placed upon Navarre and Isabeau by the Bishop of Aquila, by day Isabeau is a hawk, by night Navarre a wolf, so that they can never be together.

     When the hawk is hit by an arrow in a fight between Navarre and the Bishop’s soldiers, Navarre urges Phillipe to take the badly wounded bird to Father Imperius (Leo McKern). Navarre plans to travel to Aquila and kill the Bishop, which would result in the curse never being broken; but Father Imperius thinks he has found a way to lift the curse, if only he can get Navarre to listen. One way or another, things will come to a head when Navarre confronts the Bishop in Aquila.

     Ladyhawke, directed by Richard Donner (Superman (1978)), is a medieval action / romance that quite special. A very young Matthew Broderick is the focus of the film and he is excellent, funny, cheeky and charismatic, as well as having some of the best lines. Rutger Hauer is stoic. He does not say a lot but is very believable as the powerful yet tragic Navarre, and his action scenes are brutal and different: a mounted swordfight filmed in a cathedral with the horses skidding over the stones is not something one sees very often. Michelle Pfeiffer is stunningly beautiful (and her introduction into the film has to be one any actress would die for) and Leo McKern suitably boisterous and over the top, but this is truly Broderick’s film. Ladyhawke also looks spectacular due to the autumn / winter locations in Central and Northern Italy, including hillside towns and castles, and the wonderful widescreen photography of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro who, having also Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Last Emperor (1987) on his CV, is no stranger to beautifully composed epic landscapes.

     The one grating feature of Ladyhawke is the musical score. Composed by Andrew Powell from the Alan Parsons Project and engineered by Alan Parsons, it is occasionally effective but more often loud, electronic and intrusive, interfering with the moods and shades of the film. One sort of gets used to it, but never totally, and it is never far away from exploding into a guitar riff! The effects shots, in the days before CGI, also do look dated but using live animals could not have been easy.

     If you can get past the musical score, Ladyhawke is a very entertaining film, full of good acting, great action and spectacular sets and scenery. On Blu-ray it has never looked or sounded better. I really enjoy this film, and have watched it numerous times, at the movies and on DVD, but watching it on Blu-ray I have seen and heard things that I never before realised were there. If you like the film, this is the only way to see it!

Video

     The Blu-ray of Ladyhawke is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, in 1080p. The IMDb gives the theatrical ratio as 2.20:1, but I must admit the film looks fine as presented on this Blu-ray and as well I have not seen it on home video at other than 2.35:1.

     Previous reviews of the DVD, including the one on this site here, have pointed out some issues with the video, including aliasing and artefacts. I am happy to say that these are not evident in the Blu-ray release. While the print is occasionally soft, detail is generally superb, with every whisker and wrinkle on Leo McKern’s weathered face evident. Chain mail glistens (without aliasing), colours such as the red costumes of the Bishop’s guard are deep and rich, and the sunrises and sunsets spectacular. Occasionally skin tones took on a reddish tinge, but nothing serious. Blacks are solid and shadow detail excellent, brightness and contract consistent. I did not notice any artefacts of any kind and only a slight amount of motion blur in a couple of sequences.

     Subtitles are available in a massive range of European and Asian languages. I sampled the English for the hearing impaired. They are in a clear white font, followed the dialogue exactly in the portion I sampled, but only added a small amount of other information.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The default audio is English DTS MA HD 5.1 although dubs in a host of other European and other languages are available. I listened only to the English audio.

     While not reference quality, this was a good audio track. Dialogue was clear and centred and the surrounds gave a nice enveloping feel with panning effects, ambience and music. The skidding of horses’ hooves across the stones of Aquila sounded real enough to put anyone who cares for horses on edge, and swords clanged satisfactorily. The sub-woofer was not overdone but added bass to thunder and the thud of horses.

     Lip synchronisation was fine throughout.

     As noted, the score was by Andrew Powell from the Alan Parsons Project, engineered by Alan Parsons. It is occasionally effective but is more often loud, electronic and intrusive. It is also sometimes mixed very loudly and seems to unbalance the sound stage.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Theatrical Trailer (1:26)

     The Region A US Blu-ray and Region B European Benelux Blu-ray releases are identical to our Region B release. There does not seem to be a Region B UK release at the moment.

     If you can get past the musical score, Ladyhawke is a very entertaining film, full of good acting, great action and spectacular sets and scenery.

     The film has has never looked or sounded better than on this Blu-ray. If you like the film, this is the only way to see it! The only extra is a trailer, but there is nothing more on any other release worldwide.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall