Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 1-August-04
Spoiler Rating: High

Ladyhawke (1985)

nce upon a time, many years ago (read the young lady to her cousins), there lived a funny little man in a vast and wondrous kingdom. The little man had a name like most people, but everyone called him The Mouse because he was small and light-footed and liked to sneak into places where he didn't belong. He was so mischievous, in fact, that he got caught picking pockets and was thrown into prison. But that was a nasty place, so he decided to escape.

One morning when the guards came to fetch him, they discovered that The Mouse was gone. The crafty fellow had crawled through a tunnel and got out of the city with help from his good friend, God. Now, it so happened ---

("How did this fellow God get into the story?" interrupted Bartholomew. To which the sage narrator replied, "It was the Middle Ages. God was everywhere.")

Now, it so happened that at the same time The Mouse was running away from the kingdom, a very great and glorious knight was making his way back into it. This knight was none other than Captain Etienne Navarre, the bravest, truest, and most valiant of men who had once been the city's champion. He ---

("You mean he was the king?" little Emily wanted to know. "No," said the lady, "the kingdom was run by a bishop instead of a king, and he was a bad man who believed that everybody should think and do just what he told them. Captain Navarre, on the other hand, was the protector of the city and its people.")

Captain Navarre was riding back into the kingdom with his beautiful black horse and his lovely red hawk when he saw The Mouse and decided to save him from being recaptured. The Mouse was a little afraid of him at first because he looked so powerful and carried a long sword. So you can imagine how much more afraid of him he became when he learned that the captain had a dreadful Secret.

That night after they settled down to sleep, The Mouse saw several miraculous things. First, the captain vanished. Then, an enormous black wolf appeared in the forest, and so did a beautiful woman who feared neither darkness nor the wolf. She ---

(Francesca wanted to know what color the woman's hair was, and Bart, hating to trail his sister, inquired if the captain was tall. Their clever cousin replied that the beautiful woman looked just like Michelle Pfeiffer, and Navarre bore a striking resemblance to Rutger Hauer, all in black.)

The woman was gone when the sun returned next morning, bringing the captain and his hawk with it. But later that day, the evil bishop sent soldiers to ambush Navarre and The Mouse, and the hawk was wounded in battle. Now, The Mouse felt sorry for the pretty bird, but he didn't understand why the captain ordered him to take it to a ruined castle and ask the friar there to cure it. The Mouse did as he was told, however, and that was how he discovered the captain's Secret. For although he left the hawk under the friar's care, when he came back a little while later it was gone, and the beautiful woman had taken its place.

The friar told him that her name was Isabeau D'Anjou and that she had given her heart to the captain. But the bishop had placed a terrible curse upon them, because he wanted Isabeau for himself and swore that no other man would have her. Calling upon the darkest magic and most horrible powers, he cast a spell so that Navarre would be a man by day and a wolf by night, while Isabeau would be a hawk by day and a woman by night: together always, always apart. The friar also told The Mouse that he had found a way to lift the curse if only they could convince Navarre not to kill the bishop as he desired.

Thus it was that The Mouse (who might have been Matthew Broderick's twin, according to the narrator) found a purpose in life other than getting into trouble. (And here she paused to bestow a significant look upon her audience, which only caused them to ask impatiently, "What happened next?")

Well, The Mouse and the friar took Isabeau into their confidence, and ---

(Aunt Polly entered the room and announced that it was time for Francesca, Bartholomew, and Emily to go to sleep. They protested of course, but she was firm. And so their cousin promised to finish the story another time soon and betook herself to her own bed. That night she dreamed lightly of the folly of filmmakers who wed enchanted tales with tacky soundtracks; and then, more deeply, of lovers at dawn, reaching for each other but unable to touch, and monks gazing upward as the sky turned magically dark. And as she dreamed, she smiled.)

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.