Bruce Lee Films Excluded - Bloodsport is the Greatest American Martial Arts Movie Ever
Bloodsport is the greatest American martial arts movie in the history of American martial arts movies – prove me wrong. Just a joke really, it’s hard to prove an opinion wrong. I want to set up a clear parameter around my statement though – Bruce Lee’s work doesn’t count. Here’s why I say this. Bruce Lee was a reality. He was everything he said he was and portrayed martial arts-wise on the screen. Van Damme is, as anyone knows, questionable. I think Van Damme is a martial artist, but he might be a ballet dancer too. I don’t care I just think we can agree that Bruce Lee’s movies are in their own category. So, when I make the opening statement understand that I’m leaving his stuff out of my pool.
Love Him or Hate Him, Van Damme Starred in Some Great Fight Movies
Out of all the late 80s and early 90s martial arts movies, Van Damme made some of the best fight movies and the best in Bloodsport. Lionheart and Kickboxer are 2 others that Jean-Claude starred in that are fantastic too. There will be blogs! The competition at the time, Lee excluded, was Steven Segal, Chuck Norris, Cynthia Rothrock, Jeff Speakman, and others. Blogs are on deck on the Speakman film The Perfect Weapon and several Rothrock films. Respect due – Chuck Norris is another that doesn’t really count. If you want to see how bad he is in real life, watch this video where Hitler learned he was coming for him. Why is my opinion that Bloodsport is the best? Let’s see.
Bloodsport - Based on True Events? Sure.
As always, I’m not going to get into the plot. IMDB has already done that and you can read here. Bloodsport is a martial arts movie based on “true events” in the life of a man named Frank Dux. You can watch a YouTube video about him here. I think that Dux is a martial artist but, I do not believe that he is a ninja master with kumite victories in mafia-hosted full-contact fighting. People rarely find ninja masters in society lurking around to train under. My childhood and early adult life put me on this journey. Steven Hayes may be the only person who did this in the 80s. That took him going to Japan too. By the way, I’ll be writing soon about a movie featuring Steven Hayes. The Frank Dux legend is BS in my opinion but, the story is great, and Bloodsport carries that glory.
All ’80s and ’90s martial arts movies have a training montage. You can’t get around it. Bloodsport is no different. Bloodsport’s sequence features Van Damme being stretched for flexibility training on a tree machine, Shidoshi Tanaka beating him to a pulp, pressure point charts, and blindfolded training, and more. Bloodsport’s training montage peaks with him being awarded a katana sword by his teacher, Senzo Tanaka. As with any of these films, there is generally a love plot intermingled with the fighting and Bloodsport includes this too. Of course, of course, there is the revenge element in the story. What would any martial arts movie be without this motivation? Honoring his Shidoshi or teacher is also a drive for Van Damme’s character as well.
The Kumite of Bloodsport & The Ultimate Fighting Championship
My favorite thing about Bloodsport is that it features so many styles of martial arts. In Chan’s movies, it was the “insert style” of Kungfu against the “insert style” of Kungfu. Norris was Karate vs Karate for the most part and Segal was Aikido against street fighting. Rothrock was always high-flying fancy kicking vs street fighting karate ESC stuff and Speakman was Kenpo vs street fighters and another karate fighter. Bloodsport dove into the spectrum of the arts and put them on display. While you don’t really see a lot of them in depth (everything just turns into Karate ultimately), you do see them represented. There is a very distinct Thai boxer named Paco, Monkey Kungfu, Sumo, several Kungfu fighters, street fighting, and Dux with ninjutsu (Taijutsu). Of course, anyone who knows anything about Taijutsu knows that Van Damme is certainly not using it.
Look at the kumite like the original UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship which originally aired November 12, 1993. I was 11 years old at the time and rented a VHS copy at the local Pic-a-flic video downtown Belton. I learned a lot, mainly that Royce Gracie was the man. Royce is the reason that the UFC is what it is today and why I study Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu now. UFC (at least the early ones) was style vs style like Bloodsport. The martial arts world soon learned that you need a ground game, or the grapplers were going to kill you. Anyway, the real-life Frank Dux claims to have won a tournament like this in the Bahamas. Although, there was a ninja that won one of the early UFC fights. You can watch a clip of this here.
"You Do Not Get Katana Sword By Stealing" - There Are Many Applications of this Wisdom from Senzo Tanaka
Bloodsport had great lines, great filming, great acting, and a great budget. Another great actor in addition to Van Damme was Bolo Yeung. According to his biography on IMDB, Bolo was known as the Chinese Hercules after winning bodybuilding competitions in China. He was an accomplished martial artist who started training at 10 years old. I also read an article on Martial Arts Action and Entertainment that stated Bolo was a practitioner of Kungfu and Yang Style Tai Chi. This article also said something, mirrored on IMDB, that he swam from China to Hong Kong to escape communism. Bolo Yeung plays a fantastic bad guy, and I can’t wait to dig into his own movies where he was the hero to see the difference. The great actors contributed to the greatness of Bloodsport.
Bloodsport Was Part of My Childhood
Bloodsport is another of the movies I grew up on. It seemed like every week TBS was airing this movie and my brother and I faithfully tuned in. I’ve seen Bloodsport 100 times and will gladly watch it again and again. Currently, I’m working on a Bloodsport themed commissioned skateboard deck! The only part of this movie that I can say I don’t enjoy is the chase scene through the city. I will generally fast-forward through this but, otherwise, I watch from beginning to end and quote lines along the way. “You do not get Katana sword by stealing” and “Shidoshi Tanaka trained me” are among my favorites. If you don’t know, now you know. In my opinion, Bloodsport is the greatest American martial arts movie ever. Dig in today if you haven’t seen it or want to rewatch it.
On a side note, I was so excited to go on a daddy-daughter date with my cool kid to the local arcade and ice cream parlor. I immediately noticed the Karate Champion arcade machine they had there. My little girl got to hear all about Bloodsport at this time. You can learn more about C&C Arcade in Anderson, SC here. Leave your thoughts on Bloodsport in the comments. I’d love to read your input. While you’re on my page, check out my artwork and photography here. You can read more of my blogs here and follow me on all social media here. All likes, shares, subs, and follows are appreciated.