Synopsis
Where the only rule is to stay alive.
A young Asian American martial artist is forced to participate in a brutal formal street-fight competition.
1980 Directed by Robert Clouse
A young Asian American martial artist is forced to participate in a brutal formal street-fight competition.
Jackie Chan Mako Kristine DeBell José Ferrer Rosalind Chao Chao Li Chi H.B. Haggerty Ron Max David Sheiner Lenny Montana Pat E. Johnson Mary Ellen O'Neill Joycelyne Lew Peter Marc Jacobson Gene LeBell Larry Drake Marcus K. Mukai Sonny Barnes Earl Maynard Donnie Williams Helena Humann Steve Uzzell Gene Rader Big John Hamilton Talmadge Scott John Martin Craig Huston Hart Sprager Robert Shaw Show All…
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I love how Robert Clouse was able to inject a real Hong Kong sensibility into this film, by seeming to have no sense at all of American history. The mob subplot, the men's hats, and the cars all want to suggest that we're in the 1930s, but everything else - the helmet wearing roller derby competitors with the emcee shouting "We're BREAKING BONES over here!", the spandex-clad WWE style wrestlers, the polyester-clad spectators, absolutely screams the 1970s. Probably in Asian markets, audiences simply assumed that it took place in modern Chicago. I remember when I traveled around Southeast Asia in the 90's, whenever I said I was from Chicago, the response was usually, "Oh! Al Capone!" and machine gun fingers…
Raymond Chow's first attempt at breaking Jackie Chan into the international market tapped Robert Clouse (Enter the Dragon) to give it that Bruce Lee star turn. A reasonable success, Golden Harvest deemed the film a disappointment for not seeing Enter the Dragon box office returns, ultimately going back to the drawing board on Chan's American introduction. This failure to launch narrative is further promoted by Chan, disappointed that the action sequences fail to represent his style. With studio and star deriding it, The Big Brawl is resented as one of those reasons it took another fifteen years for many to enjoy Chan - when the truth is its a surprisingly enjoyable film.
In an effort to court as large an…
By 1980, Jackie Chan was a big enough star in Asia to make the attempt to distribute himself around the world. After years of perseverance and training he had worked his way from background henchman to starring roles, and friend and personal manager Willie Chan (no relation) knew that it was time for Jackie to spin kick his talent right into the faces of the biggest market of them all...America! Unfortunately, some changes would have to be made to translate Jackie's particular style and flair for Western audiences, so the success he had found as a Drunken Master and a Fearless Hyena was right out. In "The Big Brawl" (a.k.a. "Battle Creek Brawl), Jackie would get his first taste of…
THE BIG BRAWL is a better introduction to Jackie Chan than RUSH HOUR.
Hear me out.
Only two years removed from DRUNKEN MASTER, it’s surprising how much of Jackie’s brand is already place: The physical comedy, the prop fighting, and the stunts are all in abundance. Sure, everything is slower and a few beats off, but you have to consider that Jackie had to deal with the same uncoordinated Hollywood stuntmen in the 2000s, which makes the stuff he was able to pull off with the guys in 1980 genuinely impressive. It isn’t ideal to have him face off against a bunch of middle-aged beefcakes, but it sure is fun to watch from a wrestling angle.
It’s easy to rib…
We are breaking bones over here!
This film features Jackie Chan in hand to hand combat with Luca Brasi, a roller derby relay race with a fire hose level and World Wide Wrestling match. Yep, everything you’d expect from a gangster flick set in the 1930’s
Jackie Chan manages to add some fun and make this dopey movie watchable, but just barely. I’m actually happy this first attempt to break into Hollywood failed, because the rest of his career may have produced films like this rather than the superior ones he went on to make.
”Waiting by a locked door while an open door beckons is more foolish than futile.”
After the massive success of Enter the Dragon, you can see what producer Jerry Weintraub and writer/director Robert Clouse were trying to do…take the ‘new’ Bruce Lee and break him in the west in much the same way. Yet the film makes one fatal mistake that renders it sadly flat, slow and a really poor vehicle for Jackie Chan’s considerable talents…they set it in the US.
