Game of Death: Platinum Edition (1978) |
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Game of Death: Platinum Edition (1978) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Martial Arts |
Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Bey Logan (Hong Kong Cinema Expert) Biographies-Cast-Animated Biography - Bruce Lee Deleted Scenes Trailer-Hong Kong Legends Notes-Game Of Death Retrospective Notes-History Of Jeet Kune Do Gallery-Photo-2 Theatrical Trailer-3 Trailer-The Big Boss, Fist Of Fury, Way Of The Dragon TV Spots-Way Of The Dragon, Fist Of Fury Notes-Biography - Dan Inosanto Featurette-Dan Inosanto - Warrior And Teacher Featurette-Jeet Kune-Do Seminar With Dan Inosanto Featurette-Taky Kimura - Keeping The Flame Alive Featurette-George Lazenby - Reflections Of The Master Outtakes-Montage Featurette-Legacy Of The Dragon More…-Game Of Death Revisited, Biography Of Kareem Abdul Jabbar |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1978 | ||
| Running Time | 95:59 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
RSDL (63:07) Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By |
Robert Clouse Sammo Hung Kam-Bo Bruce Lee |
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Studio
Distributor |
Fortune Star Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Bruce Lee Colleen Camp Dean Jagger Gig Young Tai Chung Kim Biao Yuen Robert Wall Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Mel Novak Hugh O'Brian James Tien Dan Inosanto Chuck Norris |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music | John Barry |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Auto Pan & Scan Encoded |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
I have been lucky enough to review all but one of the newly released versions of Bruce Lee's films as an adult, with this as the last of them. The reviews for The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon and Enter The Dragon can be found at these links. This one has a huge difference to those other films - it was not actually completed during Bruce Lee's lifetime. In fact, it only actually features him in 11 minutes or so of previously unseen footage. In the rest of the film he is variously played by three different stand-ins, inserted as a cut-out face or included by use of close-ups of footage from earlier films. It even includes footage of Bruce's actual funeral standing in for the faked funeral of the lead character. To accuse this film of being an exploitation of Bruce Lee is probably a fair criticism, however, having said that it is also definitely of interest to fans.
The production of Game of Death commenced in 1972 with Bruce Lee as star, director and writer. He proceeded to shoot a number of action scenes in a multi-storied pagoda, where each level of the pagoda was defended by a master of a different style of martial arts. His plan for the movie was that he and two allies would try to make their way up the pagoda defeating each master along the way. This was in line with his philosophy that the most powerful martial art was one of no particular style which utilised the best parts of every style in accordance with each fighter's personal skills and attributes. For him , the film was very personal as it explained his philosophy to the world. Production was halted when Warner Brothers approached Bruce to star in their joint venture with Raymond Chow, Enter the Dragon. He was planning to return to Game of Death when he died in 1973.
Following the death of Bruce Lee the footage which he had shot, amounting to about 60 minutes or so, was put into the Golden Harvest (Raymond Chow's production company) archive, where it stayed until 1978. In 1978 because of the ongoing fascination globally with all things related to Bruce Lee, the decision was made to take the footage out of the archive and try to build a feature film around it. Accordingly, Robert Clouse who had directed Enter The Dragon was hired to make a film based on the footage. Eventually, he decided to only use 11 minutes of the actual Bruce Lee footage, building the rest of the film around doubles and other tricks as mentioned above. In order to increase the film's appeal to English speaking audiences it was made in English and featured some well known actors from the United States including two Oscar winners, Gig Young and Dean Jagger. There was also a Cantonese version made, which featured some extra scenes, different credits and different music. The music for the English speaking version was written by John Barry, famous for his James Bond scores. The disc contains the English version, however the extra scenes are included in the extra features.
Anyway, the plot of this film follows the story of Billy Lo (Bruce Lee + three different doubles), a Hong Kong action film star. He is being threatened by a group of criminals, lead by Dr Land (Dean Jagger). They want him to sign a management contract with them and he is resisting. They try a few different methods of getting him to sign including harassing his girlfriend, Ann Morris (Colleen Camp) and his friend, Jim Marshall (Gig Young), a journalist. The criminals include a heavy called Steiner (Hugh O'Brien) and Carl 'Killer' Miller (Bob Wall), a karate champion. In order to elude them and also try to take his revenge, Billy must stage his own death and go underground. Footage from the 1972 shoot is also included featuring Dan Inosanto and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as guardians of the pagoda, which is converted into the upper stories of a warehouse in this film. Bizarrely, Chuck Norris is also featured in the opening credits, however, his only appearance consists of footage from Way of the Dragon.
The action scenes which were made specifically for the 1978 version are choreographed by Sammo Hung (who also appeared in Enter the Dragon) and he also appears in a fight scene with Bob Wall. The added action scenes are certainly of high quality and if it wasn't for them obviously not involving the real Bruce Lee you would be more impressed. The best one is actually the scene cut from the international version which can be seen in the extras. A re-cut 40 minute version of Bruce Lee's footage is also included in the extras, which features some excellent fight scenes. Some of the same footage appeared on the recent 2 disc special edition of Enter The Dragon.
Frankly, if this film did not feature Bruce Lee, it would just be another Hong Kong action film, with some bad acting, an obvious story and nothing particularly to make it stand out. Fans of Bruce Lee should definitely own it regardless as it is an important part of his very small collection of feature films, especially when you take into account the extra 40 minutes of Bruce's footage included in the extras.
The video quality is surprisingly good, however this is not the best video transfer available globally of this film.
The feature is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is close to the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It is also encoded with automatic pan and scan information if you really must avoid black bars.
