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Judged to be a bad career move by a fledgling action hero, the project was wisely shelved…all but forgotten until Lee’s unforeseen, untimely and bizarre death. As evidenced time and again, the death of someone in the public eye leads to a surge of interest in their activities and achievements, both while they lived and posthumously; such was the case with The Silent Flute. When the script was rediscovered, it was seen as a no-brainer to get it made and released to an enamored public that could not be treated to more of Bruce himself and would gladly settle on a project that represented the man and his spirituality. Unfortunately, it proved only to be a no-brainer of a different sort entirely… No sooner had Lee’s treatment been reworked, that stars began to come out of the woodwork to act in it. David Carradine took the role that originally Bruce himself wanted to play. This smacks of irony to me, as it was this very instance that caused Lee to leave the United States all those years ago, when Carradine was cast in televisions Kung Fu instead of Lee, who was frustrated with his subservient role as Kato on the Green Hornet series. Also making appearances are Christopher Lee (The Wicker Man), Roddy McDowell (Planet of the Apes), and Eli Wallach (The Magnificent Seven). Oddly, for a film with such star power, the main character Cord is played by the horrible Jeff Cooper (who would never find his way into a film again), whose acting may be the only thing worse than his martial arts. Cord is a brash upstart of a warrior…all brawn and no brain. In fact, he performs so brutishly in a tournament, designed to choose a warrior to be sent on a spiritual quest, that he is thrown out of it outright. Undeterred, through sheer thickheadedness, Cord decides to set out on the quest regardless of his being chosen to do so or not; it would seem that inside this arrogant fighter lurks a genuine desire to better himself, hidden only by the total lack of understanding of how to do so. For this quest, Cord must track down a man by the name of Zetan, defeat him and discover the secrets of the coveted Book of All knowledge…a treasure which none have returned to tell of. Obsessed with discovering the secrets hidden within the mythical book, Cord believes that to truly find himself and become a better warrior and man, he must reveal that which is hidden in its pages. What Cord cannot know, but will soon discover, is that it is the very quest which may prove more valuable than the prize at its end. Occasionally joined, and often guided, by a mysterious and philosophical blind man (Carradine), Cord begins to discover that although his challenges may appear to lie in the many duels and battles along the way, it will be his understanding and knowledge which come in far more useful than his muscles. Originally designed by Lee to be filmed in many nations and in four languages, Circe of Iron was to be a grand expression of Lee’s interpretations of Zen, spirituality, religion, and the warrior soul…an Eastern version of Pilgrim’s Progress so to speak. This all sounds well and good until the results hit the screen. What could have been a very subtle and meaningful lesson in self-discovery and insightfulness deteriorates from too much bad acting, worse martial arts and a few scenes that are total nonsense. Even though I understand that the cave full of monkeys is really an allegory to those who have learned to attack the specifics of a man’s beliefs based on the teachings of his religious orientation and that the monkeys couldn’t stand against Cord because he represents only the seeking of knowledge and not the stance of one who pretends to know of the true “way”…well, even knowing all of that, in Circle of Iron it comes off as a dude in a cave fighting a bunch of monkeys. There are of course, many other teachings and metaphors; however they are handled so ineptly and under such duress from the acting level that it all gets lost in a sea of jumbled events. A man sits in a pot dissolving his lower half to rid himself of his temptations, a panther thing comes to Cord in a dream at night, a child gets his nose broken for no reason, a gang of random warriors attack Cord and the blind man out of the blue, etc. etc. The panther is the personification of death which Cord does not fear, the man in the pot is turning blame to things outside himself and beyond his control instead of owning up to his shortcomings, the warriors represent the persecutions of the world’s governments and leaders against those who seek spiritual freedoms which are not permitted, and so on. But to be honest, by the end of the film, you just don’t care…at all. Most of the failure in this film has to be handed directly to Jeff Cooper, who is just too ridiculous in this film for any viewer to get behind his character or his character’s journey. He never should have been cast in the first place, and made it into the production simply because Carradine said that he would not agree to do the film unless Cooper (his sparring partner) was cast in the main role. Originally, Carradine himself was to play Cord, but instead held out for the four-role part that Bruce would have played. So basically, what we have here is a spiritual film attempting to teach the lessons of selflessness, which has been destroyed by the manipulation, greed and egos of the very actors within it. Nifty. Visually, the film could have looked wonderful, as the locales in Israel (where it was filmed) are stunning. Unfortunately, while the scenery may be powerful, it is all but destroyed by the wannabe-Conan looking Cord, some Planet of the Apes rejects, and a downright Heaven’s-Gate-kinda-nutty society led by the wussiest Christopher Lee ever to hit the screen. The result is a film which comes off “cheap” and thrown together; it being too hard to believe that a film this cheesy could actually have something meaningful to say. When faced with a film so bizarre, a company looking to release it has two choices. Don’t throw any money at it, stick it on a no-frills release, and rake in the money from those fans of Bruce and his bizarre project who have been waiting with breath baited enough to snatch up anything. Or, do it up big, track down those responsible for the film and involve them, honor the “idea” of the film more than the film itself, and give those longtime fans a payoff for that long wait. Of course, this second way also ensures that the quality of the release will sway some potential buyers into thinking twice about passing it up. Kudo’s go to Blue Underground for doing it the right way. This two-disc release packs in more goodies than this movie could ever deserve, but which the FANS of this film most definitely do. There is audio commentary with the director, interviews with star David Carradine, martial arts choreographer Joe Lewis, and the film’s co-producer. A talk with the Bruce’s co-writer, Joel Silliphant is also included, but more interesting is the first script written by Lee, James Coburn and Silliphant themselves. Of course, a film with this sort of turbulent pedigree and dubious creation needs a featurette on its history, and just such a bonus is featured here as well. Wrapping things up are some galleries, TV spots and trailers. All in all a very well rounded release, for an arguably undeserving release. While I cannot tout the film’s merits as strongly as I can endorse its release, there is enough here to keep fans happy. If you are a martial arts film fan, or just an inquisitive viewer who enjoys fantasy material, I would advise passing on this one. But lovers of Lee and followers of his spiritual legacy will most likely seek their own fulfillment and satisfaction within this DVD. I don’t see them finding it to be honest, but then again, spiritually speaking…people are into some weird stuff. -aaron-
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