Howard the Duck
Dir: Willard Huyck
1986
****
Howard the Duck has been referred to as one of the worst films of all time. It isn’t. Sure it was nominated for seven Razzie Awards but then so was Saturn 3, Megaforce, Jaws: The Revenge and Cobra. None of these films were meant to be masterpieces (although all of them are) and none of them are the worst of worst (far from it) and over time each film has become a cult classic. In fact I would probably rather watch these films over whatever film won the Oscar in the year they were released. That said, Howard the Duck was slightly different than those other films. Howard was already a popular Marvel comic character at this point with a steady following of fans who enjoyed his surreal adventures and silver-tonged insults. What made Howard the Duck a bad film in the technical sense was that it was a poor adaptation. Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz were lucky in that they went to film school with George Lucas. Don’t get me wrong, they were both talented and their scripts for American Graffiti and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom are both classics, it’s just that they would probably been unable to get Howard the Duck made if it weren’t for Lucas. No one liked their script but they remained determined to get it made. I love THX 1138 and of course Star Wars but there was a whole lot of luck and outside involvement that made those films as great as they are. Huyck and Katz strongly felt that the film should be animated but when Lucas went to Universal Studios he had a contractual obligation in place that required him to provide a live-action film. It was of course made through ILM, Lucas’ own company. Huyck and Katz still wanted an animated film but had to swallow the live-action idea – it was all or nothing. The film was optioned by Universal Studios after a partnership with Marvel Comics. Sidney Sheinberg lobbied very hard for Howard the Duck because the studio had passed on previous projects in which Lucas was involved, which had been very successful. Sheinberg denied that he never read the screenplay but Universal Studios picked it up anyway, banking on Lucas’ good fortune. In the comic Howard was wise-cracking and a little obnoxious. The comic appealed because it featured absurdist surrealism and was totally unique at the time, making it one of Marvel’s great alternative characters. The new ‘nice’ version of Howard was worlds apart from the Howard of the comics, the only thing them having in common was the fact that they were both ducks. Making the film live-action was Lucas’ bad but everyone involved was guilty of something. Huyck and Katz wrote the worst story they possibly could, bizarre when they both admitted to being hard-core fans of the comics and had talked about making the film for many years. Katz hired the legendary John Barry to score the film but at the last minute she deemed it too old-fashioned so hired Sylvester Levay to re-score the whole thing. They must have had money to burn, don’t get me wrong, I love Sylvester Levay and his Airwolf theme is one of the greatest ever written but you don’t simply hire the great John Barry and then bin him and his work because it’s old-fashioned. You have to wonder whether how many great films haven’t been made since thanks to the thrivelous behaviour of these semi-talented mavericks from the 1980s who cost the studios millions. It seemed that everyone involved were so caught up in the details that they totally forgot the fundamentals of film making, the story being the most important. However, every bad film has a shot at redemption and Howard’s charm is impossible to resist. I was a kid in 1986 and I loved it. My parents watched it with me with twisted faces but I loved it and still do today. I love it despite its very obvious faults and old lady nostalgia embraces me once more with every watch. Howard reading Playduck still makes me chuckle and I’m still strangely attracted to the naked lady duck in the bath. It was Lea Thompson’s worst film at that point after classics such as Back to the Future, Jaws 3D, Red Dawn, All the Right Moves and Space Camp and her career took a huge hit because of it (NB - People who say it’s her worst film clearly haven’t seen 2014’s Left Behind). George Lucas also took a hit and Huyck and Katz haven’t been involved with that much since. I thought it was pretty low to nominate the actors that played Howard for worst performers at the Razzies but then I have little respect for them anyway.Tim Robbins came out of it unscathed somehow but generally it was a financial and critical disaster. I would argue that us kids, the film’s target audience, loved it. I think Lucas knew this too and he always said that it would be considered a classic thirty years later and he is sort of right. No 1986 adult will change their mind about it and I don’t expect kids today to understand but we seven year-olds of ’86 stand firm and agree that it isn’t the worst film ever made, no sir, it isn’t even close.