VEILED THREATS by Phil Mershon
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THE BIG BOSS
Directed and written by Lei Lo
Starring Bruce Lee
Released in 1971
Picture
Known as Fists of Fury in Europe, The Big Boss (1971) was not, as is often argued, Bruce Lee's first motion picture. It was, however, his first starring role in a film and was certainly the movie that put master Bruce on the road map as the philosophic and practical king of a style of fighting called Jeet Kune Do. Interestingly, the follow-up movie was going to be called Fist of Fury (note the singular), but ended up being called The Chinese Connection.
   Whatever one calls The Big Boss, it was and remains one of the most beautiful examples of the form. Lee's character, Cheng, moves from China to Thailand to go live with his uncle. He has sworn on his mother's amulet to not fight and we are given the impression that his sudden arrival in Thailand may have something to do with avoiding the law back home, although this is strictly conjecture. Cheng takes a job with an ice company that packs clear bags of heroin inside the large blocks of frozen water. As more and more of the workers realize what is going on, those workers get offed by the merciless foreman's men, or the manager's men, or, ultimately, the men of the Big Boss. There's a hierarchy here--one that gets referred to in all Lee's films, whether literally or metaphorically--and that provides a nice continuity, believe it or not. It also provides an understanding of society, one no more complex than, say, Romeo and Juliet, but one that is a lot more interesting. 
   Cheng gets pushed around and eventually the warrior decides to fight, just as we know he will. After all, there was no reason to make him a reluctant pacifist other than to enjoy watching him struggle against the promises he has made to people who are no longer on camera.
   Speaking of the camera, I for one think it was clever to have the blaring opening theme music carry over onto the opening shots of the actual film, as if to suggest that this Hong Kong movie was either an example of great art or the sloppiest thing ever made. The truth is that it comes far closer to the former than the latter, though it has elements of both, just like Romeo and Juliet. 
   As to the art, this was the first movie I ever saw to have kicks coming right into the camera, much less to have them punctuated by over-the-top dramatic music that cues our emotional reactions for us. This is also part of the sloppiness I mentioned. But art trumps clumsy if for no other reason than that Bruce Lee was such a beautiful guy. 
    And he was beautiful. Part of that beauty comes across as this near-deity gets used by the manager when the latter promotes Cheng to the role of foreman, consciously driving a wedge between the warrior and his supplicants. Again we are reminded of the hierarchy and again we get a sense that this wasn't such a bucket of slop after all. 
   The title character himself is a hedonistic karate master of considerable skill, although he is no match for Bruce Lee. He is also without conscience and possesses something of a sadistic streak, one which his own minions have internalized and use to control the humble working class. 
   Real life is usually not so cut and dried and there are scumbag workers just as it is possible that some bosses are humane. But that consideration is not appropriate to the genre. Just as the two teenagers in R&J are the only ones with any sense--despite being proved to be complete idiots--so is it with The Big Boss. The powerful are monsters and the weak need a good example set for them in self-defense. Well, sometimes that is exactly the way it feels out in the real world and this movie is all about feeling over thought. Again, because this is a fight movie, that prioritization is entirely appropriate, however reprehensible it may sound on the written page.
    If you want to argue that since everything about this movie is blatantly contrived and that Lee is one of the few people in the film who can actually act, well, you'll win that argument, at least on points. If you want to say that that means this is any less exciting than the sword fights in the story of the Capulets and Montagues, you are certain to get your ass kicked. 
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  • Home
  • Links
  • The Deluge
    • Veiled Threats >
      • 1939-1945
      • 1946-1963
      • 1964-1975
      • 1976-1985
      • Born Losers
      • Don't Look Back
      • Bonnie and Clyde
      • Cool Hand Luke
      • The Graduate
      • Up Tight!
