KICKBOXER (1989)
I’m seven-years-old and this fledgling film fortune-hunter is channel surfing the tumultuous airwaves of cable television in search of programing paydirt. It’s 1990 but for me this is year one with all previous demarcations of date reduced to BJCVD, Before Jean-Claude Van Damme. As the third of four children I often found my TV destiny in the hands of others, either at the mercy of domineering older siblings or the whims of a petulant younger one, but somehow I’m all alone with remote in hand and the world is my oyster courtesy of my grandpa’s premium cable package. I am absolutely drunk with power and just cruising along the whopping 47 channels when a sickening thud on screen stops me dead in my tracks. A mammoth man in boxing trunks with a long braid is kicking a concrete pillar causing drywall and dust to rain down from the ceiling. Thud. Thud. Thud. My expression matches the aghast gaze of the onscreen onlooker as the inauspicious aggressor turns and faces the camera menacingly. Okay, I’m watching this.
That was 33 years ago and my first exposure to the indefatigable, helicopter kicking, splits machine that is Jean-Claude Van Damme via the 1989 martial arts classic KICKBOXER. For decades I was under the impression that this was a universally loved slice of combat sport cinema until *a challenger appears* we entered the age of social media. Reading a multitude of critical takes on my beloved introduction to The Muscles From Brussels, hurts like someone cyberbullying a family member! The three most pervasive critiques are as follows: KICKBOXER is derivative, KICKBOXER doesn’t have good fight sequences, and KICKBOXER is tonally inconsistent. And the knife that cuts deepest is that there is truth in each of these negative appraisals. Now wait a “Stone City'' second there. Fellow fans of the film can unclutch those pearls and fish your monocles out of that champagne flute because the meat of this article elucidates why I love this movie in spite of these proposed faults so please keep reading but the uninitiated should be forewarned because here there be spoilers!
Before we get into the perceived theatrical triteness, it would behoove us to examine the creative team behind KICKBOXER. Van Damme and Mark DiSalle were first time writers and directors on this so keeping the plot and visual storytelling relatively simple was essential. JCVD conceived of a story that would highlight his strengths as a performer while DiSalle (as a producer by trade) focused on making a feature he could sell. With the immense box office successes of THE KARATE KID (1984) and ROCKY IV (1985), it’s logical for a novice writer/director team to be strongly influenced when making their own serving of combat sport cinema. That being said, the elements of a hero taking the road back to secure vengeance for a fallen brother by seeking sui generis guidance of a kooky recluse is not unique to either of the aforementioned blockbusters. And while both aspects are similar in their execution to their fight flick forebears, I’d say KICKBOXER adds enough Belgian coriander and Thai spice to make a flavor all its own.
Speaking of fighting, this bit breeds a bunch of bad business for this Bangkok battle picture. Practitioners of Muay Thai have long criticized KICKBOXER for misrepresenting the Thai Boxing discipline. Van Damme as co-director and fight choreographer focused more on sequences that made the three main fighting characters look good as opposed to staying true to the “art of eight limbs.” JCVD at the time of filming had already been a well-established martial artist and ranked professional fighter so he was less concerned with providing realism and more focused on utilizing his legitimacy to launch a career in film. Dennis Alexio (who played Eric Sloane) and Michel Qissi (who played Tong Po) were also proper martial artists looking to make it in the movies as opposed to putting on a fight clinic or expounding on the merits of Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War. Alexio is considered one the greatest heavyweight kickboxers of his time with a 70-2 record, so rather than demonstrating the difference between a sok sap and a sok ngat he was trying to hit his spots and emote for the camera.
It’s also worth noting that this was filmed in the late ‘80s and intended for an American audience. Martial Arts movies were still very niche in the states at the time and with Van Damme just coming off the grittier pit-fighting retaliation rendering BLOODSPORT (1988), it made sense to make use of the Muay Thai motif melodrama as means of differentiating. This is prior to FLASH POINT (2007) and THE RAID: REDEMPTION (2011) people! Showing Van Damme, Alexio, and Qissi really going full-bore would be a Marty McFly 1955 guitar solo moment for moviegoers expecting All Valley Karate action! As such, fight scenes and training sequences were geared towards the performer’s physical strengths (JCVD’s splits/kicks, Alexio’s athleticism, and Qissi’s vicious visage) and made all the more dramatic with a liberal use of slow motion.
Now we come to the aspect of KICKBOXER that will keep action movie aficionados arguing until Armageddon: the assertion that that film has a detrimentally inconsistent tone. With problematic plot points that include paralysis through intentional spinal injury, attempted dog murder, and sexual assault you can make a compelling case that the quippy one liners of Xian Chow and shellshocked sexual inuendo of Winston Taylor feel out of place. However, the inclusion of these antithetical elements served to take the viewer on an emotional rollercoaster along with the characters, utilizing tragedy to motivate action and up the emotional stakes but also allowing camp and humor to pull back the intensity when the tone teeters on becoming too bleak. It’s a trick as old as theater to use pathos to motivate emotional investment but allow for an audience’s logos to remind themselves they’re watching a work of fiction that will likely conclude with a happy ending.
Scanning over the above text, I contemplate the quality of my work and if I’ve successfully referenced all the subsequent KICKBOXER sequel movie subtitles. Scratching my chin, I look expectantly at my dog Chloe plopped on the couch next me. Certainly, my text could use a fresh set of eyes so I turn the laptop towards her to get some much needed feedback. “So, Chloe, what do you think? I am ready to send Rob my writeup on KICKBOXER or what?” The persnickety pup squints at the screen, sniffs hard, and barks twice. “Yes. Thanks. Thanks a lot.” I say dejectedly as I turn to my other dog, Spike who at this moment is attempting to walk across the keyboard. I hold his stout, orange frame at bay and say to him “One day that dog is going to believe in me.” Cue “Never Surrender” by Stan Bush.
