Charmed thinks Ladyhawke is an awesome movie

[meganbmoore]

I'm up to the second episode of season thre of Charmed and I'm laughing my head off-but not in the good way-at this episode.

Here's the basic plot Ladyhawke, a medieval fantasy romance from the 80s: A corrupt bishop who practices black magic desires a beautiful lady. She refuses his advances, and when he learns that she's the lover of a renown knight, he curses them so that he's a man by day and she's a falcon, and by night, she's a woman and he a wolf.  (Then one day a young thief escapes the bishop's  supposedly inescapable prison and the knight sets off to find him so the thief can  get him back in so he can kill the villain and break the curse)

Here's this episode of Charmed:  A warlock desired one of his female employees, but she rejected him because A) creepy, and B) she was in love with a coworker.  So the warlock cursed them so that he's an owl by day and she a human, and he's human by night and she a wolf.

I kid you not.

Also, one of the more powerful scenes in Ladyhawke is a scene at daybreak, where they're both in human form for a few seconds, but not long enough to touch, and it focuses on the eyes a lot.  Exact. Same. Scene. in Charmed(only indoors)  Also?  Ladyhawke, Navarre(the knight) uses a crossbow when he saves the thief(and at other times) and the villain's minions use them too, and it's the preferred weapon of the bad guy's minions in Charmed.  

OMG!!! The bird-cursed lover also gets shot with a crossbow in both...

AND AN ECLIPSE!!!!  THEY'RE USING AN ECLIPSE TOO!!!  And I swear what Phoebe is chanting right now is EXACTLY the wording Navarre used when saying what it would take to break the curse on them.

I HIGHLY doubt this is the kind of crack the Charmed TPTB intended when they made this episode...

Comments

[chomiji]

That's not fair!!! I remember Ladyhawke - one of a whole series of nifty fantasy movies (and some not-so-nifty ... Dragonslayer, anyone?) to come out around then. How dare they rip it off?

(Hmmm ... I need to make a good outraged icon ... )

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh I know...and...with the gender switch, I got the feeling we weren't supposed to notice.

And...ooo...another who isn't big on Dragonslayer(most love it)

My faves are Ladyhawke, Willow, Legend, Labyrinth and Princess Bride.

[chomiji]

Did'ja see Time Bandits, by the Monty Python crew? The Mr. and I still have a line or two we quote from that when the occasion arises.

We used to make horrible fun of Dragonslayer ... wicked things that we were, we'd answer her poignant little line "And ... I'm still a virgin!" with "We can fix that!" A huge crowd of us went to see it at a drive-in once, in full SCA costume, just so we could yell things at the screen.

I love Labyrinth and Princess Bride. Inigo Montoya is the coolest swordsman ever (though my friend TK holds out for Wesley).

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

I also remember "Ladyhawke". Fun movie with a few big flaws. Biggest of which was woefully miscasting Leo McKern and second biggest of which was casting Matthew Broderick (I think?) at all. But Rutger Hauer did a good job and the basic plot was decent enough as a movie plot.

Picked up the novelisation not all that long ago (mainly because Joan Vinge wrote it) but haven't got around to reading it yet. (I think it was anyway... can't find the book to double check but vaguely remember that was the case).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yup, by Vinge. Pretty good, iirc

[foenix.livejournal.com]

They Landed a movie!

[ilysanth.livejournal.com]

O_o I wonder if they asked first. Can you sue for plagiarizing a movie? :P

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they did ask, its just that they followed theplot so exactly that i could only view the ep as silly

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

I'd be more inclined to think it was on purpose and intended as an homage. CHARMED did riffs on existing stories all the time.

from Wikipedia:
The storyline is practically a copy of the movie Ladyhawke, hence Piper's comment: "I swear I've seen this in a movie."

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

hay was actually my initial thought...but the gender switch gave me a "not supposed to notice" feeling. If they'd mentioned the movie, I'd go "yeah, homage" but the "feel" was more copy(I really mean scene by scene-including a LOT of shots) as opposed to "homage."

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

oops, i missed the line(in comment and show) about the movie

it's just...i dunno...I've noticed a lot of homages in it, yeah, but not something that almost directly copies...homages are usually "inspired by" as opposed to directly taking the story and moving it forward in time.

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

Not in my experience -- they take a lot of different forms. And if I never see ONE MORE riff on A Christmas Carol... ;)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*twitches*

Let it go...just let the story go...there are 500000000000~ other books out there...why can't they just turn to them...

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

If it were an obscure movie, it'd be one thing, but people who would be the audience for Charmed would have seen and been familiar with and probably owned Ladyhawke. They didn't need to trumpet the homage but apparently made it more of an in-joke. You'd get it if you were familiar with the movie; you wouldn't if you weren't.

If it had been anything other than a fun riff, I'm sure someone would have sued a long time ago. Back when I watched Charmed, it was something they did do a lot.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think that what made it silly to me was that it was such an exact copy...I mean, most XCharmed rips are of the "based on" or "inspired by" variety, not the "borderline exact copy" and when you follow that close, all the audience can do is compare the two.