GAME OF DEATH (1978)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
In 1978, word leaked out that 100 minutes of footage existed from an uncompleted Bruce Lee film. Fans were excited. So were the studios, including producer Raymond Chow and his Golden Harvest company. And so Lee's final film, "Game of Death," was released in 1978. Talk about false advertising. Not only were 100 minutes of footage not shown, but Bruce Lee barely appears in the film at all. There are frequent cutaways to Lee from his legendary work in his first three kung-fu films, but they are so awkwardly pasted together that it comes across more as a joke on the audience. Meanwhile, we have Bruce Lee doubles to make up for transitional scenes until the finale. And the anticipated footage of Lee is just short of 10 minutes of fight footage.
The story begins with Billy Lo (played by both Ti Chung Kim and Biao Yuen), a martial-arts fighter who is also an international film star, not unlike Lee. He is something of a whiny, depressed individual with an American singer as a girlfriend (Colleen Camp). For some reason, Lo confides his personal problems to a dry-witted journalist (Gig Young). Anyways, a mob circuit headed by Dr. Land (Dean Jagger) want to invest in Lo's future and get a cut of the profits in return. Lo refuses, and is later supposedly assassinated on the set of his newest film (foreshadowing echoes of Lee's own son, Brandon Lee, killed on the set of "The Crow"). Lo is presumed dead yet he survives the assassination, and wants revenge and intends to kill all the members and minions of the Mafia's outfit.They include Mr. Wyatt Earp himself, Hugh O'Brian, and Mel Novak as Stick who has a way with a toothpick. This is the same kind of plot that pervaded most of the Bruce Lee rip-offs and pseudo-biographies (including Bruce Li, remember him?) of the 1970's, and it hardly feels inspired or surprising.
After witnessing interminable action scenes and fistfights and motorcycles imploding and exploding, we finally get the real Bruce Lee in a yellow tracking suit dueling a nunchaku expert, a Japanese fighter and, lastly, engaging in hand-to-hand combat in an incredible showdown with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar! These scenes have the electricity and flair of Bruce Lee at his best. Then we get one final action scene with Hugh O'Brian that again uses a Lee double! Initially, "Game of Death" was a story written by Bruce Lee about a kung-fu fighter who would enter a pagoda and fight three different opponents on three levels with unique styles of their own. Footage was shot before Lee had to cancel production and shoot "Enter the Dragon." The problem is simple: where is all that great footage? (Check out "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey" for a different cut of the footage.) How come we only see 10 minutes of it? According to the late director Robert Clouse ("Enter the Dragon"), the footage was not so great. Anything is better than what Clouse shot, which is nothing more than a by-the-numbers underworld thriller at best with slipshod action and threadbare characters.
"Game of Death" looks and feels like a production helmed by Ed Wood (who is known for using Lugosi doubles in "Plan Nine From Outer Space"). It is inert and terminally boring, amazing considering the late Robert Clouse was known for fast-paced action (look at "Enter the Dragon" and "Golden Needles" for proof). The villains are non-perilous, the hero is adrift in La-La Land, the story has no thrust and the action has no consequence. Excepting the brief Bruce Lee footage and John Barry's exciting, James Bond-like film score, "Game of Death" thrashes the memory of the legendary Bruce Lee.