From a sharpness and clarity perspective this film looks surprisingly good considering its age and genesis, although a Region 3 release is quite a bit better in this regard. A comparison of this video can be found on DVD Beaver. Some scenes were a little softer such as at 51:00. There was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail is surprisingly good for a film like this.
The colour was quite good, although not up to the standard of the Fortune Star release in Hong Kong. This version seems to have been touched up from a colour perspective, whereas the Fortune Star release seems more natural. The link above gives an excellent comparison.
The only noticeable artefact was some mild aliasing such as on the car grille at 41:42. Film artefacts are virtually non-existent which, considering the age of this film, is incredible.
There are no subtitles.
The layer change occurs at 63:07 and causes a slight pause.
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The audio quality is very good.
This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s. To my ears this is a sympathetic remix, which does not show off the surrounds but rather uses them mostly to add atmosphere and some mild directional effects. Purists may be annoyed by the lack of the original mono soundtrack, but it doesn't really bother me.
Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.
The score of this film by John Barry could have been straight from a Bond movie score. It does the job but does not stand out.
The surround speakers added some mild directional effects and atmosphere.
The subwoofer was not noticeable.
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There are numerous extras spread over the two discs.
The menus included an intro, music, motion and the ability to select scenes. The menu system on disc 2 splits the extras into 5 floors as per Bruce Lee's original plan for the movie to feature a pagoda of five floors. The only annoying thing about these discs is that you must sit through three studio promos totalling over 1 minute every time you load either disc.
Another excellent commentary from Bey Logan, overflowing with information, trivia and anecdotes. A text bio of Logan is shown first once the menu item is chosen. He discusses the different versions of the credits, the music used, the history of the film, dubbing, the doubles used and which one is used where, the cast, Sammo Hung involvement, locations used, different versions available and other interesting stuff.
This is very similar if not the same as an extra on The Big Boss which is a text biography of Bruce Lee, with someone reading it as it scrolls past. It runs for 21 minutes. Interesting stuff, but it gets a little tedious.
One of the many highlights of the extras package. These are mostly scenes which are included in the Asian version of the film including the different credit sequence, different ending and an extra fight scene. Each scene is preceded by a text description and is presented 16x9 enhanced. Specifically, they are:
A 30 page text essay about the production of the original footage and the final film.
10 page text essay about Bruce Lee's martial arts philosophy.
18 movie posters and video covers for the film.
70+ photos of Bruce and others including behind-the-scenes shots, posters, action shots and much more.
A selection of trailers for this film and others. All are 16x9 enhanced. Included are:
A 15 page text biography of Dan Inosanto, co-star in this film and the only man certified by Bruce Lee to teach Jeet Kune-Do.
An interview with Dan Inosanto in which he discusses morality, Bruce Lee's technique and desire to educate, his relationship with Bruce, training methods and memorabilia which he has in his gym. Not bad. 16x9 enhanced.
A training video featuring Dan and some of his students showing various techniques and approaches to hand-to-hand combat which show how to blend various styles of martial arts. Not of great interest to me personally but I am sure any student of martial arts would find it interesting. Non 16x9 enhanced.
An interview with another co-star in this film. He tells some interesting anecdotes and discusses his relationship with Bruce and styles of martial arts. Again not bad.
An interview with the Australian actor who played James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He discusses kung fu cinema, Bruce Lee, racism and his proposed project with Bruce. The link to Bruce Lee seemed a little tenuous, however, there seems to have been a plan to use him in Bruce's version of Game of Death although nothing was ever filmed.
A selection of outtakes from the 1972 footage for Game of Death featuring Bruce Lee and others making mistakes. Quite interesting. Presented non 16x9 enhanced.
A quality documentary about the making of this film, both the 1972 version and the 1978 completion of the project. It also covers Bruce Lee's life and career and includes interviews with Sammo Hung, George Lazenby, various Golden Harvest executives and others. Well worth watching.
Now this is the absolute highlight here for Bruce Lee fans, even more than the movie itself, especially if you do not have the latest 2-disc special edition of Enter The Dragon . This is 40 minutes of footage which Bruce Lee directed and starred in from the action filmed in 1972 for Game of Death, edited according to Bruce Lee's notes of how he planned the movie to be. It includes the 11 minutes from the theatrical release of the film, however, in this format the fight scenes are much more powerful and quite incredible to watch. It probably contains the best fight scenes Bruce Lee ever committed to celluloid. It is non 16x9 enhanced but this is a minor issue considering the rarity value of the material. Some of this footage (about 5 or 6 minutes less) appears as a part of a documentary on the 2-disc version of Enter The Dragon, however the quality here is better. An absolute essential for Bruce Lee fans and worth the price of admission alone.
6 page text biography of Kareem.
There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
There have been many releases of this film globally of widely varying quality. The best two versions are this one and the Region 3 Fortune Star release as compared at the link in the video section above. The Fortune Star has the best video and includes an extra DTS track and the original mono, however in all other respects this version is probably the pick. On balance, I would still recommend this version, however if video quality or having the original mono soundtrack are more important for you, try to find the Fortune Star version although I believe that it is only available as part of a box set.
The video quality is surprisingly good.
The audio quality is very good.
The set has a large collection of extras, mostly of good quality. One of the extras is more important than the film itself.
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| Extras | |
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| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output |
| Display | Sony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC). |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX-511 |
| Speakers | Bose 201 Direct Reflecting (Front), Phillips SB680V (Surround), Phillips MX731 (Center), Yamaha YST SW90 (Sub) |