After Julia and I returned from our movie collecting trip to the local used bookstore, I decided that the best way to approach our exploration of the pre-MCU superhero genre would be to start in chronological order. It’s not a perfect system (obviously watching all three X-Men movies in order before I watch Spiderman that came out right in the middle of their trilogy won’t be perfectly chronological) but it offers some advantages. Not only will this method allow us to see the way approaches to the genre have evolved over almost two decades of filmmaking, it also saves me the trouble of trying to rank these movies by quality and skewing my opinion before I’ve even seen the finished product. So first on our list is 1986’s Howard the Duck.
And what a start it is.
Picture this: you’re George Lucas, and you’ve just spent the last decade creating and producing some of the most famous and lucrative movies of the last fifty years – three Star Wars, two Indiana Jones. So what will your next project be? How about a movie based on an relatively obscure Marvel comic about an anthropomorphic duck named Howard? And not only will you be making this movie, but instead of animating such a wacky concept, it’s going to be live action, with practical effects and people running around in duck-person suits! If you’re thinking you would rather pass, that’s why George Lucas gets to sleep on his piles of money at Skywalker Ranch and you don’t.
Upon popping in the DVD, the opening monologue actually seemed like a great thematic start to my project: “The cosmos: countless worlds upon worlds, worlds without end. In these galaxies, every possible reality exists, and what is reality on any one world is mere fantasy on all others. Here, all is real and all is illusion.”
Keep in mind that the majesty of the Arthur C. Clarke-esque intro is somewhat undercut by its accompanying action, namely the titular Howard being hurtled screaming through said cosmos after being sucked out of his recliner by some mysterious force. This really sets the tone for the whole movie. Our opening concludes: “What is, what was, and what will be start here with the words ‘In the beginning, there was Howard the Duck!'”
Once Howard is pulled out of his living room and crashes on Earth, we’re introduced to what has become a very familiar story: alien comes to Earth, tries to find a way to get home, befriends helpful humans along the way, and inadvertently ends up saving the world at the cost of his chance to return to his home. Add in interdimensional monsters and a human/duck love scene and you’ve got our movie.
Howard is definitely NOT E.T., however. He smokes cigars, has a job in advertising, enjoys drinking beer, and is a master of quack-fu (one of many duck-related puns in this movie). He also can’t fly or swim, which is weird for a duck. But he can shred on a guitar with the best of them, which is less weird for an anthropomorphic duck with fingers instead of wings, if we’re being generous (he used to be in a band). Howard shifts between strong arming a seedy band manager into giving his clients the money he’s been stealing from them, and freaking out when a diner waitress brings him the blue plate special that includes cooked eggs. I found Howard as a character to be very natural and believable, by which I mean there was never a moment I wasn’t able to take him seriously because I’d somehow forgotten it was a duck flying that ultralight plane in the chase sequence. The production has several actors don the Howard suit, and all do a great job working with what was apparently a very unwieldy costume. This is especially impressive considering the movie calls out Howard’s “duckness” every chance it gets, having people scream at the sight of him or throw out a line like “No more Mr. Nice Duck.”
The other characters are well-acted and endearing as well. Beverly (Lea Thompson) is an aspiring young rocker who takes Howard in when he lands on Earth and tries to help him get home. It never seemed like the relationship she develops with Howard was unnatural from a character standpoint. It really felt like she was developing with just another character in spite of the ridiculous of the situation, like how Roger from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? could be sympathized with despite being a literal cartoon talking to Bob Hoskins. The only real problem I had with Beverly was that it took me until almost the end of the movie to realize she was Marty McFly’s mom in Back to the Future and that’s where I recognized her from. There’s also Dr. Walter Jenning (Jeffery Jones), the scientist who inadvertently brings Howard to Earth, and later almost brings about the end of the world trying to send him back home. I won’t spoil anything here, but Jones has a great acting range, and from what I’ve read he had a lot of fun with the part he played in the movie. Rounding out the main cast is nerdy lab assistant Phil Blumbert (Tim Robbins), a stereotypical 80’s geeky character who’s mostly here for comic relief but also provides a great amount of energy to keep the story moving forward.
I would be remiss, however, if I were to leave without mentioning some of the more questionable content of this ostensibly “PG-rated” movie. I can’t remember any swearing, but that might be because these other moments have burned themselves into my memory so effectively. The movie begins with us being shown Howard at home on Duckworld. Amidst the posters for the film “Indiana Drake: Breeders of the Lost Stork” and his copy of this month’s Playduck, Howard is suddenly and violently sucked through his building into space while seated in his armchair. Busting in and out of neighbors’ apartments, he at one point interrupts a lady duck trying to enjoy a bath, and the audience is briefly subjected to a racy shot of a topless duck. It was at this point barely three minutes into the movie Julia gave me a pointed “This had better get a lot less weird very quickly if you want me to keep doing this with you” look.
The movie continues to justify the “Guidance” of its “PG” rating. Howard is forced to take a temporary job as a towel boy in what appears to be a day spa but which can only be located adjacent to the campus of Ridgemont High. There’s no human nudity (for what that’s worth), but it’s just not safe to have teenagers chasing each other around those slippery floors with so few clothes on!
Finally we come to the infamous love scene mentioned earlier. Instead of reliving this moment again, I’ll let this Looper.com article do the talking for me:
“Like their comic book counterparts, the movie’s Howard and Beverly have a sexual relationship. However, in a live-action movie that lacks the comic’s edgy, absurdist tone, a human sleeping with a duck is far more disturbing. Now, to be fair, there’s not quite a sex scene — there’s there beginning of one, with some light kissing and Beverly in her underwear putting her hand into Howard’s pajama shirt. Then they get interrupted. Unfortunately, it’s enough.”
If for no other reason, it was worth it to see the look of confused horror on Julia’s face and hear her soft, frightened “But why?” as this scene started. I’m sure my own reaction wasn’t much different.
Despite these rare but abrupt moments of risque absurdity, I still find Howard the Duck entertaining. Many reviews I read were baffled by the conflicting tones of the film, but I think I enjoyed it because it tries to present two different styles at once. On the one hand, this is a “fish (duck?) out of water” comedy full of duck puns and the inherent silliness of its premise. (“Duck!” Phil shouts. “And proud of it!” Howard replies before getting smacked in the face.) On the other, it features at least a taste of the comic book action Marvel would come to be known for, with several car chases, the aforementioned plane sequence, and a final fight against a gigantic space monster as the timer to save the world counts down. One dark scene features the Big Bad vividly vaporizing a state trooper after being pulled over on the highway. This doesn’t mean the movie isn’t weird, because it definitely is. But its weirdness isn’t off-putting, or at least not any more so than a movie featuring a talking raccoon and walking tree fighting bad guys with lasers in space.
It’s been placed near the top of many “so bad, it’s good” lists, but I’m not entirely convinced it’s deserving of the title. It’s certainly no Sharknado! Is it bizarre? Yes. Is it entertaining? Also yes. Worth watching? Potentially, depending on your own personal weirdness threshold. While you’re figuring that out, I’ll be over here trying to get that theme song out of my head. It’s just so catchy!
Next time, we’ll be talking about a movie I had heard of but hadn’t had the pleasure of watching until recently: The Rocketeer.
Culturally Opinionated 