In and of itself, this shouldn’t be a problem – it lets it do some interesting things with setting (the 1930s), style (Lalo Schifrin delivers a frankly brilliant ragtime-esque score) and plot (a Sting-esque tale of warring hoodlums). But sadly, it means that all of Chan’s opponents are huge, lumbering brawlers – ex-pro footballers…
The Big Brawl aka Battle Creek Brawl aka Jackie Chan's Brawls to the Wall
Jackie Chan's American homecoming wasn't quite the intended hit the actor nor his handlers expected, but it gets in a few good punches regardless. Flashing back to 1930s Illinois because why the hell not? The Big Brawl portrays Chan as a street fighting man forced to fight a literal and figurative mob in the tournament to end all tournaments: The Battle Creek Brawl. Basically, it's kind of like Road House but without the constant throbbing of blues rock and even less roundhouse kicking.
While Jackie Chan apparently found adapting to American filmmaking a difficult prospect, it certainly doesn't show in his performance. Bringing all that magnetism…
1980 In Review - August
A young Jackie Chan stars in an early American film that was obviously trying to cash in on him being the next Bruce Lee. In this he is forced to participate in a brutal formal street-fighting competition set in about the 1930s.
When I discovered Jackie Chan in the 90s I went about going through his back catalogue, loving every movie I found, but was under the impression that his American films (this and The Protector) were much lesser and not really ‘proper’ Jackie Chan movies.
So as I am now going though and watching every film released in 1980 I have already watched The Young Master, and wasn’t really looking forward to see his…
Jackie Chan's unsuccessful first crack at the American market, from the creative team behind Enter the Dragon. Unlike Jackie's other failed U.S. vehicle, The Protector, this one actually allows him to bring his goofball persona and acrobatic, prop-heavy action style across the Pacific.
On the plus side, it's fun to see Jackie wearing '30s garb and driving vintage cars in a handsome Hollywood period movie. The tone is cheerful, and Jackie's girlfriend is former Alice in Wonderland and future A Talking Cat!?! star Kristine DeBell, which I'm in favour of even though she doesn't have much to do. On the minus side, the last act, depicting the titular Brawl, is one scene after another of Jackie fighting a series of…
This is the first Jackie Chan film I saw circa 1984. Of course, I didn't know who Jackie Chan was, although I knew Mako from episodes of MASH and various TV appearances. There's even a bit appearance from Larry Drake as the roller race emcee.
Jackie plays Jerry, a member of a family in Chicago some time in the 1930s. Kenny gets blackmailed into fighting in the Battle Creek Brawl, a no holds barred fighting tournament, for one of the local crime bosses. It's a bare plot, with arguably the best thing being the overly catchy theme song. Surprisingly, Jerry has a white girlfriend.
Director Robert Clouse directed a lot of American produced martial arts films in the '70s through…
JMN presents… Chan-uary!
Film #8: Battle Creek Brawl, aka The Big Brawl (1980)
Language: English
Runtime: 96 mins
Jackie Chan goes to Hollywood!
...And comes straight back to Hong Kong, because America doesn't get him yet. They've hired the director who gave Bruce Lee his start (Robert Clouse); written a confusing plot, which nonetheless features lots of opportunities for Jackie to fight and show off; there's even an underwritten love interest to stitch up our man's wounds.
And yet Jackie hasn't found his voice yet. Literally, in the sense that he can barely speak his English dialogue, but also metaphorically. He's barely worked out by this point what kind of filmmaker he should be with Fearless Hyena and The Young…
AKA Battle Creek Brawl
In 1930s Chicago, Jerry (Jackie Chan) gets mixed up with the mob, ending up, at their forceful prompting, taking part in a legal street fight competition in Battle Creek, Texas. Standing in his way of winning is the formidable Billy Kiss (Hard Boiled Haggarty).
My eldest, who seems to have no interest in films whatsoever, has found his way out of his bedroom at least three times in the last fortnight and on each occasion I've been watching an old martial arts movie. He thinks I'm the oddball! This actually sparked a conversation from him about the genre and he asked what the first martial arts film I saw was. Simple, Battle Creek Brawl, can even…