      • Cycle Savages
      • Wild in the Streets
      • Never a Dull Moment
      • Yellow Submarine
      • Night of the Living Dead
      • Faces
      • The Love Bug
      • Midnight Cowboy
      • Easy Rider
      • Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
      • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
      • They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
      • The Magic Christian
      • Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
      • The Landlord
      • The Ballad of Cable Hogue
      • Getting Straight
      • The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
      • Five Easy Pieces
      • Godard in America
      • Gimme Shelter
      • Little Big Man
      • The Boys in the Band
      • Joe
      • The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
      • The Big Boss
      • There's a Girl in my Soup
      • The Liberation of L B Jones
      • Klute
      • The French Connection
      • Willie Dynamite
      • Helter Skelter
      • King: A Filmed Record
      • Get Carter
      • Harold and Maude
      • Panic in Needle Park
      • Across 110th Street
      • And Soon the Darkness
      • Deliverance
      • Rolling Thunder
      • Super Fly
      • Busting
      • The Ruling Class
      • The Harder They Come
      • Day of the Jackal
      • Play Misty For Me
      • The Jezebels
      • Sacco & Vanzetti
      • Badlands
      • Cold Turkey
      • Soldier Blue
      • American Graffiti
      • The Falcon and the Snowman
      • Watership Down
      • Scarecrow
      • Walking Tall
      • Frances
      • The Coca-Cola Kid
      • Bob Roberts
      • Bad Company
      • We Are Marshall
      • Patton
      • The Natural
      • The Crossing Guard
      • Reds
      • The Spook Who Sat by the Door
      • Mud
      • Who is Harry Nilsson
      • Ornette: Made in America
      • Six Degrees of Separation
      • This Film is Not Yet Rated
      • Incident at Oglala
      • That Championship Season
      • The Pope of Greenwich Village
      • Little Murders
      • Assault on Precinct 13
      • Capote
      • Inglourious Basterds
      • The Friends of Eddie Coyle
      • Scorpio
      • The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
      • A New Leaf
      • Seven Psychopaths
      • The Last House on the Left
      • The Deer Hunter
      • Let the Right One In
      • Colour Me Kubrick
      • A Time to Kill
      • A Scanner Darkly
      • Salem's Lot
      • Roman Polanksi: Wanted and Desired
      • The Seven-Ups
      • The Contender
      • Hoffa
      • The Pledge
      • American: The Bill Hicks Story
      • Donnie Brasco
      • Bugsy
      • Milk
      • Reservoir Dogs
      • Glengarry Glen Ross
      • V for Vendetta
      • Trumbo
      • Two in the Wave
      • South of the Border
      • Into the Abyss
      • God Bless America
  • Before the Deluge
    • The Bicycle Thief
    • Judgment at Nuremberg
    • Five Minutes to Live
    • The Manchurian Candidate
    • Hud
    • Pressure Point
    • Blow Up
    • Requiem for a Heavyweight
    • Hurry Sundown
  • Human Flood
    • Jean-Luc Godard >
      • Breathless
      • Masculine Feminine
      • Film Socialisme
    • Brian De Palma >
      • Sisters
      • The Fury
    • Stanley Kubrick >
      • Lolita
      • 2001: A Space Odyssey
      • A Clockwork Orange
      • The Shining
      • Full Metal Jacket
    • Francis Coppola >
      • The Conversation
      • Apocalypse Now
    • Woody Allen >
      • Take the Money and Run
      • Bananas
      • Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But were Afraid to Ask
      • Sleeper
      • Love and Death
      • Annie Hall
      • Interiors
      • Manhattan
      • Stardust Memories
      • Zelig
      • Broadway Danny Rose
      • The Purple Rose of Cairo
      • Hannah and Her Sisters
      • Radio Days
    • Robert Altman >
      • M*A*S*H
      • Brewster McCloud
      • 3 Women
      • Nashville
      • The Gingerbread Man
      • Ready to Wear
      • Gosford Park
      • The Player
    • Luis Bunuel >
      • The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
    • Roman Polanski >
      • Cul-de-Sac
      • Rosemary's Baby
      • MacBeth
      • The Tenant
    • Martin Scorsese >
      • Boxcar Bertha
    • Steven Spielberg >
      • Duel
    • Oliver Stone >
      • Talk Radio
    • Orson Welles >
      • F For Fake
    • Akira Kurosawa >
      • DODES'KA-DEN
    • Max Ophuls
    • John Ford >
      • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
    • John Huston
    • Frank Capra
    • Billy Wilder
    • Roger Corman
    • Bernardo Bertolucci
    • Elia Kazan
    • William Wyler
    • Spike Lee
    • Francois Truffaut >
      • 400 Blows
      • Jules and Jim
      • Bed and Board
    • Jean Renoir
    • Federico Fellini
    • Charlie Chaplin
    • John Cassavetes
    • Agnes Vargas
    • Alain Resnais
    • Eric Rohmer >
      • Claire's Knee
    • Ida Lupino
    • Leni Riefenstahl
    • Penny Marshall
    • Costa-Gavras >
      • The Confession
      • Missing
    • Alfred Hitchcock >
      • Spellbound
      • Shadow of a Doubt
      • The Birds
      • I Confess
      • Dial M for Murder
      • Rear Window
      • To Catch a Thief
      • The Wrong Man
      • Suspicion
      • Saboteur
      • Lifeboat
      • Notorious
      • Rope
      • North by Northwest
      • Psycho
      • The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
  • No Particular Place to Go
  • The Pits
    • The Big Chill
    • W. C. Fields and Me
    • Zabriskie Point
    • Eat The Document
    • Hitler: The Last Ten Days
    • A Boy and His Dog
    • A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
    • The Executioner's Song
    • The Visitors
    • Paul McCartney Really is Dead
    • Going Places
    • Pi
    • Erik the Viking
    • Sometimes They Come Back
    • Thinner
    • Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
    • A Bullet for Pretty Boy
  • Links