GOD 78 is a disaster

[Josh Baker]

2 hours ago, dionbrother said:

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!").

Sammo's stuff is the best parts of the movie; its telling that the best chunk of the film aside from the BL stuff is the Bob Wall vs Sammo fight seguing into the locker room fight, everytime it cuts to the American actors the film unfortunately just drags to a halt and feels like filler.

[Josh Baker]

Also, trying to flirt with someone's wife, especially when your in the midst of negotiating a lucrative deal with the husband, is poor form, but I suppose SC Dacy has been told that already by multiple people.

[dionbrother]

1 hour ago, Josh Baker said:

Also, trying to flirt with someone's wife, especially when your in the midst of negotiating a lucrative deal with the husband, is poor form, but I suppose SC Dacy has been told that already by multiple people.

Dacy blew his chance at being the man who brought real HK action to the US(the negotiations with Sammo were way back in 1988).  Before his death in 1999, this was his legacy to the world: the man who stalked Sophia Crawford.  

 

[Killer Meteor]

5 hours ago, dionbrother said:

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!").

Sammo doesn't seem to have done the fight at the theatre, which is very clunky, and was replaced in the HK version by the superb greenhouse fight.

[Josh Baker]

18 minutes ago, Killer Meteor said:

Sammo doesn't seem to have done the fight at the theatre, which is very clunky, and was replaced in the HK version by the superb greenhouse fight.

were there any assistant fight choreographers credited on G.O.D '78?

[Josh Baker]

47 minutes ago, dionbrother said:

Dacy blew his chance at being the man who brought real HK action to the US(the negotiations with Sammo were way back in 1988).  Before his death in 1999, this was his legacy to the world: the man who stalked Sophia Crawford.  

 

*slow clap*

 

*sigh* what couldve been...

[dionbrother]

2 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

Sammo doesn't seem to have done the fight at the theatre, which is very clunky, and was replaced in the HK version by the superb greenhouse fight.

IIRC(lord knows I can't sit through that thing again) the theater fight included Hugh O'Brien, so Clouse likely directed it.  Same with the garden fight since Kim Tai Chung had to strangle Dean Jagger.

[Josh Baker]

5 minutes ago, dionbrother said:

IIRC(lord knows I can't sit through that thing again) the theater fight included Hugh O'Brien, so Clouse likely directed it.  Same with the garden fight since Kim Tai Chung had to strangle Dean Jagger.

Clouse probably directed the first part up to Dean Jagger running out of the way, and all the inserts of him shouting "Guards!" over and over again, but as soon as Kim Tai Chung starts kicking multiple stuntmen and they all go flying up in the air it seems Sammo took over as everything becomes more dynamic- theres also a much younger stuntman during the fighting stuff in the background if you look carefully, as Dean Jagger probably wasnt there for that.

Coincidentally there is another actor called Dean Jagger in the Warrior TV series.

[Killer Meteor]

47 minutes ago, dionbrother said:

IIRC(lord knows I can't sit through that thing again) the theater fight included Hugh O'Brien, so Clouse likely directed it.  Same with the garden fight since Kim Tai Chung had to strangle Dean Jagger.

1. O'Brien isn't in the theatre scene.

2. The garden fight looks more like Sammo's work, or at least the work of someone who knows what they're doing.

[dionbrother]

2 hours ago, Josh Baker said:

Clouse probably directed the first part up to Dean Jagger running out of the way, and all the inserts of him shouting "Guards!" over and over again, but as soon as Kim Tai Chung starts kicking multiple stuntmen and they all go flying up in the air it seems Sammo took over as everything becomes more dynamic- theres also a much younger stuntman during the fighting stuff in the background if you look carefully, as Dean Jagger probably wasnt there for that.

Coincidentally there is another actor called Dean Jagger in the Warrior TV series.

Sounds right.  At first, thought Sammo directed all the motorcycle stuff BUT I noticed stuntmen flying through glass windows became a Clouse trademark, including THE MASTER tv pilot.  Also the motorcycle stuntmen were brought in from Hollywood and taught the locals stuntmen how to do cycle gags. 

[dionbrother]

1 hour ago, Killer Meteor said:

1. O'Brien isn't in the theatre scene.

2. The garden fight looks more like Sammo's work, or at least the work of someone who knows what they're doing.

Wonder if Chow and Ho saw the coverage on the theater fight and sent Sammo in to shoot all the second unit action. But then they hired Clouse again and again...

[PandaPawPaw]

I find it odd how Raymond Chow, a businessman did nothing with the footage which could of made him some money. At least at the time of Bruce's death.

Now that footage is stuck with a Japanese company who give no shits about it.

[dionbrother]

4 hours ago, PandaPawPaw said:

I find it odd how Raymond Chow, a businessman did nothing with the footage which could of made him some money. At least at the time of Bruce's death.

Now that footage is stuck with a Japanese company who give no shits about it.

Don't think much of Chow as a businessman.  The entire existence of Golden Harvest is one odd decision after another, especially with the global productions.  They often seemed to luck into success, particularly when signing deals with Michael Hui and Jackie Chan.

[PandaPawPaw]

I can't hate on GH (not that you are) seeing as they gave us TMNT (1990) which I adore. I absolutely love that movie.

Edited February 24, 2023 by PandaPawPaw

[BornToDefense]

I'm not familiar enough with Clouse's work outside of the Bruce Lee movies to really judge him, but I always wondered how action-wise he went from stuff like Darker Than Amber and ETD to GOD 78. Even the fights in Black Belt Jones (which I do like as a whole), feel like they're directed with a lot less flair and punch. Darker Than Amber, while not HK style in the least, was good action filmmaking, and if Bruce Lee really wanted Clouse off the basis of that movie, thinking he understood action, then I don't blame him.

While Lee obviously had a heavy hand in ETD, the cinematographer Gilbert Hubbs seems to credit Clouse with the action direction overall (though he said in American Cinematographer that shooting Bruce and his choreography was kind of a no-brainer, pick a good angle and point the camera). I also feel like Lee would probably have pulled the camera back in the interior fights so you could see more if left to his own devices.

If the locker room fight in GOD '78 really was Sammo's work altogether then there goes his Clouse's claim to the one fight in that movie outside of the OG footage that is worth watching for it's own sake. I rewatched the Steiner fight after reading this thread and it was sloppy as hell, even accounting for the fact that it used all the recycled shots of Lee (not sure why they bothered given how little effort made to hide Kim Tai-Chung's face there to begin with).