This may be a guilty pleasure, but I also think it inherited an unfair reputation, too. George Lucas wanted to produce a comic film noir. No matter how well it was done, it would never be a huge hit. His name proved cancerous to the movie, unintentionally promising universal appeal for what is really a niche movie. The critics took their best shots and Howard the Duck went down as one of the most famous flops in movie history.
During the opening credits of this Roland Joffé (The Mission, Vatel) version of The Scarlet Letter, a certain snippet of text appeared that allowed me to forgive quite a lot of the nonsense that would follow. The text read: “Based Loosely on the Novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne”. Loosely. So what the hell — why not have the American Indians rescue Hester from the gallows? Alas, it is with deep shame that I confess I find this bastardization completely re-watchable.
Kevin Costner’s ambitious ode to the American frontier is grand, romantic storytelling at its best. And talk about an underdog. People were calling it ‘Kevin’s Gate’ months prior to release — and why shouldn’t they? A three-hour long western with most of its dialogue in Lakota Sioux? How could such a movie find an audience, much less sweep the Academy Awards?
