Blogorium Review: Circle of Iron

Circle of Iron, also known as The Silent Flute, was the brainchild of Bruce Lee and his student James Coburn (Snow Dogs) in the late 1960s, before Lee broke big with Enter the Dragon. In an effort to make a kung fu film that represented more Zen philosophy and less chop sockey, The Silent Flute takes place in a fantasy world "that never was and always is" where the bravest warriors face a series of trials for the right to meet Zetan and read from the Book of All Knowledge. In their proposed version, Coburn would play the hero, Cord. Lee would play four parts, each representing an aspect of the trials (The Blind Man, Monkeyman, Changsa, and Death).

At this point you're either thinking a) why have I never seen this movie, b) how did something this weird ever get made, or c) okay, what's the catch? The answer to all three is that when Lee and Coburn sent the script around, no studio was interested in making it, so Bruce went back to Hong Kong and made Enter the Dragon. The rights were eventually picked up by Sandy Howard and Paul Maslansky, who made the movie with director Richard Moore almost ten years later. With Lee dead and Coburn no longer interested, who would fill the lead roles?

David Carradine was offered the role of Cord but turned it down because it resembled his role on Kung Fu too much. He instead expressed interest in the Bruce Lee part(s), and with financing in place, The Silent Flute / Circle of Iron began shooting in Israel. This is the version you can find on dvd and (soon) Blu Ray and with that necessary backstory out of the way, I can tell you a bit about the movie itself.

I enjoyed Circle of Iron but will readily admit that it's a very silly movie. While I can appreciate what Lee and Coburn were trying to do, it takes the film out of the realm of kung fu and into a mystical realm that all to frequently resembles the "Sword and Sandal" genre that was omnipresent in the late 70s and early-to-mid 80s (Conquest, Beastmaster, Conan the Barbarian), interspersed with a sprinkling of fighting styles.

Carradine handles all four roles with aplomb, and if I hadn't known (from the trailer) that he played four parts, it's likely I wouldn't have guessed. You can tell he's Changsa, the sultan of pleasure in the desert, but I don't think I would've guessed he was Monkeyman or Death. Carradine brings a different type of physicality to each role and finds subtle ways to shift his body type for each character. Well, Death doesn't get much screen time, but it's because he looks really goofy in a leopard outfit shot in "negative"-vision, and when you see the leopard suit briefly during a final battle in broad daylight, it looks even sillier.

It would be easy to crack wise about the Monkeyman sequence, but the truth is I don't know how else it could have been done. The first trial puts Cord into a cave surrounded by monkeys and their leader, who he must defeat to continue on the path to Zetan. Carradine has some, um, how shall I put this, Zoobile Zoo-esque makeup and the rest of the monkeys are dudes wearing masks that look like Planet of the Apes molds made on the cheap. Admittedly, actual monkeys would look even stranger and may have been impossible to film, but it doesn't help make the film less goofy.

Speaking of which, you're probably wondering why I haven't mentioned the actor who plays Cord, Jeff Cooper. Okay, the biggest hurdle in taking Circle of Iron seriously is that fact that the lead character is a buff white dude with curly, feathered blond hair and a perpetually doofy look on his face. This was the only picture I could find of Cooper straight on in the film:

Now imagine this guy wearing a lion cloth bikini bottom with furry boots and that's your hero. When he doesn't look like that he's making this goofy smile and following around Carradine's Blind flute player like a puppy. Cord is so obnoxious at points that I really wondered whether audiences were supposed to believe he could achieve Enlightenment, which to be honest is dubious even at the end of the film.

The other element of the film, aside from the goofy lead male or the silly outfits or the scenes where Cord and the Blind Man jump kick horses (seriously) is the random "stunt casting". For no apparent reason Roddy McDowall is in the beginning of the film and Christopher Lee at the end, both playing roles that have next to no impact on the film. Even stranger, Eli Wallach (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) plays "Man in Oil", which is a stranger Cord meets in the middle of the desert. Wallach is trying to dissolve his legs and his chonson by sitting in oil for ten years, which doesn't appear to be a lesson Cord pays any mind to, nor should anyone else.

Additionally, Circle of Iron brings you the following silly happenings: frog sign language, Cord-encouraged seppuku, a bickering boatman and his wife, samurai fighting alongside barbarians and Centurions, gratuitous kid slapping, crucifixion, Christopher Lee's condom hat, cow punching, and implied polygamy. I do enjoy the film, but certainly not as Lee intended. Circle of Iron is far too unintentionally goofy to be taken seriously, but it has some dumb charm all its own.

The version I watched was purportedly from the "Uncensored" international cut, which to be honest I only agree with because the opening credits say Circle of Iron and the closing credits say The Silent Flute. The latter title (which was the original title) actually is more appropriate for the film, as there is no "circle of iron" to speak of in the movie. Still, I'd say it's worth renting, especially since it sets up elements of Carradine's Bill in Kill Bill volume 2, and you get to see him fighting monkey style.