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| Name | Bloodsport |
|---|---|
| Caption | Original movie poster |
| Director | Newt Arnold |
| Producer | Mark DiSalleYoram GlobusMenahem Golan |
| Writer | Christopher CosbyMel FriedmanSheldon Lettich |
| Story | Frank Dux |
| Starring | Jean-Claude Van DammeDonald GibbBolo YeungNorman BurtonForest WhitakerLeah Ayres |
| Music | Paul HertzogMichael J. Bishop |
| Cinematography | David Worth |
| Editing | Carl Kress |
| Distributor | Cannon Group |
| Released | February 26, 1988 |
| Runtime | 92 mins |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,100,000 |
| Gross | $11,806,119 (USA) |
| Followed by |
Bloodsport is a 1988 martial arts film "based on true events in the life of Frank Dux" as portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme. It is considered a classic by martial arts film enthusiasts for showcasing a large variety of international fighting abilities, ranging from Karate to Tae Kwon Do.
The movie begins with the preparation for the Kumite somewhere in Kowloon Walled City. Then a number of fighters are shown preparing for the Kumite with their own individual training regimens (from climbing trees, bashing coconuts, to breaking large ice blocks and boards). Frank Dux is then shown kicking a speed bag in an Army gym. An officer informs him that the commanding officer found out about Dux's involvement in the Kumite and wants to speak to him. Frank tells him he wants to take a shower first, only to go AWOL instead.
Dux goes to the Tanakas' house to say goodbye to his mentor and remembers back to his training days. A flashback sequence shows a younger Frank Dux being goaded by two schoolmates to steal a sword in Mr. Tanaka's house. As Mr. Tanaka and his son Shingo return to the house, his schoolmates run away, leaving Dux behind. Shingo easily subdues Dux, but Mr. Tanaka calls him off and sends him back to his studies. Tanaka then tells Dux that the sword cannot be stolen; it must be earned. Dux explains that he was not stealing, but trying to put the sword back in its rightful place. Tanaka uses the sword and cuts off the bill of Dux's cap, who does not flinch during the ordeal. Impressed by his "fighting spirit", Tanaka explains to Dux's parents that he intends to train their son in exchange for not reporting him to the police. Despite being used for a "punching bag" by Shingo during training (at one point Shingo insults Dux by calling him a "round-eye"), Dux saves Shingo from two bullies at school. Shingo confides in Dux that one day he would make his father proud by going to the Kumite. After Shingo's death years later, and despite initial resistance to the idea, Tanaka agrees to train Dux as a member of the Tanaka Clan.
Back in the United States, two military law enforcement agents (Air Force Criminal Investigation Division) (Norman Burton and Forest Whitaker) are summoned to track down and arrest Dux for desertion.
After arriving in Hong Kong, Dux befriends fellow American contestants vale tudo fighter Ray Jackson (Donald Gibb) and Victor Lin (Ken Siu), the latter of whom acts as a manager/liaison for Jackson and Dux. Lin explains that the tournament is "anything goes," and that there are three ways to win:
In order to prove he is part of the Tanaka clan, Dux is invited to perform the "Dim Mak" (the Touch of Death or Death Touch). Dux executes this move to perfection and his invitation is honored. Jackson and Dux soon become great friends, with the older Jackson acting as a big brother of sorts to Dux.
Dux eventually becomes involved with a female American journalist, Janice Kent (Leah Ayres), who is attempting to investigate the secretive Kumite event. Dux believes the Kumite is for the fighters only, and not for the people who read newspapers. As the tournament progresses, Dux beats all of his diverse opponents, including Syrian fighter Sadiq Hossein (Bernard Mariano), Muay Thai kickboxer Paco (Paulo Tocha), and sumo wrestler Pumola (David Ho). He advances to the third and final day of the tournament to face the defending Kumite champion, Chong Li (Bolo Yeung) — a man with the tendency to cripple and sometimes outright kill his opponents on the platform, and who has also hospitalized Ray Jackson during the second day of the Kumite. When Dux gets the upper hand during the fight, Chong Li blinds him with a handful of quicklime, but Dux trains his senses to overcome the handicap and makes Chong Li shout "matté" to become the first Western winner of the Kumite. The film closes with Dux returning to the United States and statistics detailing the real-life Frank W. Dux's alleged achievements (such as the fastest KO) are shown.
