Member Josh Baker Posted January 11, 2022 Member Share Posted January 11, 2022 Because I felt like being masochistic I re watched GOD 78 and I reminded me of how bad that film was. It's clear that it was made by people who didn't particularly like/had complex working relationships with Lee (Chow, Clouse) and did not have his best interests at heart, so rather than complete what Lee had shot, they made an entirely unrelated film and shoe horned in an abdriged version of Lees footage as part of the third act climactic fight scene. Its boring, sloppy and a total belly flop of a film really. The plot/concept may have worked in another context as an ok-ish early 80s Chuck Norris vehicle, but in this context it is completely unfit for purpose. It's even worse when put into comparison with GOD 2, a film clearly made by fans of Lee, and as a result actually feels a lot more like a Bruce Lee movie, and his presence is felt more, even though it contains no actual original footage of him. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member saltysam Posted January 11, 2022 Member Share Posted January 11, 2022 As a 14 year old in 1978 this was my first exposure to BL on the big screen. Absolutely loved it at the time and have to be honest despite it's wrongheadeddness, tons of flaws,dodgy use of old footage i still like it. Fantastic music score, great open/end credits, some decent non BL fight scenes and of course Bruce himself. I think i'll give it a spin when i've finished my Shaw set 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted January 11, 2022 Member Share Posted January 11, 2022 19 minutes ago, Josh Baker said: Because I felt like being masochistic I re watched GOD 78 and I reminded me of how bad that film was. It's clear that it was made by people who didn't particularly like/had complex working relationships with Lee (Chow, Clouse) and did not have his best interests at heart, so rather than complete what Lee had shot, they made an entirely unrelated film and shoe horned in an abdriged version of Lees footage as part of the third act climactic fight scene. Its boring, sloppy and a total belly flop of a film really. The plot/concept may have worked in another context as an ok-ish early 80s Chuck Norris vehicle, but in this context it is completely unfit for purpose. It's even worse when put into comparison with GOD 2, a film clearly made by fans of Lee, and as a result actually feels a lot more like a Bruce Lee movie, and his presence is felt more, even though it contains no actual original footage of him. My understanding is that GOD 2 started as outtakes from the original GOD 78. At the time it was rumored that Bruce was losing interest in the project anyway, but there are conflicting reports on that. I suppose you could do the CGI and remake it as a better film, but that time has sort of passed. Bruce Lee is an icon but all the villains are sort of outdated. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DragonClaws Posted January 11, 2022 Member Share Posted January 11, 2022 (edited) Just now, Josh Baker said: It's clear that it was made by people who didn't particularly like/had complex working relationships with Lee (Chow, Clouse) and did not have his best interests at heart, The films fight choreographer Sammo Hung, has a lot of respect for Bruce Lee. He knew both him & Raymond Chow, working for the latter for a long period of time. Kim Tai-Chung, one of the doubles was also a big fan of the late actor. Just now, Josh Baker said: The plot/concept may have worked in another context as an ok-ish early 80s Chuck Norris vehicle, but in this context it is completely unfit for purpose. Having Bruce Lee fake his death use disguises, was a pretty cool idea. It just wasn't executed in the best way. Making a film is one thing, trying to complete a unfinshed movie with dead cast members is another. None of us have the perspective Robert Clouse, Raymond Chow had, when it came to their creative/business decisions. The sequel also shares a lot of the same cast and crew members, as the 1978 film. Edited January 11, 2022 by DragonClaws 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member shukocarl1441996347 Posted January 11, 2022 Member Share Posted January 11, 2022 I really can't believe that Sammo Hung contributed anything to the first couple of fights. They are so poorly staged and slow. You NEVER feel that it's "Bruce Lee" fighting. The second one (Chinese Opera) is probably one of the worst in the Bruceploitation genre. It's as if they just plonked the camera down and said "wing it guys". Thankfully Sammo vs Bob Wall is a fun bout( reminds me of when my Sensei and I used to spar in a boxing ring) and the locker room fight EXCELLENTLY feels like it captures the spirit of Bruce (except for the silly multiple kicks). The less said about Kim Tai Jong and Hugh O'Brien, the better! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member andy338 Posted January 11, 2022 Member Share Posted January 11, 2022 I liked the movie as a young kid and perhaps that gives me a little bias towards it as I still find it entertaining all these years later. Obviously the real Bruce Lee stuff is great but I also love the locker room fight with Bob Wall where Yuen Biao pulls off some wicked moves, the front somersault kick to Bob's chin!! ouch!! I also thought the plot of Bruce faking his death was cool as it played into a lot of the theories at the time and explained why "Bruce" looked different and of course the shooting on the movie set scene also became tragically relevant after what happened to Brandon years later adding to the intrigue of it all. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 Quick note. Bob Wall bragged that he had to rough up Sammo as he wouldn't react properly to his blows. Whatever. https://www.usadojo.com/ex-fighter-bob-wall-jailed-for-grand-theft/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 PS, I can't find that article, so I posted the above to remind everyone what a reliable narrator Bob Wall was/is. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 https://cityonfire.com/feature-bob-wall-interview/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member PandaPawPaw Posted January 12, 2022 Member Share Posted January 12, 2022 I do like how the film makers spent most of the movie hiding the fakes Bruce's and then at the end they're like screw it, we've got the audiences money, the films nearly over and if you haven't figured it out by now then there's no helping you. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted July 7, 2022 Member Share Posted July 7, 2022 I've been doing a Google newspaper search to find more info on this disaster. In an August 1977 issue of Toledo Blade, Clouse was quoted as saying that Bruce was going to be on screen for 40 minutes, and the film was going to be released before Christmas of that year. In a July issue of a Canadian newspaper (The Leader-Post), Clouse said: "Bruce made about 10,000 feet of this film." and "There have been a lot of scripts but finally we have one that is going to work out very well." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member PandaPawPaw Posted July 8, 2022 Member Share Posted July 8, 2022 So 10000 feet of 16mm film (I'm guessing) at 24fps = 277mintues (Using Kodak film calculator). Show me the fooooootttttaaaaaage! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted July 8, 2022 Member Share Posted July 8, 2022 Bearing in mind that a lot of it is probably just out-takes along with that promo film involving Kareem, Bruce and James posing around. There were certainly enough useable shots to create cuts that separated the Warrior's Journey experience from the Artport one. Then again, Bruce did write an essay where he said that the film was halfway done. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted July 8, 2022 Member Share Posted July 8, 2022 On 1/12/2022 at 9:40 AM, PandaPawPaw said: I do like how the film makers spent most of the movie hiding the fakes Bruce's and then at the end they're like screw it, we've got the audiences money, the films nearly over and if you haven't figured it out by now then there's no helping you. Yeah, I noticed that. Kim suddenly gets two or three clear close-ups during the fight with Hugh O'Brien. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member starschwar Posted July 8, 2022 Member Share Posted July 8, 2022 The weirdest thing to me about the inconsistent efforts to hide fake-Bruce's face is that they had that subplot about him requiring surgery after the gunshot which would result in some changes to his appearance. They could have just used that story beat to explain the change. Use the other actor(s) up until the surgery, then swap to the real deal for the finale. But of course, this is the same brain trust that set the finale at night, despite the pagoda interiors clearly being lit by sunlight. I really don't know that much about Robert Clouse. But between Game of Death being the train wreck that it is, Big Brawl being aggressively unmemorable, and Gymkata... existing, I imagine Enter the Dragon was just a lucky accident. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted July 8, 2022 Member Share Posted July 8, 2022 Funny how Lo Wei did a better job with Fearless Hyena 2. It seems like GOD originally wasn't supposed to have all those insert shots of Bruce, but it seems like someone complained that there wasn't enough footage of him to justify having the film billed as a Bruce Lee movie. Even one of the newspaper critics back in the late '70s talked about how fake it was! I'd like to know if Clouse had already been working on the GOD script before or during the making of The Amsterdam Kill, which finished filming in March '77. Either way, perhaps Leung Po-Chi should have been the director of GOD. Around the same time as The Amsterdam Kill, he directed an English language film for Golden Harvest called Foxbat. With Clouse being almost deaf and incompetent, perhaps Bruce should have been the director of ETD. He had already proven himself with WOTD and what he did with GOD. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted July 13, 2022 Member Share Posted July 13, 2022 In the April '82 issue of Martial Arts Movies, there was an article about the making of the opening credits sequence. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member PandaPawPaw Posted July 14, 2022 Member Share Posted July 14, 2022 1M feet of film!? That's 27,777m and 46.66s (Kodak film calculator). Now show me that foooooootage! Seriously it's so frustrating that all this (in some cases alleged) footage will never see the light of day. I bet Fortune Star haven't even looked at half the stuff they have. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member JCLegend86 Posted July 14, 2022 Member Share Posted July 14, 2022 I like it. Reason being I was 12 when my uncle showed me the BL movies, was gutted over the fact he was dead. The GOD score/theme is so haunting. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member PandaPawPaw Posted July 14, 2022 Member Share Posted July 14, 2022 Am I the only one who didn't notice all these pasted effects when they saw this as a kid? It was only many years later that I found out about it as well as the fake Bruce's. Up till then it was my fave BL film. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member JCLegend86 Posted July 14, 2022 Member Share Posted July 14, 2022 37 minutes ago, PandaPawPaw said: Am I the only one who didn't notice all these pasted effects when they saw this as a kid? It was only many years later that I found out about it as well as the fake Bruce's. Up till then it was my fave BL film. I didnt. But I was watching an old vhs tape recorded from TV. Its amazing what you dont notice as a kid, wish it still was like that kinda 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted February 22, 2023 Member Share Posted February 22, 2023 GOD 79 press kit: https://www.ebay.com/itm/334365785043 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member dionbrother Posted February 23, 2023 Member Share Posted February 23, 2023 On 7/8/2022 at 5:36 PM, Cognoscente said: Funny how Lo Wei did a better job with Fearless Hyena 2. It seems like GOD originally wasn't supposed to have all those insert shots of Bruce, but it seems like someone complained that there wasn't enough footage of him to justify having the film billed as a Bruce Lee movie. Even one of the newspaper critics back in the late '70s talked about how fake it was! I'd like to know if Clouse had already been working on the GOD script before or during the making of The Amsterdam Kill, which finished filming in March '77. Either way, perhaps Leung Po-Chi should have been the director of GOD. Around the same time as The Amsterdam Kill, he directed an English language film for Golden Harvest called Foxbat. With Clouse being almost deaf and incompetent, perhaps Bruce should have been the director of ETD. He had already proven himself with WOTD and what he did with GOD. FOXBAT was made for Bang Bang Films, not GH. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member PandaPawPaw Posted February 23, 2023 Member Share Posted February 23, 2023 7 hours ago, dionbrother said: FOXBAT was made for Bang Bang Films, not GH. Must resist................. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member dionbrother Posted February 23, 2023 Member Share Posted February 23, 2023 According to SC Dacy, who was negotiating with Sammo to do a Hollywood movie(and the deal fell through because Dacy made a pass at Joyce Godenzi), Sammo directed far more of G.O.D. than he's credited. Clouse likely directed all the dialogue scenes with the American actors and maybe the two or three action scenes involving those Americans. The rest was Sammo's work("You lose, Karl Miller!"). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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