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Hudson Hawk is a film that can barely hold the name film; it's more of an experience, an unsettling array of genre clashes that amalgamate into one nearly unwatchable movie. However, it's that unwatchableness that the experience of Hudson Hawk gains its strongest might. For those unaware, which may be the majority of the population, Hudson Hawk details the life of Eddie "The Hawk" Hawkins (Bruce Willis), a famous cat burglar sent to prison who is forced into doing one last job upon his release. A conspiracy involving the CIA, the mob and the Catholic Church ensues, and Hawk is forced to steal a number of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions in order to build a gold machine.
But what does this have to do with music? The two main burglars, Hudson Hawk and his partner, Tommy Five-Tone (Danny Aiello), in two fantastic musical numbers, sing songs to correctly time their capers. The two main songs featured in the movie: "Swingin' On a Star," a song that both Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra performed during their careers, and "Side by Side," which reached fame with Dean Martin but was also recorded by Pat Boone and Ray Charles, amongst others. It's a humorous enough moment to walk into a record store and find a copy of Bruce Willis's album, The Return of Bruno, but actually seeing him on screen, singing these classic songs with Danny Aiello is a work of pure, unexplainable rightness.
The beauty of Hudson Hawk comes with its now obscure musical references; the two main songs are added to by the name-dropping of dozens of others - in fact, anywhere time is mentioned, a song is mentioned as well. It's an artifact of the baby boomer generation that will be lost on most people in today's culture. The love of blue-eyed soul and, what is now termed easy listening, is generally thought of to be in grandmother's territory. It's not to say that Hudson Hawk isn't enjoyable for its use of music; in fact, it may be the most enjoyable thing about it. Aiello and Willis sneaking into da Vinci's castle singing "Side by Side" with explosions and cursing and death and blood everywhere is a movement that everyone should, at one point, witness. However, it does bring up a whole series of questions: namely, could it be true that music is evil?
It has been said by many people, for many reasons, that music's persuasive power can be used for the wrong end (God, the devil, false idols, creation of the desire to kill), but nobody, not one person, has mentioned the fact that music can be used as a tool to rob precious artwork from museums in Europe.
Hudson Hawk reveals the dirty underside of blue-eyed soul music, the fact that, in many cases, the mafia was using it to further along agendas many may have never noticed. Perhaps even Hudson Hawk was a mere warning to the public, a telltale wrapped in a tall tale expressing, "Don't let the song catch you, cat burglar." These timings, say three minutes and 32 seconds, or four minutes and 18 seconds, seem so perfect in timing in the burglaring of Hawk that one must wonder, "Were these songs created for the express purpose of burglaring?" Everyone knows that artists like Sinatra and Martin once faired the walls of pizzerias and mob joints across America, but did anyone stop and wonder, "Were these artists being controlled by the mob?" Probably not. And with that, one must certainly begin to question.
Perhaps big mobster letter A was planning on robbing a bank, he knew that he had exactly three minutes and 33 seconds to do so, so he calls up Sinatra, says make a song that is three minutes and 33 seconds, make it catchy and send it over. Sinatra does so, and the song is "This Love of Mine." Mobster A loves the song, puts a picture of Sinatra on the wall, memorizes the song, then goes and robs the bank, singing the song throughout in order to keep track of his time without having to look at his watch. The idea isn't that farfetched if you watch Hudson Hawk, because that, minus the commissioning of Sinatra, is exactly what they do. Of course, they have a whole array of songs fitting a given time frame, but one can be sure, a typical mobster could hardly remember all those songs.
It may sound farfetched, but look at one of the classic burglars, Bilbo Baggins: how often did Tolkien use songs to convey what he was doing? Moreover, how often in the cartoon adaptation did songs appear? The songs in the movie are perfectly timed as the "greatest adventurer," thieves from trolls, Gollum and Smog. It is not difficult to decipher that Glenn Yarbrough, the singer of one of the cartoon's songs, and Bilbo, for that matter, must have had mafia connections; even Tolkien is a suspect. Smog bears an uncanny resemblance to Scarface, sitting on his pile of gold and smoldering his enemies. Hudson Hawk would have been as at home on the set of the Hobbit as in film, thieving from or for whatever bad evil character and singing a song the whole time.
Hudson Hawk, as a flavorful journey into the early '90s operates as nothing more than just that, a snippet of '90s Attention Deficit Disorder pop culture. But the overwhelming theme of theft and music, as the two connect and are intertwined, raises too many questions to be ignored. These songwriters, whoever they may have been, simply must have been operating with the agenda of timing thievery into their songs. What other explanation can there be for the seamlessness of the theft in the movie?
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