The movie's score contained the songs "Fight To Survive" and "On My Own", both of which were performed by Stan Bush. However Stan Bush's songs as featured in the movie are not present on the official soundtrack, and alternate versions with vocals by Paul Delph are present on it instead. Paul Delph received a Grammy nomination for his efforts.
The film also contained a song by Michael Bishop titled "Steal The Night", which plays during a scene when Van Damme's character runs away from Helmer and Rawlins. This song was never released until the mid 2000's, when it was made available for online purchasing. The single contains a vocal and instrumental version.
The tracklisting for the original CD was as follows:
Also of note is a previously unreleased piece of score from the movie titled The Gamble, which was released on the "Best of Van Damme Compilation Volume 2" CD.
The 26th of June 2007 saw a limited edition release of the soundtrack on CD by record label Perseverance Records. This release is considered by fans of the soundtrack as a vast improvement over all previous releases as the CD contains for the first time, the original versions of the tracks performed by Stan Bush as heard in the motion picture. The track listing for this limited edition version is as follows:
This film is also listed in Steven Jay Schneider's book "101 Action Movies You Must See Before You Die."
This film was one of the major films to rise Jean Claude Van Damme to super stardom.
5. T.J. Hooker: Season 5/Episode 16 'Blood Sport'
Category:1980s action films Category:1988 films Category:American films Category:Bloodsport films Category:English-language films Category:Golan-Globus films Category:Films set in Hong Kong Category:Karate films Category:Martial arts films Category:Films shot in Hong Kong Category:Martial arts tournament films Category:Underground Fighting films Category:Films set in 1979 Category:Films set in 1980 Category:Films set in 1981
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Jean-Claude Van Damme |
|---|---|
| Caption | Van Damme at Cannes Film Festival (2010) |
| Birthname | Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg |
| Birthdate | October 18, 1960 |
| Birthplace | Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Brussels, Belgium |
| Yearsactive | 1984–present (acting) |
| Occupation | Actor, martial artist, director |
| Spouse | 1 child)and (1999–present); 2 children) |
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (born 18 October 1960), professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ klod vɑ̃ dam]), is a Belgian martial artist and actor.
Van Damme is best known for his martial arts action movies. His most successful films include Bloodsport (1988), Kickboxer (1989), Double Impact (1991), Universal Soldier (1992), Hard Target (1993), Timecop (1994), Street Fighter (1994), and JCVD (2008). Due to his physique and his Belgian background, he is known as "The Muscles from Brussels."
After studying martial arts intensively from the age of ten, Van Damme achieved national success in Belgium as a martial artist and bodybuilder, earning the "Mr. Belgium" bodybuilding title. He emigrated to the United States in 1982 to pursue a career in film, and achieved success with Bloodsport (1988), based on a story written by Frank Dux. He attained subsequent box office success with Timecop (1994), which grossed over $100 million worldwide and became his most financially successful film.
In a 2009 interview in the British newspaper The Sun, promoting his film JCVD (of which Time magazine said "He deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar"), Van Damme indicated he experienced a period of homelessness "sleeping on the street and starving in L.A."
Van Damme has been married five times, including two marriages with bodybuilder and fitness competitor Gladys Portugues. Van Damme is the father of three children: Kristopher (born 1987), Bianca (born 1990), and Nicholas (born 1995).
In 1977, at the WAKO Open International in Belgium, Van Damme lost a decision to fellow team mate Patrick Teugels. The experience left an impact on Claude Goetz and he felt that Jean-Claude needed more training before competing again.
After six months of intense training and sparring, Master Goetz decided to unleash his prized pupil on the European Full-Contact scene. Jean-Claude won his first tournament by scoring three knockout victories in one evening. However, in a 1978 match for the Belgium lightweight title, he again lost a decision to Patrick Teugels. Once again, the loss left an impact on Claude Goetz and a few months later at Iseghem, Belgium, Van Damme came back and knocked out Emile Leibman in the first round. In 1979, Jean-Claude and the Belgium Team became European Team Champions.
