Game of Death (1978)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Robert Clouse

Writer:

Robert Clouse (written by)

Release Date:

8 June 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Bruce Lee challenges the underworld to a Game of Death.

Plot:

A martial arts movie star must fake his death to find the people who are trying to kill him.

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Revenge | Mafia Boss | Star Died Before Release | Faked Death

Cast

Bruce Lee	...	Billy Lo
Colleen Camp	...	Ann Morris
Dean Jagger	...	Dr. Land
Gig Young	...	Jim Marshall
Tai Chung Kim	...	Billy Lo (as Kim Tai Jong)
Biao Yuen	...	Billy Lo (as Bill Yuen)
Robert Wall	...	Carl Miller
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	...	Hakim
Mel Novak	...	Stick
Hugh O'Brian	...	Steiner
James Tien	...	Charlie Wang
Dan Inosanto	...	Pasqual (as Danny Inosanto)
Chuck Norris	...	Fighter (archive footage)
Roy Chiao	...	Henry Lo
Russell Cawthorne	...	Surgeon

Also Known As:

Bruce Lee's Game of Death
Si wang you ju

Runtime:

85 min | Germany:92 min | Hong Kong:103 min (original premiere) | Hong Kong:125 min | Hong Kong:54 min (current existing footage) | Japan:115 min | Japan:40 min (2000 incomplete version) | USA:100 min | USA:110 min (original premiere) | USA:35 min (2000 incomplete version)

Country:

Hong Kong | USA

Language:

English | Mandarin | Cantonese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

New Zealand:M | Iceland:16 | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-18 (DVD rating) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A | France:U | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:18 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | South Korea:15 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:18 | UK:X (original rating) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 (cut) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Concord Productions Inc.

Trivia:

In the film, Bruce Lee's character fakes his own death; the funeral scene includes real footage of Lee's actual funeral.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Steiner fires his pistol at Billy Lo, the smoke of the bullet impacting the tree appears on the opposite side.

Quotes:

Dr Land: [referring to Ann's calling Land and Steiner murderers after Billy's death] Rude bitch.
Steiner: One rebel begats another. It's the Billy Lo syndrome.
Dr Land: A venereal disease. Often terminal.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Last Dragon (1985)

Soundtrack:

Game of Death

As Brandon Lee once said: "Game of Death has 40 minutes of footage and the rest is junk"

Before Bruce Lee died he worked on scripts for Game of Death (also known under some titles as "song of the knife")...and shot some 40 odd minutes of footage including test screenings and actual fight sequences.

The idea of the film was to make a multi-layer, philosophical film made for the chinese and eastern audience to ask the question over martial arts style - the advantages and disadvantages of each style, as well as questioning the need for style anyway.

The film's main plot was to be based in Korea. Bruce Lee would be forced into storming a 4 or 5 storey Pagoda which is said to hold a infinite treasure with each level guarded by a different style.

The bottom floor would be held by hundreds of Karate students (much like the ending of Enter the Dragon), the first layer would be a style under the handle of "Gate of Enlightment".

The Second layer would be the Preying Mantis with elements of Wing Chun.

The Third layer would be a Philophino style whilst the Fourth, the Temple of Gold would be held by a Hapikdo expert (though I'm not sure about this).

The Fourth layer would be the Temple of the Unknown, guarded by one Kareem Abdul Jabbar - doing an unknown style.

Whilst shooting, most of the footage was lost to the ravages of time. And when Bruce Lee died, his fans cried out for any footage to be shown as a mark of respect.

The end footage of Bruce Lee fighting Jabbar and previous footage would be cut to bits by Robert Clouse and put into a new film under the same name. The end film is offensive and shatters the whole idea of the original GOD plot and story - but then again there wasn't enough info on the film to start with.

Bruce Lee fans were in uproar...the film was a shambles, yet was commerically succesful. Most of the film had no Bruce Lee in it, or had lookalikes or even worse used Stock Footage of old Bruce Lee films and interspliced it into the film.

The DVD, whilst is good, doesn't do much to help the film - there isn't enough info on the script notes...why is there so much text, why didn't they try to recreate the scenes, the floors or even re-do the film as new?

You'd be better off not to buy either the DVD or video version unless you want to waste money or actually are a die-hard bruce lee fan.

The DVD doesn't give you much - but then again there was never much to start with. You'd be better off looking on the Internet for the original GOD scripts and info or even multimedia - as even now on the web you can see the footage that Bruce Lee shot and never got into the original DVD or movie.

Overall this is a very, very weak film with a good score and bad camera angles and discredits Bruce Lee's image so much it becomes deeply offensive and patronising to the viewer.

In fact you could argue that this film singly-handly started the Bruce Lee imitators phenomnen.

Whether the film's patronising and offensive viewpoint is the fault of Robert Clouse, Sammo Hung who directed the fight sequences and drafted in the services of two look-a-likes or even the producer Raymond Chow is unknown, but what is clear is the fact they tried. and failed.

As Brandon Lee once said: "Game of Death has 40 minutes of footage, and the rest is junk". I couldn't agree with him more.

Overall: 2/10