Circle of Iron

In a story co-written by Bruce Lee, a young warrior (Jeff Cooper) meets a blind man (David Carradine) and battles both a monkey man (David Carradine) and a martial artist (David Carradine) in his quest for a book guarded by a wizard (Christopher Lee).

Circle of Iron is a bizarre film. Not bizarre in the sense of lacking a narrative structure, like so many “weird” movies, but rather bizarre in the execution of its ambitions.

The script, co-written by Bruce Lee and James Coburn, is supposed to be an exploration of Lee’s Zen philosophies. Unfortunately, it’s hard to discern what exactly those philosophies are, as they’re obscured by a myriad of almost laughable distractions.

The largest of said distractions has to be Jeff Cooper’s wooden performance. While co-star David Carradine rates between okay and good in his four roles, Cooper is almost painful to watch. His costume, consisting of a loincloth and a shoulder-length mop of hair, doesn’t help.

This film doesn’t so much illustrate Zen principals, as it does preach them, and as such, Cross of Iron is a very talky movie. This wouldn’t be such a problem if Jeff Cooper’s character weren’t the one doing most of the talking.

The rest of the performers fare better. Christopher Lee gets third billing for about five minutes of screen time in a ridiculous outfit, and Roddy McDowall and Eli Wallach cash a paycheck for even less work. However, even with their limited roles, all three of them overshadow Cooper.

Another distraction is the tepid choreography. The fight scenes lack any real tension or flair and come across as wooden and poorly rehearsed. While I admire the film’s desire to shift the focus away from the combat, they’d have been better off eliminating it entirely rather than include this second rate mess.

That said, Circle of Iron isn’t all bad. There’s some great location photography, and the story is original enough to keep you watching despite the aforementioned problems. In fact, a bigger budget and the original casting of Bruce Lee and Coburn might have produced something special.