HOWARD THE DUCK (1986)

This film generally creates two reactions in people when you mention it. For people who haven't seen it, or even heard of it, those three words, Howard The Duck, cause a look of bewilderment and a suspicion that you are having them on. 'What on Earth are you on about?'. For the majority of those who have seen it, particularly in their younger years during the 80's, talking about the film sparks smiles and enthusiastic recollections of their favourite bits. I am firmly ensconced in the latter category, and a couple of Friday nights ago I managed to bully the girlfriend into watching it with me.

Trips down the cinematic memory lane can often be a dangerous thing, which I found recently as I relived The Griswald's holiday in National Lampoon's Vacation, but with the webbed-footed hero here, I was surely in safer hands...?



Based on a Marvel Comic, Howard is an ordinary, all be it very sarcastic, duck (if ordinary means talking and the size of a 10 year old) minding his own business on his egg-shaped planet when he is beamed from his armchair to an American back alley. Desperate to get back home he becomes a reluctant hero as he has to save the planet from some monsters from out of space. It all sounds like a load of hokum, and to be honest, it is.  However,  there is still a lot of fun to be had with it.

There's some good laughs there, the writers have a lot of fun at the beginning on Howard's home planet, with some nice satire and Duck equivalents of things that we have here on planet earth. A mallard-related Indy type film poster is one example and a duck porn mag. The other thing that generates chuckles is Howard himself, played by midgets/dwarfs, and voiced by Chip Zien. In fact for years I was convinced that it was the voice of Richard Dreyfuss, I thought he sounded just like him. Ironically, watching it again, Howard himself reminds me of Dreyfuss' Hooper in Jaws.  All one-liners and put downs. It's the source of a lot of the positives and has a lot to do with holding the film together (just). To have what is essentially a normal, grumpy bloke (as a duck) as the central character helps to ground the story, which as I have already established is a load of nonsense.

There are a two very decent actors in this as well as our feathered friend though. Tim Robbins came from his role in Top Gun to this and never looked back from there. He revels in the role as lab assistant Phil, all nerdy and dopey. Then we have Lea Thompson, the 'love' interest. Back to the Future, Space Camp, then Howard. Other than the Back to the Future sequels, her career never took off. Which is a shame because she is more than a decent actress. Both her and Robbins do well bearing in mind that they are acting with a little bloke in a duck suit with an animatronic head. Some of the banter and dialogue between the three is very funny so credit to the two of them where credit is due.

The jokes do miss as often as they hit though. At one point there is a montage of Howard getting a job in a massage parlour. What could have been a good chance for an amusing set up involving a talking duck in the workplace, is instead a tired and unfunny sequence where we are treated to slapstick and people being pushed in mud. Lazy.

There is also an odd sub-text that alludes to the potential for...er....cross-species relations. It feels a little strange, weirded the girlfriend out actually, but it suggests a desire from the writers and directors and George Lucas (Executive producer) to make a bit more of an edgier film that it actually is. It doesn't sit right tonally with the rest of the film that is clearly pitched as an action comedy adventure for the family.

The action and adventure part of the film is perfectly good. Chases and, now dated, special effects handled in adequate style by Willard Huyck . It's all good fun and pushes along at a healthy pace until it's conclusion, which, I have to admit, was a little bit more emotional than I remember it being.....perhaps my 20 year relationship with Howard, even with a 7 or so year separation, means more to me that I thought.

So how did it compare to my memory? Well it's a mess, there's no doubt about that - It's all over the place. But there is enough humour and charm in there, with decent action set-pieces to ensure that it's all good fun. Not quite harmless fun though with the almost sex scene.....How did I brush over that when I was 10?