Next, he faced Sherman Bergman, a kickboxer from Florida, USA with a long string of knockout victories. For the only time in his career, Van Damme was knocked to the canvas after absorbing a powerful left hook.
In 1980, Jean-Claude Van Damme defeated former Great Britain karate champion Michael J. Heming. Next, Van Damme scored a knockout over France's Georges Verlugels in two rounds. After these victories, Jean-Claude caught the attention of the European martial arts community. Professional Karate Magazine publisher and editor Mike Anders, and multiple European champion Geet Lemmens tabbed Jean-Claude Van Damme as an upcoming prospect. However, Jean-Claude's ambitions now focused in the direction of acting.
Van Damme ended his fight career at the Forest National in Brussels. He knocked Patrick Teugels down and scored a first round technical knockout victory. Teugels suffered a nose injury and was unable to continue.
Following the victory, Van Damme retired from martial arts competition. However, Van Damme made a comeback in 1981. In his first match he knocked out Henk Besselman of Holland in one round, and at the 1st Journée Des Arts Martiaux, Van Damme knocked out Lenny Leikman in 3 rounds. His final fight record was 20–2 (20 Knockouts), with all wins being knockouts and his two losses being by decision.
Van Damme will make a return to fighting and is scheduled to fight former boxing Olympic gold-medalist Somluck Kamsing in April 2011. Various reports have named Las Vegas, USA, Moscow, Russia and Macau, China as locations for the bout. At the prospect of being the first man over the age of 50 to kickbox professionally, Van Damme stated that "it's kind of dangerous, but life is short."
Double Impact featured Van Damme in the dual role of Alex and Chad Wagner, two brothers fighting to avenge the deaths of their parents. This film reunited him with his former Bloodsport co-star, Bolo Yeung. He then starred opposite Dolph Lundgren in the action film Universal Soldier. While it grossed $36,290 in the U.S., it was an even bigger success overseas, making over $65 million, well over its modest $2 million budget, making it Van Damme's highest grossing film at the time.
Van Damme followed Nowhere To Run and Hard Target with Timecop in 1994. The film was a huge success, grossing over $100 million worldwide. In the film, Van Damme played a time traveling cop, who tries to prevent the death of his wife. It remains his highest grossing film to date.
After his role in the poorly received Street Fighter, his projects started to fail at the box office. The Quest (1996), which he directed; Maximum Risk (1996) and Double Team (1997) were box-office flops.
The 1999 film , was his last theatrically released film until 2008. In 2003, Van Damme employed his dancing training in the music video for Bob Sinclar's Kiss My Eyes.
He returned to mainstream with limited theatrical release of the critically aclaimed film JCVD in 2008. Time magazine named Van Damme's performance in the film the second best of the year (after Heath Ledger's The Joker in The Dark Knight), having previously stated that Van Damme "deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar".
Van Damme reprised his role as Luc Devereaux in the 2010 film .
He was offered a lead role in Sylvester Stallone's latest film The Expendables. Stallone called Van Damme personally to offer him the role, but Van Damme turned it down, citing that he "doesn't want his career going down that route." He has a series of film projects warmed up for 2011, including another Universal Soldier movie which will appear between 2011 and 2012, and the possibility to appear on the sequel to The Expendables.
The Mortal Kombat fighter character Johnny Cage was modeled after Van Damme.
2009: Chlotrudis Awards nomination for Best Actor |- | 2009 || || Luc Deveraux || Limited theatrical release in Israel, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Italy, Japan, Pakistan |- | 2010 || The Eagle Path || Frenchy || 2008-2010 Producer, Director and Writer |- |rowspan="4" | 2011 || || Master Croc || First voice over in a theatrical release |- | Weapon || || |- |Rzhevskiy protiv Napoleona || || |- | || Luc Deveraux || Announced |- |}
Interviews
Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:People from Sint-Agatha-Berchem Category:Belgian expatriates in the United States Category:Belgian film actors Category:Belgian immigrants to the United States Category:Belgian karateka Category:Belgian kickboxers Category:Middleweight kickboxers Category:Belgian Muay Thai practitioners Category:People with bipolar disorder
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
