Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5248 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-03-04
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen, Subtitled
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 118 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This lushly produced fantasy has gained a loyal following since its release in 1985, and it gave a welcome boost to the careers of Matthew Broderick, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer. You have to ignore the overly aggressive music score by Andrew Powell, music director of the Alan Parsons Project (critic Pauline Kael aptly dubbed it "disco-medieval") and director Richard Donner's reckless allowance of anachronistic dialogue and uninspired storytelling, but there's a certain charm to the movie's combination of romance and heroism. Broderick plays a young thief who comes to the aid of tragic lovers Isabeau (Pfeiffer), who is cursed to become a hawk every day at sunrise and Navarre (Hauer) who turns into a wolf at sunset. The curse was cast by an evil sorcerer-bishop (John Wood), and as Broderick eludes the bishop's henchmen, Navarre struggles to conquer the villain, lift the curse and be reunited with his love in human form. The tragedy of this lovers' dilemma keeps the movie going, and Broderick is well cast as a young, medieval variation of Woody Allen. --Jeff Shannon

Special Features
16:9 Wide Screen
English
Region 2

Synopsis
A haunting adventure fantasy about a pair of cursed lovers who are transformed into animal shapes during alternate periods of the day. Broderick, who provides comic relief, is appealing as the couple's young friend, and ultimately, their rescuer. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing.

Customer Reviews

A love story with a difference
This film has just about everything: great direction by Richard Donner, who also directed The Omen, Superman and Lethal Weapon, beautiful cinematography by Vittorio Storaro and a wonderful cast - Rutger Hauer is perfect as the brave hero, Michelle Pfeiffer is breath-takingly beautiful as Isabeau and Matthew Broderick provides plenty of comic relief. There is a fine music score by Kate Bush's former arranger and producer Andrew Powell and there is romance, action, drama and humour.

This is the type of film which I never get fed up of watching time and time again and I am not ashamed to admit that the ending always brings tears to my eyes. With this DVD version the film can be viewed in its correct widescreen ratio, making the most of the stunning cinematography. This film is often shown on television but usually in a full screen, pan-and-scan version with the closing credits either edited or speeded up thus eliminating much of Andrew Powell's beautiful closing credits music. Therefore it is worth buying this DVD to see this film in it's complete and correct format.

A movie to watch time and again
I first saw this movie on video in the late '80s'. I was hooked and immediately bought a copy. The music, scenery and stars combine to make this a favourite. Michelle Pfeiffer looks terrific and Mathew Broderick is ideally cast, in fact it is the best thing he ever did. It does not date and I only hope I can get a DVD copy.

Fantasy done with Style
The first time I saw this in the cinema I came out sayng -wow!. The dialogue is so up to date, the cast are brilliant, the photography awe-inspiring and that sountrack is fantastic. I couldn't wait to buy the video so I could enjoy it over and over again.