Taglines: Catch the excitement. Catch the laughter. Catch the Hawk.
Hudson Hawk movie storyline. Eddie “Hudson Hawk” Hawkins (Bruce Willis)—”Hudson Hawk” is a nickname for the bracing winds off the Hudson River—is a master burglar and safe-cracker, attempting to celebrate his first day of parole from prison with a cappuccino. Before he can get it, he is blackmailed by various entities, including his own parole officer, a minor Mafia family headed by the Mario Brothers, and the CIA into doing several dangerous art heists with his singing partner in crime, Tommy “Five-Tone” Messina (Danny Aiello).
The holders of the puppet strings turn out to be a “psychotic American corporation”, Mayflower Industries, run by husband and wife Darwin (Richard E. Grant) and Minerva Mayflower (Sandra Bernhard) and their blade-slinging butler, Alfred (Donald Burton). The company, headquartered in the Esposizione Universale Roma, seeks to take over the world by reconstructing La Macchina dell’Oro, a machine purportedly invented by Leonardo da Vinci (Stefano Molinari) that converts lead into gold.
A special assembly of crystals needed for the machine to function are hidden in a variety of Leonardo’s artworks: the maquette of the Sforza, the Da Vinci Codex, and a scale model of DaVinci’s helicopter design. Sister Anna Baragli (Andie MacDowell) is an operative for a secretive Vatican counter-espionage agency, which has arranged with the CIA to assist in the Roman portion of Hawk’s mission, though apparently intending all along to foil the robbery at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Throughout the adventure, Hudson is foiled in attempts to drink a cappuccino. After blowing up an auctioneer to cover up the theft of the Sforza, the Mario Bros. take Hawk away in an ambulance. Hawk sticks syringes into Antony Mario’s face and falls out of the ambulance on a gurney, and the Marios try to run him down with the ambulance as his gurney speeds along the highway. The brothers are killed when their driver, startled by the array of syringes in Antony’s face, crashes the ambulance.
Immediately afterwards, Hawk meets CIA head George Kaplan (James Coburn) and his CIA agents–Snickers (Don Harvey), Kit Kat (David Caruso), Almond Joy (Lorraine Toussaint), and Butterfinger (Andrew Bryniarski)–who take him to Darwin and Minerva Mayflower. Hawk successfully steals the Da Vinci Codex from another museum, but later refuses to steal the helicopter design. Tommy Five-Tone fakes his death so they can escape.
They are discovered and attacked by the CIA Agents, and Kaplan reveals that he and his agents stole the piece, and unlike Tommy and Hudson, had no problem killing the guards. Hawk and Tommy cause Snickers and Almond Joy to be killed by their own explosive device, and they escape. Kit Kat and Butterfinger take Anna to the castle where the Macchina dell’Oro is being reconstructed.
Hudson Hawk is a 1991 American action comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann. Bruce Willis stars in the title role and also co-wrote both the story and the theme song. Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, David Caruso, Lorraine Toussaint, Frank Stallone, Sandra Bernhard, and Richard E. Grant are also featured.
The live action film makes heavy use of cartoon-style slapstick, including sound effects, which enhances the movie’s signature surreal humour. The plot combines material based on conspiracy theories, secret societies, and historic mysteries, as well as outlandish “clockpunk” technology à la Coburn’s Our Man Flint movies of the 1960s.
A recurring plot device in the film has Hudson and his partner Tommy “Five-Tone” (Aiello) singing songs concurrently but separately, to time and synchronize their exploits. Willis-Aiello duets of Bing Crosby’s “Swinging on a Star” and Paul Anka’s “Side by Side” feature on the film’s soundtrack.
Hudson Hawk (1991)
Directed by: Michael Lehmann
Starring: Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, Richard E. Grant, Sandra Bernhard, Donald Burton, James Coburn, Andrew Bryniarski, Lorraine Toussaint
Screenplay by: Steven E. de Souza, Daniel Waters
Production Design by: Jackson De Govia
Cinematography by: Dante Spinotti
Film Editing by: Chris Lebenzon, Michael Tronick
Costume Design by: Marilyn Vance
Art Direction by: John R. Jensen
Music by: Michael Kamen, Robert Kraft
MPAA Rating: R for language.
Distributed by: TriStar Pictures
Release Date: May 24, 1991
Hits: 182
