How disrespectful to Bruce Lee was the original 1978 release of Game of Death.

[Geezenation]

Bruce Lee left behind a proud legacy, and with a fully fleshed concept, the director of enter the dragon, and 40 mins of iconic footage already shot, how could you fuck up the game of death?

Well...

https://youtu.be/a5-6RtdyPxM

[Cognoscente]

Imagine if they filmed a scene in Bruce's home.

[PandaPawPaw]

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

It wasn’t a comedy or spoof. I think it’s ok. 

[J.J. Hayden]

I watched your vid, but sorry, I didn't agree with most of it. The majority of the complaints seemed to be about common things with Hong Kong films of that time, such as continuity errors; moves not looking like they connect; the use of doubles for different moves; and having different ending for different countries etc. All of which I believe you can find in Bruce's films too. Things like continuity errors may be issues, but IMO not enough to consider a film a fuck up.

I wouldn't call the film disrespectful as a whole, I'd certainly agree that the use of the funeral footage was.

At the end of the day, I'd agree with you if you said it wasn't a great Bruce Lee film, but I can't agree that the film is a fuck up.

Cheers

[Killer Meteor]

2 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Imagine if they filmed a scene in Bruce's home.

THE TOURNAMENT beat them to that!

[tomgray2404]

The funeral footage was the standout f__k up. The rest of it was just shoddy editing, poor effects, and less-than-convincing doubles.

[Cognoscente]

Game of Death is to Bruce Lee's life what Capricorn One was to the moon landings.

[starschwar]

11 hours ago, tomgray2404 said:

The funeral footage was the standout f__k up. The rest of it was just shoddy editing, poor effects, and less-than-convincing doubles.

 

Yeah, that is peak tastelessness.  I am not a person that is easily offended by any means.  But the fact that Bruce's actual corpse cameos is just gross.  If not for that, GOD '78 would merely be a laughably incompetent effort at a nearly impossible task.  Instead, it's just contemptible.

[Brucemee]

2 hours ago, starschwar said:

 

Yeah, that is peak tastelessness.  I am not a person that is easily offended by any means.  But the fact that Bruce's actual corpse cameos is just gross.  If not for that, GOD '78 would merely be a laughably incompetent effort at a nearly impossible task.  Instead, it's just contemptible.

Yeah, Game Of Death was the 1st Bruce Lee movie (if you'd call it that) that I ever saw, it's going to have sentimental value regardless for me but incorporating the footage from Bruce's real funeral was definitely in poor taste. It had to be at least a little disturbing for Brandon, Shannon & the rest of Bruce's family to see that when they attended the premiere in L.A.. And once wasn't enough for Raymond Chow, apparently, footage of Bruce in his coffin was incorporated in Tower of Death & Bruce Lee: The Legend (hope I got that title right), too. Anything for a buck, I guess, for Bruce's old friend & business partner, Raymond Chow, right? 

[PandaPawPaw]

Did Linda or any of his family say anything about GOD or even GOD2 being made/released?

Also why is BL nunchuck white and Dans Headband grey in this pic?

[Killer Meteor]

4 hours ago, Brucemee said:

Yeah, Game Of Death was the 1st Bruce Lee movie (if you'd call it that) that I ever saw, it's going to have sentimental value regardless for me but incorporating the footage from Bruce's real funeral was definitely in poor taste. It had to be at least a little disturbing for Brandon, Shannon & the rest of Bruce's family to see that when they attended the premiere in L.A.. And once wasn't enough for Raymond Chow, apparently, footage of Bruce in his coffin was incorporated in Tower of Death & Bruce Lee: The Legend (hope I got that title right), too. Anything for a buck, I guess, for Bruce's old friend & business partner, Raymond Chow, right? 

That funeral footage turns up in a lot of films, though usually it's meant to show Bruce Lee. It's more awkward in GOD as it's Bruce Lee playing a dummy.

[laagi]

If they would've at least taken the original idea into consideration as well as putting in an effort it could've been a somewhat decent release. As it stands it remains a travesty and I refuse to watch it to this day!

By all means even when an actor passes away during a production, it can be done right. Prime example being "The Crow" incidentally featuring Lee's only son, what are the odds!

I'd even go out on a limb and say they did a decent job in Furious 7 after Walker passed away. Although if rumors are to be believed he might come back from the dead as a CGI monstrosity. Lord knows that only turned out great so far... Looking at you Star Wars!

Surprised BL enterprises hasn't picked up on such an idea to release an all new GOD with a CGI Bruce LOL.

Edited February 16, 2023 by laagi

[Cognoscente]

Considering that Golden Harvest had given Robert Lee his own star project, it's a wonder that they didn't cast him in GOD.

[dionbrother]

Further proof that Robert Clouse was a hack that got lucky with ENTER THE DRAGON.  He clearly hated the genre he found himself stuck in.  

