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An excellent cast and a good performance from James Caan are undermined by a sloppy script and embarrassingly casual and painfully slow direction. As this is the 70s, there's a conspiracy subplot, with Caan's bosses trying to stich him up. In fairness, the first third of the film is OK. The casualness initially pays off in the superb ease of Caan & Duvall's buddy-buddy relationship, in the 70s San Francisco village background of Caan's brave recovery from severe wounding, and in the way Caan gathers his crew together for their next bodyguard job. After meeting the East Asian politician Caan is supposed to protect, there's a good siege break-out scene with lots of shooting, before the principals pile into a cab and escape. Then, they wait at the docks doing not much for more than half an hour: yawn, yawn, yawn. Worse, however, it's apparent all the way through that very poor direction is given to the Asian cast. They are deliberately set up to be made made fun of, probably in reaction to the early 70s success of Kung Fu movies. The early Kung Fu action sequences are poorly filmed --- also apparently deliberately. The finale is set in San Francisco's outer harbour, onboard the rusting US Pacific Fleet, no longer challenging the Asian threat. There, 5 years before Indiana Jones shot the scimitar warrior in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the director shows a bunch of ninja fighters disposed of with laughable ease by white Americans with handguns, thereby squashing the `racial pride' of the ninja boss. One can only speculate that the director was hurt in his national pride following Vietnam & Korea, and the economic resurgence of Japan.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Received dvd, but it doesn’t play in the proper screen ratio. It plays, picture quality okay, but in a reduced screen size. I have a new hd tv so it should be okay. This is the first dvd that plays this way. It’s passable but irritating. J hall
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Great movie ,Great actors Great director
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
great dvd highly recomment
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Good copy
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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