First Take Classics: Bloodsport- is it Van Damme good?

SYNOPSIS: “Bloodsport” follows Frank Dux, an American martial artist serving in the military, who decides to leave the army to compete in a martial arts tournament in Hong Kong where fights to the death can occur.

The year is 1988. American military man Frank Dux wanted to tell his (disputed) true story to the masses. So he met a Frenchman called Jean-Claude Van Damme, went to the studios and got a movie made. Sure, it’s a cheesy movie, but considering the impact it had on action filmmaking, Bloodsport has gone down as a cult classic.

Newt Arnold is the man in charge on what is his first feature as a director- he had been an assistant on entries in The Godfather Trilogy and several other movies, but he does a decent job making this 1 hour 32 minute film work. Working to a script from Sheldon Lettich, Christopher Cosby and Mel Friedman, there is an equal balance of violence to narrative progression, and obviously working with Dux to make the story as authentic as possible, it is easy to understand where the disputed nature of his story comes from. Behind the camera is David Worth, who again, does a decent enough job for what is needed on this film, but Paul Hertzog’s score became a talking point amongst fans, as it is so synth-heavy that even Hans Zimmer’s earliest works sound basic- saying that, my god, it works so well on a film like this.

Obviously the performances are so stereotypical for a cheesy 80s movie like this- Van Damme is still a little wooden, with this being his first major Hollywood movie, but supporting him is a cast which includes a young Forest Whitaker, Leah Ayres, Donald Gibb, and Bolo Yeung- who makes quite a menacing ‘final boss’ in video game terms. All of the cast are able to make this movie believable, and that 90 minute running time feels just right. It was rightly one of the first movies to play UK multiplexes, and of course, it gave us a man who once upon a time promoted Coors Light beer.

THE VERDICT

It’s a cheesy movie by this day and age- but Bloodsport helped pioneer what we now know as MMA, and organisations like the UFC (which as I write this, have just resumed their pay per views behind closed doors). It helped define the tournament movie, and having done a full podcast with Dan over on Ripped Ticket Review, it’s perfect for a night when you want some light viewing.

RATING: 3.5/5