Ladyhawke

(1985) Richard Donner's fantasy adventure stars Rutger Hauer as medieval knight Etienne Navarre and Matthew Broderick as Phillipe Gaston, his knave of an equerry. As the pair travel through France, Gaston is puzzled by the hawk that follows them by day and the wolf he sees at night. Slowly, he pieces together the puzzle. Navarre and the beautiful Isabeau d'Anjou (Michelle Pfeiffer) were lovers, but the jealous Bishop of Aquila (John Wood) placed a curse on them. By day, she is a hawk, by night he is a wolf and their only meetings in human form are fleeting contacts at dawn and dusk. Only the Bishop's confessor, Imperious (Leo McKern), who laid the curse, can lift it and it is up to Gaston to use all his trickery to see the lovers united in human form forever. Originally, Hauer was slated to play the Bishop, but when Kurt Russell dropped out of the lead role just before shooting started, Hauer stepped in and he and Pfeiffer, in her first leading role, are both outstanding, as is Broderick, demonstrating his honed skills for comedy to good effect. Edited for violence. HD Wide.