Trolling #31: Howard the Duck RULES!

Ah, Howard the Duck. The first Marvel feature film. Perhaps only George Lucas’ third most-hated product (after The Phantom Menace and The Star Wars Holiday Special), and having been massively outstripped in the “loss of money” camp by more recent high-profile bombs like The Lone Ranger and John Carter, 1986’s Howard the Duck is still referred to as one of the most notable turkeys of all time, having made, to date, only $16 million on a production budget of about $37 million; after 28 years, it still hasn’t recouped its losses.

More than that, Howard the Duck is a film that has become a touchstone of bad filmmaking, often referred to in the same breath as Ishtar or Battlefield Earth as one of the worst studio films of all time. It was so notorious that the film’s director, Willard Huyck, has not directed a film since, having only occasionally returned to writing here and there (he co-wrote the underseen The Radioland Murders in 1994, and a 2008 TV movie called Secrets of a Hollywood Nurse). Huyck had previously penned Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and American Graffiti, so it may be safe to say that Howard the Duck ruined his career.

But here at Trolling, it’s our job – indeed our moral imperative – to rush to the rescue of the indefensible. Let us cut through the hatred, the prejudice, the clouds of vitriol, and take a good look at Howard the Duck again. Let us deliberately reconsider it, analyze it, and try to come up with new conclusions. Indeed, let us consider, after some thought, that Howard the Duck is actually a pretty damn good movie. Indeed, let is postulate: Howard the Duck RULES! Here is why: 



Is the film sloppy and dumb? Yes. But is it’s spoofy dumbness a misguided attempt as cross-genre pollination, or is it in fact the cleverest satire of all, having arrived a mere 25-30 years too early? I see a film that was creative, fresh, funny, and, most importantly of all, weird. A film that showed that producer George Lucas had more of a sense of humor than people give him credit for, and that the studio system was ready to back a comic book spoof. That audiences rejected it only proved that they weren’t ready for Howard the Duck.

Until next week, let the hate mail flow. 


Witney Seibold is the head film critic for Nerdist, and a contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind. 

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