[Cognoscente]

Before Jackie Chan did Project A, Clouse wanted to direct him in a pirate movie that he had written. It's weird that Clouse would have wanted to work with him again despite the fraught production and dismal box office of The Big Brawl.

[Killer Meteor]

Big Brawl did OK in America, just nothing groudbreaking. Besides, Clouse probably knew he was finished if he couldn't get another kung fu or killer animals movie!

[dionbrother]

That "Blood Alley" project was in the works when THE BIG BRAWL was in post-production.  Golden Harvest worked with Clouse because he could make a slick-looking movie with shoestring budgets.  I suspect Jackie decided he didn't want to work with Clouse again so a replacement for The Protector project was sought, and the Blood Alley treatment inspired JC to make PROJECT A.  Clouse went on to make FORCE FIVE with American Cinema, who were seeking a cheaper replacement for the Chuck Norris movies at the time.  What I never understood was why Golden Harvest continued to work with Clouse on DEADLY EYES and the CHINA O'BRIEN movies.  Guess they were oblivious to his lack of talent and enthusiasm about their projects.  If they needed an American name on those films, any young film school grad straight out of USC could have done a better job that Bob Clouse.

[dionbrother]

Seriously, Hal Needham should have directed THE BIG BRAWL and THE PROTECTOR.  He got along with Jackie and would have given him plenty of freedom in staging the stunts and action.

[Killer Meteor]

11 minutes ago, dionbrother said:

 What I never understood was why Golden Harvest continued to work with Clouse on DEADLY EYES and the CHINA O'BRIEN movies.  Guess they were oblivious to his lack of talent and enthusiasm about their projects.

"From the director of ENTER THE DRAGON".

 

Even though Ed Wood could probably have done just as good a job,

[dionbrother]

4 minutes ago, Killer Meteor said:

"From the director of ENTER THE DRAGON".

 

Even though Ed Wood could probably have done just as good a job,

They should have had Sammo, Corey Yuen, or Ching Tsiu Tung direct the movies but allowed Clouse to direct some dialogue scenes to justify putting his name on it.  It's done in Hollywood more often than most realize so why should Golden Harvest have been above it?

[WangYu]

It is not like enter the dragon is a great film. There is a plot about drugs that goes nowhere, there is a tournament without a set up or completion, the random scenes introducing Williams and Roper were uninspiring.  Bruce not fighting Bolo is a monumental fuck up.

If it wasn’t Bruce Lee in the fight scenes this film wouldn’t have made a dent in public conscience.

[BornToDefense]

Never understood why they didn't stick with the original tower concept. I realize Bruceploitation had beaten them to it, but they had the original footage to build around. It's always been amazing to me how two major studios managed to put out an official Bruce Lee movie that's arguably far more distasteful than anything Bruce Lee's imitators did.

[Josh Baker]

As I've said many times before I think the conception of this film was a complete disaster and misguided- the moment Clouse declared he didn't like the GOD footage and wanted to use as little of it as possible he should've been shown the door, but I guess there was already a contract in place and had the clout of ETD behind him.

I have no idea why they didn't decide to use at least the skeleton of Lee's original concept (ascending a pagoda) which is what made the project feel unique- you can change the details of course but making a restaurant boggles the mind; rip-off films already using the pagoda concept is a strawman argument and sounds like a disguise for the real reason which hasn't yet been disclosed.

[Josh Baker]

I dont think it would be disrespectful for the Lee estate to essentially make another version of GOD closer to Lee's original concept, but with new footage shot with modern actors shot as a period piece to match with the original '1972 footage.

I think re-jigging the concept to have other actors sub in for Bruce (a bit like how Eight Diagram Pole Fighter was re-written to focus on Kara Hui/Gordon Liu's characters after Fu Sheng's death) makes more sense to my mind rather than attempt to have a deepfake Bruce Lee wandering around throughout the entire movie; have the 1st half focus a bit more on other characters to make up for Lee's absence before leading into the GOD pagoda footage.

You can use some of the actors from the Warrior TV series if you want, or modern Asian actors like Jessica Henwick to play these new characters, making it an ensemble piece a bit like Enter the Dragon.

Speaking of ETD, I suspect theres plenty of unseen ETD outtakes or alternate angles you could probably use for shots of Lee in the new scenes in which he has to be featured for plot coherence.

The subtle use of CGI to integrate this into the newly shot scenes I don't think would come across as too disrespectful or exploitative, somewhat similar to the Brandon Lee approach in the Crow I suppose.

You can see the '78 cut as a failed attempt to complete the film and this new version as a more respectful and successful attempt.

I'd personally rather have this than a remake or a completion effort using a CGI Bruce Lee, both versions would have the problem of having to be constantly compared to the real Bruce Lee.