Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Blaxploitation?
No, Bruceploitation!
The
Film Detective Presents 40th Anniversary Edition of the
Cult
Classic Fist of Fear, Touch of Death on Blu-ray & DVD
Collector’s
Set 4K Restoration With Exclusive Special Features
(With
Blood-Red, Blu-ray Case), Available March 31st
ROCKPORT, Mass. — March 23, 2020 — For Immediate Release —
The Film Detective (TFD), a leading classic media streaming network and film archive
that restores classic films for today's cord-cutters, is proud to announce the
40th anniversary edition of the cult classic Fist of Fear, Touch of Death in a
special collector’s set.First presented in 1980 by veteran distributor and
producer Terry Levene and director Matthew Mallinson, the action-packed Fist of
Fear, Touch of Death premiered as one of the final pieces of the
Bruceploitation era.
A subgenre of 1970s cinema, Bruceploitation clung to the
box office success of the Bruce Lee legacy after the star’s untimely demise in
1973, utilizing Lee lookalikes and archival footage from the legend himself.
Carving a niche within the grindhouse market, Bruceploitation not only appealed
to fans of the day, but has generated a cult status in recent years.
True to Bruceploitation fashion, Fist of Fear, Touch of
Death features eye-popping combat scenes viewers will have to see to believe,
putting the 1979 World Karate Championship at center stage, where martial
artists take their shot at eliminating the competition and claiming the title
of “successor to the Bruce Lee legacy.â€
Using mockumentary-style interviews in the film, hosted
by Academy Award-nominee Adolph Caesar, martial arts masters Fred Williamson and
Ron Van Clief, among others, emerge from every corner of the martial arts world
to give their take on whether any competitor can be deemed worthy of the Bruce
Lee legacy.
Lee himself receives top billing in the film, appearing
in archival footage dubbed “The Bruce Lee Story,†a chronicle of Lee’s early
years partially taken from the 1957 film, Thunderstorm. In the film, a Kung Fu
move known as the “Touch of Death†shrouds Lee’s untimely demise in mystery,
before returning to the World Karate Championship to watch the new victor claim
the title.
Said the film’s star, Fred
Williamson, “It was never meant to be a serious martial arts movie. It’s a
comedy and satire … a bad movie that was good. Why was it good? It was
entertaining, which is, after all, why you make a movie.â€
Said Phil Hopkins, founder of The Film Detective, “We are
excited to be giving Fist of Fear, Touch of Death the restoration it deserves
in honor of its 40th year. Fans of Quentin Tarantino’s recent tribute to
Hollywood’s Golden Age, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, are sure to appreciate
this grindhouse classic and new, never-before-seen special features.â€
A drive-in circuit sensation in 1980, this special 40th
anniversary collector’s set is guaranteed to pack a punch with audiences,
featuring a blood-red, Blu-ray case and a stunning 4K restoration from the
original 35mm camera negative under exclusive license from the film’s original
producers at Aquarius Releasing, Inc.
EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL FEATURES: Stars Fred Williamson and Ron
Van Clief are reunited for interviews, masterfully produced by Prince Henry
Entertainment Group founder Frazier Prince; and producer Terry Levene, director
Matthew Mallinson and scriptwriter Ron Harvey give their behind-the-camera take
on the film in new interviews conducted by producer and editor Jim Markovic as
part of an exclusive, 30-minute featurette, That’s Bruceploitation, by Daniel
Griffith from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures. Limited-edition Blu-ray copies will
feature a special liner note booklet written by Justin Decloux and Will Sloan,
hosts of The Important Cinema Club podcast.
Fist of Fear, Touch of Death is available for purchase on
The Film Detective website March 31 in a limited-edition Blu-ray ($24.99) or on
DVD ($19.99). With a limited pressing of just 1,500 Blu-rays, this exclusive
deal won’t last long. Fans can secure a copy by ordering at www.thefilmdetective.com/fist-of-fear
About The Film Detective:
The Film Detective is a
leading distributor of restored classic programming, including feature films, television,
foreign imports, and documentaries. Launched in 2014, The Film Detective has
distributed its extensive library of 3,000+ hours of film on DVD and Blu-ray
and through leading broadcast and streaming platforms such as Turner Classic
Movies, NBC, EPIX, Pluto TV, Amazon, MeTV, PBS, and more. With a strong focus
on increasing the digital reach of its content, The Film Detective has released
its classic movie app on web, iOS, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV. The Film
Detective is also available live with a 24/7 linear channel available on Sling,
STIRR, and DistroTV. For more information, visit us online at www.TheFilmDetective.com.
Spend
eleven million dollars (that was a lot of money in 1970-1971), cast classic
Hollywood stars like Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner, hire an international
production crew from Spain, Italy, and France, appoint Alexander and Ilya
Salkind as producers (with Douglas himself credited as producer), and adapt a
little-known public domain novel by Jules Verne about pirates in the Cape Horn
area in 1865, and you’ve got the ingredients for a rousing, epic
action/adventure flick to rival Journey to the Center of the Earth or 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea, right?
Unfortunately,
something went wrong. The Light at the Edge of the World flopped at the
box office, and, while the picture has its fans—who will welcome this
impressive new Blu-ray restoration from Kino Lorber—the movie is a dud.
Douglas
plays Will Denton, a lighthouse keeper on an isolated island. His only
companions are a crusty sea captain (Fernando Rey), young Felipe (Massimo
Ranieri), and a cute monkey named Mario. One day, a group of truly nasty
pirates, led by the sadistic Jonathan Kongre (Brynner), arrives. They proceed
to murder the captain, Felipe, and, in a particularly disgusting moment, the
monkey. Denton hides out amidst the caves and rocks on the island, and for the
rest of the movie attempts to pick off the pirates, guerilla style. Soon,
though, a ship of innocent travelers sails by. The pirates kill off everyone on
board except a Arabella (Samantha Eggar, who coincidentally is the spitting
image of the woman who broke Denton’s heart back in America). Kongre decides to
keep Arabella alive for himself. From then on, the tale becomes a case of one
man against a small army, with a final showdown, of course, between the two
leads.
On
paper it sounds exciting enough. However, one of the problems that struck this
reviewer today is the level of cruelty enacted by the pirates throughout
the movie. There are sequences of serious violence, and the film was rated only
PG at the time! Granted, in those days, the MPAA was rather lenient in the
movie ratings when it came to violence—this was the year of Dirty Harry,
Straw Dogs, and A Clockwork Orange (which were rated,
respectively, R, R, and X, although Orange was eventually re-rated to
R). Light at the Edge contains R-rated violence and scenes of torture;
perhaps they got away with the PG because the producer/star was Douglas—who knows?
Besides
the relative unpleasantness of the feature, there’s nothing exceptionally
striking about it. Douglas delivers a solid “Kirk Douglas†performance, but
Brynner is simply awful. He’s suitably wicked in an “I’m-so-villainous†manner,
but it’s obvious he’s walking through it for the paycheck. Every beat of the
lighthouse keeper’s battle to regain control of the island is predictable and
oddly unsatisfying. The look of the picture also lacks that cinematic sweep
that usually accompanies such fare as Center of the Earth, 20,000
Leagues, or even something like the 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty. The
thing feels like it was, well, made for television.
Perhaps
it was the skinning of the monkey that turned off this reviewer.
Kino
Lorber’s high definition restoration is quite well-done visually and sonically.
The feature comes with English subtitles for the hearing impaired, and there’s
an audio commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson,
who appreciate the picture much more than this reviewer. Producer Ilya Salkind
and director Kevin Billington make cameo commentary as well, and this adds some
extra value to the proceedings. Other supplements are a radio spot and
theatrical trailers to this and other Kino Lorber titles.
As
mentioned above, there are indeed fans of The Light at the Edge of the World,
and this Blu-ray will be cherished by them and those admirers of Douglas and
Brynner who will undoubtedly forgive the actors for lesser works.