CIRCLE OF IRON (1978)
2-Disc Limited Edition SteelBook
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Label: Blue Underground
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 96 Minutes 43 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1), 5.1 DTS-HD MA, 1.0 DTS-HD MA with Optional English SDH, French, Spanish Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.66:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Richard Moore
Cast: David Carradine, Christopher Lee, Jeff Cooper, Roddy McDowall, Eli Wallach
Circle of Iron (1978) aka The Silent Flute, directed by only-time Roger Moore, started as a joint project between marital-arts legend Bruce Lee (Big Boss) and his pal James Coburn (Our Man Flint) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (The Swarm) back in 1969 - with Bruce Lee convinced that what they were working on would be the greatest martial art film of all-time. Eventually the project fizzled-out and Lee departed the project while making breakout films in China, but after Lee's mysterious death in 1972, co-writer Silliphant completed the screenplay with screenwriter Stanley Mann (Damien - Omen II) and financed through producers Sandy Howard (The Boys Next Door) and Paul Malansky (Raw Meat), starring David Carradine (Q The Winged Serpent) and Jeff Cooper (A Knife for the Ladies). Well, was it an all-timer martial arts extravaganza? Not exactly, but it's quite entertaining mystical martial arts adventure flick just the same, flawed, but certainly a cult gem.
In it wasteland warrior/seeker of knowledge Cord (Jeff Cooper, The Born Losers) is engaged in a martial arts tournament overseen by White Robe (Roddy McDowell, Class of 1984), the prize is that he will be allowed to quest for a magical book of wisdom and enlightenment, that is currently in the possession of a wizard named Zetan (Christopher Lee, Arabian Adventure). While he physically best his warrior opponent, Morthond (Anthony De Longis, The Sword and the Sorcerer), but he is disqualified by White Robe for using dishonorable fighting techniques. Undeterred he chooses to follow Morthond hoping he will lead him to Zetan and the book of knowledge. Along the way they encounter a blind flutist, The Blind Man (Carradine) who they follow into a crumbling ruin where he is attacked by a group of thugs whom he dispatches effortlessly, impressing Cord who approaches him and asks him to be his mentor, but Cord finds himself frustrated by The Blind Man's cryptic teachings while Cord's impetuous and arrogant nature does not sit well with the the mentor, either.
Cord's continued travels with and without The Blind Man include encounters and challenges in a series of combat trials, including battling the leader of the half-man/half-primate tribe of Monkey Men, the Monkeyman (an unrecognizable Carradine, again), as well as a wandering king Chang-Sha (Carradine, surprise!), and Death itself also played by Carradine, once more. Other characters include the Man-in-Oil (Eli Wallach, Baby Doll) who Cord encounters in the desert who has confined himself in an effort to dissolve his distracting genitals and lower half in a vat of oil, as well as a gorgeous young woman named Tara (Erica Creer, The Great Muppet Caper) who tempts Cord's vow of celibacy, with her paying the price for his indiscretion, crucified by Chang-Sha.
The cult flick is as originally conceived by Bruce Lee was to bring his personal philosophy to the big screen with a combination of mysticism, humor and martial arts fighting, and it has those elements certainty, but it suffers from a weak story that feel jumbled and at times, rather silly. I don't think it's terrible by any means, but it's not the mystical martial arts epic it purports to be, though there are some occasionally engaging and kinetic fight sequences, I am thinking particularly of the opening sequence with Morthond, and the Monkey Man.
The film does have some gorgeous scenery, shot by cinematographer Ronnie Taylor (Dario Argento's Opera, Ken Russell's Tommy) in Israel we get some stunning visuals, including ancient ruins, alien-looking desertscapes and rocky outcroppings, and a couple of fantastic sunsets, plus we get a wonderful mystical-fantasy adventure score by Bruce Smeaton (Picnic at Hanging Rock) that sort of outclassed the film itself, so it looks and sounds quite wonderful.
The film premise is simple but sort of clunky with weird energy sapping lulls and attempts at humor that don't flow well, but there's enough decently executed action, eye catching scenery, and mystical weirdness to keep things entertaining. The oddly stacked cast also makes it worth a watch, with appearances from Roddy McDowell who just seems all sort of out of place, and Eli Wallach as the Man-in-Oil, which is just all sorts of WTF, what is happening here, and why? Horror icon Christopher Lee's shows up as the Zeton, the keeper of the Book of Enlightenment, and it's always a treat to see Lee in pretty much anything, but the film sets him up as the ultimate challenge, but then sidesteps that and the final meeting is played for comedic effect, which I found sort of deflating. As flawed as might be it's an entertaining train wreck, not so much in that it's straight-up terrible, it's not, but in that there are so many notable names that were associated with it, it just doesn't quite live up to what it should have or could have been, and you get the feeling that if it had been realized as it was envisioned by Bruce Lee it could have been something more than what it ended up being. What this most reminded me of is The Beastmaster, which is a film I adore, but c'mon, it's not exactly fantasy-adventure perfection, but still, I love it to death. I don't quite Circle of Iron this to death, but it is a curious slice of mystical martial arts fantasy.For me the best thing about it is seeing David Carradine in multiple roles, whihc is a hoot, especially the Monkeyman fight sequences with the make-up appliances, which was easily my favorite part of the film.
