12/14/10 - Circle of Iron

Circle of Iron (1978, 102 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078975/

This was the first half of another double feature with some people. Two somewhat unrelated movies were picked again with hopes that they would be at least be entertaining when seen with a group of people.

The movie follows Cord (Jeff Cooper) as he goes on a quest to find Zetan (Christopher Lee) and an ancient book. David Carradine plays four roles in the movie with some of them helping Cord and some serving as trials on his quest: The Blind Man, Monkeyman, Death, Changsha.

The biggest problem with Circle of Iron is pacing. At 102 minutes long it's fairly long to be thrown in this category of "watch it with people and hope it's enjoyable." I mean, at 102 minutes it's longer than Sanjuro which I watched recently and gave a 10/10. Anyway, the pacing is bad here because the entire movie meanders and there's never a sense of urgency. Perhaps it's the plot itself or perhaps it's the laid-back nature of Cord the protagonist or perhaps it's a mixture of both, but whatever it is, the movie never really seems to be in a hurry to go anywhere. The standard tale of a hero going on a quest and facing trials along the way is a pretty old one and one that can easily be made to be very enjoyable and enthralling. Suffice to say, Circle of Iron isn't very enjoyable nor is it very enthralling.

I alluded to the acting of Cooper above when I claimed that Cord was laid-back. