À armes égales

This action film from 1982 is pretty long in running time but the film is interesting and it is skillfully directed. (Sword)fighting scenes are great but not as great as in Hong Kong or Japan films.

Scott Glenn plays an American boxer who is thrown in the middle of a fight for two old swords. Two men who are enemies want the swords and Glenn has to decide on whose side he is..

This is not a classic but definitely not a bad film especially for fans of this kind of films. Action scenes and training scenes are great and Glenn is okay with his strong presence. He is great in Michael Mann's masterpiece The Keep, too.

6 out of ten and recommended to action fans only.

This isn't an award winning film. This isn't a well known film. But it has a good premise and is one of my secret pleasures. Two Brothers in a long standing feud over an ancient family sword and an American "dupe" that's been thrown into the fray. We watch his journey and education in a different culture with different values (yet oddly similar to ours, and riddled with similar weaknesses.)

The reason I know I like this one (even with all the flaws) is that it keeps coming to mind from time to time. And after some thought, I think it boils down to basic examinations of how to live one's life. How important is Honor? Is it better to take the quick and easy $ or to work for it? How important are family bonds? Are the modern ways of life any better than the traditional ones? Is it ever too late to turn your life around? And so forth. These are why I like this movie. Sure it can come off as a bit preachy about duty, honor, loyalty and traditional ways, but it has always made me think about what is the best way to live one's life.

Wow, it's a crying shame that more people haven't seen this one. It's really a lot of fun to watch. Frankenheimer's direction is sharp (as always) and the performances from Glenn and Mifune are pretty okay. The fact that John Sayles worked on the screenplay is what first drew me to it. My expectations were definitively on the lower end (I mean Alligator, Battle Beyond the Stars and Piranha are fun, but.....). So I was pleasantly surprised to find a film that I ended up really enjoying. It's not as good as Sidney Pollack's somewhat similar Yakuza, but they'd make an interesting double feature. The final raid on Mifune's brother's complex is a nice finale.

The Challenge is one of those genre movies that is so good that it not only breaks the genre mold but gets lost in the shuffle, hidden by lots of other movies not nearly as good.

Scott Glenn and Toshiro Mifune give excellent and their usual intense performances as a budding samurai cum boxer and his instructor, bonding as the instructor is caught up in a clan feud with his brother.

This movie is good for three reasons. One reason is the normal steadfast performances of its stars. The second is the keen, insightful direction of John Frankenheimer, a grossly underrated director who helmed such classics as The Train, Ronin, and The Manchurian Candidate. And the third is the able kenjutsu (swordfighting)and aikido of a then unknown American martial arts instructor based in Japan who at the time was going by Steve Seagal. I guess I don't have to tell you who he grew up to be.

Geez, I kinda like this one. It's an interesting look at Japanese culture from an outsider's viewpoint (compare it to The Hunted, with Christopher Lambert and Joan Chen). It makes good use of the same hotel as the one used for the Tyrell Corporation in Blade Runner, and the office/swordfight at the end is a hoot as Scott Glenn turns mere office equipment into deadly kung fu weaponry! Glenn's always worth seeing, even in this, one of his earlier works.