Audio/Video: Blue Underground offer up Circle of Iron (1978) on region-Free 4K Ultra HD framed in 1.66:1 widescreen in 2160p with Dolby Vision/HDR10 color-grade, sourced from a brand-new restoration, scanned in 4K 16-bit from its original camera negative, with alternate The Silent Flute title card. The accompanying Blu-ray offers the same 4K restoration in 1080p without the benefit of Dolby Vision/HDR10. The image looks damn near flawless, a gorgeous restoration with finely textured grain throughout, there's appreciable texture in the close-ups of clothing, hair and skin pores, with the 4K resolution giving this an easy edge over the 1080p counterpart. The Dolby Vision HDR10 color-grade looks terrific as well, the sinewy skin tones are warm and natural looking, and the colors are rich and well-saturated, with deep blacks and nuanced shadow detail. Visually everything is nicely dialed-in, and the depth and clarity again outclass the Blu-ray counterpart easily. Audio on both the UHD and Blu-ray come by way of new English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1) remix as well as DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and 1.0 mono with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. All three audio options are clean and well-balanced, the surround mixes spread the fantasy-mystical Bruce Smeaton (Picnic at Hanging Rock) score into the surrounds and we get some subtle use of the height channels, too. The Atmos track is quite strong, but as is often the case for me, this is one of those films where I just appreciated the mono mix a bit more, it just felt more direct and authentic to my ears, but I still appreciate the Atmos upgrade.
New exclusive extras for this release include a terrific new Audio Commentary with Film Historian Frank Djeng and Chris Poggiali, it's a scholarly assessment of the film, they have a decent rapport as they rattle of factoids and notes about the cast and crew, as well as offering their own assessment of the film. Also new is the 18-min Circle Of Success – Interview with Co-Star Anthony De Longis, who talks about his early career in theater, becoming an actor/fight coordinator, and getting work on the film. We also get Poster & Still Gallery with over eighty images,
Archival extras carried over from the previous Blue Underground releases include the Audio Commentary with Director Richard Moore moderated by David Gregory, which first appeared n the 2004 DVD edition. It's still a solid listen, very conversational with some occasional lulls, but Moore is clearly happy to be talking about the film and Gregory does good work keeping the conversation on track. Also carried over from the 2004 DVD is the 14-min Playing The Silent Flute – Interview with Star David Carradine, who speaks about how the film came to his attention through a friend of James Coburn, how it was written by Sterling Siliphant based on a story by Bruce Lee, and how financing was hard to come by. So long in fact that by the time they got it financed that Bruce lee, who was supposed to star in it, had died. He talks about how Sandy Howard produced it, with Carradine initially pitched to plat the Seeker, and how he disappearing into his characters in the film. Also discussed is the casting process, developing the unique choreography, and managing to breaking his nose twice during the Monkeyman fight sequences. He also gets into the Taoist philosophy, the rewrites that he felt were unnecessary, including the man in oil and the boatman's nagging wife, shooting in Israel at ancient locations, and his own physical/verbal style of acting.
More archival extras come by way of the 29-min The Producer – Interview with Co-Producer Paul Maslansky (2007), 31-min Karate Master – Interview with Martial Arts Coordinator Joe Lewis (2007) who gets into Kam Yuen's direction, Carradine's toe-ring shot, the resentment and baggage of the film not getting made while Lee was alive, his fight with Jeff Cooper, shooting in ancient roman ruins, the running and gunning style of the shoot, and meeting Roddy McDowell while filming. We also get a 25-min Audio Interview with Co-Writer Stirling Silliphant (1980), a 3-min Alternate Opening, plus the U.S. Trailer, International Trailer, and 3 TV Spots.
The 2-disc SteelBook edition looks terrific, a glossy metallic finish on the front and back panels of the SteelBook. I could not find the accredited artist for these artworks, however, it's thematically appropriate and nicely captures the mystical heroes' journey elements of the film. The interior SteelBook artwork features a sepia tone colored image from the film spread across both panels. The discs inside are adorned with artworks from SteelBook. As with Blue Underground's previous SteelBook release of Fire and Ice this release includes a Clear Plastic Slipcover with title treatments on the front cover and spines, as well as a back panel with the synopsis, extras, credits and and technical information, leaving the SteelBook itself free of markings.
Special Features:
• NEW! Audio Commentary #2 with Film Historian Frank Djeng and Chris Poggiali
• NEW! Circle Of Success – Interview with Co-Star Anthony De Longis (18:06)
• NEW! Poster & Still Gallery (89 Images)
• Audio Commentary #1 with Director Richard Moore
• Playing The Silent Flute – Interview with Star David Carradine (13:58)
• The Producer – Interview with Co-Producer Paul Maslansky (2007, 28:47)
• Karate Master – Interview with Martial Arts Coordinator Joe Lewis (2007, 31:04)
• Audio Interview with Co-Writer Stirling Silliphant (1980, 25:26)
• Alternate Opening (3:06).
• U.S. Trailer (1:59)
•International Trailer (3:05)
Extras:
• 3 TV Spots (1:41)
Blue Underground's deluxe edition 4k Ultra HD + Blu-ray SteelBook of Circle of Iron (1978) offers a pristine restoration of this somewhat garbled mystical-martial arts film with gorgeous artwork and a stellar array of new and archival extras that dive deep into the storied genesis of this film. They're only making 4000 of these so if you want one be sure to snag it quick, available exclusively from the MVDShop.com: https://mvdshop.com/products/circle-of-iron-steelbook-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray
Screenshots from the Blue Underground Blu-ray:
