Category: 20
All Genres: Romance, Drama, War
Release Year: 1979
Country: USA, West Germany, UK
Runtime: 141
Rating: (0)
Languages: English
Director: John Schlesinger
Sound: Stereo
Taglines:

  • Love during wartime.


    • Writing by: Colin Welland – (story)
    Colin Welland – (screenplay) and
    Walter Bernstein – (screenplay)

    Produced by: Joseph Janni – producer
    Edward Joseph – associate producer (as Teddy Joseph)
    Lester Persky – producer

    Cast: Richard Gere – Matt Dyson
    Lisa Eichhorn – Jean Moreton
    Vanessa Redgrave – Helen
    William Devane – John
    Chick Vennera – Danny Ruffelo
    Wendy Morgan – Mollie
    Rachel Roberts – Mrs. Clarrie Moreton
    Tony Melody – Mr. Jim Moreton
    Martin Smith – Geoff
    Philip Whileman – Billy
    Derek Thompson – Ken

    Music: Richard Rodney Bennett
    Official Website: Visit Website


    Plot Outline: In a small town somewhere in 19th-century China, two brothers, each using their own particular style of martial arts…
    Plot: In a small town somewhere in 19th-century China, two brothers, each using their own particular style of martial arts, defeat a bully of a fighter who is terrorizing the town. In the ensuing celebration, a debate among the townspeople arises over which of the brothers has the best style, and the brothers become bitter rivals, neither of which is willing to admit that the other is his equal. Each sets up a martial arts school in the town. Years pass. A rich stranger comes to town with his two sons, and he places them in the two martial arts schools: One son in one school, and the other son in the other school. He vows to return in two years to test their knowledge. Meanwhile: Kung Fu Ching is a local boy in the town, and Ching is an unabashed martial arts fanatic who is trying to develop his own style of kung fu. He meets up with a wandering winemaker who also knows a lot of kung fu, and who encourages Ching to study more than one style of martial arts. Ching begins attending the martial arts school set up by the two feuding brothers mentioned above. They find out and kick him out of both schools. In desperation, he turns to the wandering winemaker and asks the winemaker to teach him his style of kung fu. After two years, the rich stranger returns to the town, and confesses that he is the brother of the bully the two brothers defeated years ago, and he has come to exact revenge. His two “sons” were merely spies he hired to provide him with information about the kung fu style of the two brothers. He handily defeats the two brothers individually, but when they toss aside their differences, they manage to do slightly better. But it takes the timely arrival of Kung Fu Ching to hand the rich stranger the defeat he so richly deserves… …at which point the original bully arrives with eight henchmen. He's spent the all his time since his unfortunate defeat training in new styles of kung fu. Kung Fu Ching runs back to his master, and they prepare for the final showdown…

    Movie Quotes: Danny:”>naked in an uncovered exterior shower, watching the Red Cross trucks pass] That's the Red Cross…they only do it for officers.
    Matt: If you don't put your uniform on, they'll never tell the difference.


    Crazy Credits: We know about 1 Crazy Credits. One of them reads:
    The names in the opening credits are divided into two categories: The Americans and The British.

    Goofs: We know about 2 goofs. Here comes one of them:
    Anachronisms: The film is set during WW2. But throughout the very first scene we see modern 1970s road markings.

    Trivia: There are 2 entries in the trivia list – like these:

    • John Schlesinger originally delivered the film at a length of around 165 minutes. He was forced to cut the film by approximately 25 minutes before the film's premiere engagement. The film stayed at this length and the 165-minute director's cut has never been seen. Among the victims of the cuts was Bill Nighy, whose character Tom was deleted.
    • Olivia Newton-John was interviewed for a key role.