Before his untimely death in 1973, Bruce Lee had expressed wanting to bring a Buddhist tale to American audiences. He attempted to do so during the late sixties when Lee sat down with two of his students, cheesy character actor James Coburn and hack scriptwriter Stirling Silliphant. Together they created the rough draft for "The Silent Flute." Four of the main roles were written for Lee to portray as his characters led a young wandering fighter (a part crafted for Coburn) towards his ultimate destiny. The various characters Lee would play were designed to represent various Buddhist beliefs. Unfortunately, Lee never had the chance to play these roles, but even more unfortunate was Coburn and Silliphant's continuation and ultimate bastardization of Lee's vision. In a final insulting move, they cast David Carradine in the quadruple role originally intended for the now dead Lee. Just six years prior, Carradine had passed over Lee for the lead role in the popular "Kung Fu" television series. This occurred at a time when Bruce Lee was at the top of his game, and Carradine didn't know kung-fu moves from Kung-Pao chicken.
After going through a bit of script revision "The Silent Flute" was retitled "Circle of Iron" and was released to theaters in the winter of 1978. "Iron" tells the tale of Cord (Jeff Cooper), a dishonorable, failed combatant who sneaks along with a fighting contest champion who is on a quest for the Book of All Knowledge. After the champion is beaten to death by a group of "monkeymen," the Robert Plant-coiffed Cord picks up the mantle of champion and sets out to find the keeper of the book; a wizard named Zetan (Christopher Lee).
Along the way Cord meets up with a blind man (Carradine) who spews annoying nonsensical philosophic phrases that could cause a fortune cookie writer to roll his eyes. Shortly after his first meeting with the blind man, Cord encounters the monkeyman clan and their leader, a poorly made-up monkey Carradine. Cord uses the blind man's "word of wisdom" to help him defeat the silly monkey king and sets off in search of the one ring…er, Book of All Knowledge. From here out the film just follows a simple path to its foreseeable ending. Carradine returns again as two more characters, the slightly offensive, Mr.Yunioshi-esque Changsha and the laughable catlike incarnation of death. The only highlight in the entire film is the great Eli Wallach as a man who has spent the last decade dissolving his lower half in a tub of oil, in order to get rid of that horrible thing between his legs. Too bad Carradine didn't follow suit and do the same to the horrible thing atop his neck.
After going through a bit of script revision "The Silent Flute" was retitled "Circle of Iron" and was released to theaters in the winter of 1978. "Iron" tells the tale of Cord (Jeff Cooper), a dishonorable, failed combatant who sneaks along with a fighting contest champion who is on a quest for the Book of All Knowledge. After the champion is beaten to death by a group of "monkeymen," the Robert Plant-coiffed Cord picks up the mantle of champion and sets out to find the keeper of the book; a wizard named Zetan (Christopher Lee).
Along the way Cord meets up with a blind man (Carradine) who spews annoying nonsensical philosophic phrases that could cause a fortune cookie writer to roll his eyes. Shortly after his first meeting with the blind man, Cord encounters the monkeyman clan and their leader, a poorly made-up monkey Carradine. Cord uses the blind man's "word of wisdom" to help him defeat the silly monkey king and sets off in search of the one ring…er, Book of All Knowledge. From here out the film just follows a simple path to its foreseeable ending. Carradine returns again as two more characters, the slightly offensive, Mr.Yunioshi-esque Changsha and the laughable catlike incarnation of death. The only highlight in the entire film is the great Eli Wallach as a man who has spent the last decade dissolving his lower half in a tub of oil, in order to get rid of that horrible thing between his legs. Too bad Carradine didn't follow suit and do the same to the horrible thing atop his neck.
Before his untimely death in 1973, Bruce Lee had expressed wanting to bring a Buddhist tale to American audiences. He attempted to do so during the late sixties when Lee sat down with two of his students, cheesy character actor James Coburn and hack scriptwriter Stirling Silliphant. Together they created the rough draft for "The Silent Flute." Four of the main roles were written for Lee to portray as his characters led a young wandering fighter (a part crafted for Coburn) towards his ultimate destiny. The various characters Lee would play were designed to represent various Buddhist beliefs. Unfortunately, Lee never had the chance to play these roles, but even more unfortunate was Coburn and Silliphant's continuation and ultimate bastardization of Lee's vision. In a final insulting move, they cast David Carradine in the quadruple role originally intended for the now dead Lee. Just six years prior, Carradine had passed over Lee for the lead role in the popular "Kung Fu" television series. This occurred at a time when Bruce Lee was at the top of his game, and Carradine didn't know kung-fu moves from Kung-Pao chicken.
After going through a bit of script revision "The Silent Flute" was retitled "Circle of Iron" and was released to theaters in the winter of 1978. "Iron" tells the tale of Cord (Jeff Cooper), a dishonorable, failed combatant who sneaks along with a fighting contest champion who is on a quest for the Book of All Knowledge. After the champion is beaten to death by a group of "monkeymen," the Robert Plant-coiffed Cord picks up the mantle of champion and sets out to find the keeper of the book; a wizard named Zetan (Christopher Lee).
Along the way Cord meets up with a blind man (Carradine) who spews annoying nonsensical philosophic phrases that could cause a fortune cookie writer to roll his eyes. Shortly after his first meeting with the blind man, Cord encounters the monkeyman clan and their leader, a poorly made-up monkey Carradine. Cord uses the blind man's "word of wisdom" to help him defeat the silly monkey king and sets off in search of the one ring…er, Book of All Knowledge. From here out the film just follows a simple path to its foreseeable ending. Carradine returns again as two more characters, the slightly offensive, Mr.Yunioshi-esque Changsha and the laughable catlike incarnation of death. The only highlight in the entire film is the great Eli Wallach as a man who has spent the last decade dissolving his lower half in a tub of oil, in order to get rid of that horrible thing between his legs. Too bad Carradine didn't follow suit and do the same to the horrible thing atop his neck.
After going through a bit of script revision "The Silent Flute" was retitled "Circle of Iron" and was released to theaters in the winter of 1978. "Iron" tells the tale of Cord (Jeff Cooper), a dishonorable, failed combatant who sneaks along with a fighting contest champion who is on a quest for the Book of All Knowledge. After the champion is beaten to death by a group of "monkeymen," the Robert Plant-coiffed Cord picks up the mantle of champion and sets out to find the keeper of the book; a wizard named Zetan (Christopher Lee).
Along the way Cord meets up with a blind man (Carradine) who spews annoying nonsensical philosophic phrases that could cause a fortune cookie writer to roll his eyes. Shortly after his first meeting with the blind man, Cord encounters the monkeyman clan and their leader, a poorly made-up monkey Carradine. Cord uses the blind man's "word of wisdom" to help him defeat the silly monkey king and sets off in search of the one ring…er, Book of All Knowledge. From here out the film just follows a simple path to its foreseeable ending. Carradine returns again as two more characters, the slightly offensive, Mr.Yunioshi-esque Changsha and the laughable catlike incarnation of death. The only highlight in the entire film is the great Eli Wallach as a man who has spent the last decade dissolving his lower half in a tub of oil, in order to get rid of that horrible thing between his legs. Too bad Carradine didn't follow suit and do the same to the horrible thing atop his neck.
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