Bruce Willis is proud of one of his biggest failures

Before its release in 1991, there was every reason to believe that Michael Lehman’s comedy “Hudson’s Hawk” would be a hit. It was written by the star screenwriter Steven E. de Souza, who has already had huge success with films like 48 Hours, Commando, Jumper Jack Flash and The Running Man. His biggest success was Die Hard in 1988, and two years later he was tapped to write the sequel. Hudson’s Hawk will reunite de Souza with Nutcracker star Bruce Willis, and the film stars Danny Aiello, fresh from Moonstruck, as well as James Coburn, Richard E. Grant, Sandra Bernhard, and Andy McDowell. Meanwhile, Lehman also had a huge cult hit in 1988 with Heathers. Never mind that his 1990 mutant bug movie, Meet the Applegates, bombed. The sensitivity was there.

“Hudson’s hawk” is an amazing duck. Willis plays the titular cat thief, just released from prison, who is once again forced to steal expensive items from vaults and museums. He finds himself embroiled in a blackmail plot involving a pair of eccentric millionaires (Grant and Bernhard) and a piece of crystal that once belonged to Leonardo da Vinci, said to have alchemical powers. There are cartoonish chase scenes, an assassin squad named after candy bars, and an evil butler with swords hidden in his sleeves.

“Hudson Hawk” refueled. It was made for $65 million, but grossed only $17 million domestically. It was also largely praised by critics and was nominated for several awards. For many years, the “Hudson Hawk” was used as a flagship, an example of one of the worst bombs of all time. Adjusted for inflation, it lost more than $100 million.

After watching the film, the extreme reaction seems strange. Many people who saw “Hudson’s Hawk” liked itincluding an interviewer from the Huffington Post who spoke to Willis about his career back in 2012. The interviewer brought it up, and Bruce Willis announced that he was still proud of the project.

By the way, Hudson’s Hawk is a blast. It’s cartoonish and energetic, and features some very funny, over-the-top performances from some very committed actors. This is one of those movies where everyone, including the main character, is extremely eccentric. For example: One of Hudson’s special features is that he memorized the exact timing of hundreds of pop songs. When he and his partner-in-crime Tommy (Aiello) pull off a heist, they time out their moves by singing old standards. An early steal sounds like they’re humming “Swingin’ on a Star” to themselves.

Willis knew right away that it was a broad comedy, and despite the initial failure, he loves the film. He said:

“I really like it. I’m still proud of this movie. He was a little outside of what people (expected). You know, some people come into the theater and say, “I just want to see him make a movie like that.” (…) It was a satire to make the actors laugh. you know, take out the trash.”

Willis, perhaps predictably, takes a dim view of critics, saying that every now and then critics will bash a particular film for no reason. And he is right. There can be something of a blood-in-the-water mentality around certain movies, where both the press and the public will pick a movie—sometimes clearly bad, sometimes good—and decide that it symbolizes Hollywood’s worst habits. You can remember the same thing that happened with “Jigly”. Or, more recently, Morbius. Bad movies, yes, but hardly the worst cinema.

The reason The Hudson Hawk was so crazy was because Willis was able to take over the production. As described in the article /FilmOne day, Willis got a call from Warner Bros. and reported that his yet-to-be-released film, Bonfire of the Vanity, had a terrific run and that audiences loved Willis’ character. Warner Bros decided to rework Campfire to give Willis more screen time.

This gave Willis a sense of entitlement to The Hudson’s Hawk, which was still being written at the time. Willis decided that de Souza’s script needed to be weirder, and Dan Waters was brought in to write new, weirder drafts. Hawkeye producer Joel Silver hated that his lead actor pretty much took over the film, and even de Souza couldn’t contain Willis’ every weird impulse. So Willis more or less had creative freedom to make the movie he wanted. And what he wanted was wild, crazy, energetic and musical.

Hudson’s Hawk may have bombed in theaters domestically, but it did decently overseas, making back most of its budget. He also found a new audience on home video, where most of his raving fans discovered him. Four years after its release, “Hudson Hawk” was still profitable on VHS, and its ratings began to rise on the northern film circuit. Willis told the Huffington Post: “I hear it being called a cult film. And from the studio’s point of view, the film is profitable.”

Perhaps ironically, The Bonfire of the Vanities also bombed, but has yet to receive a positive retrial.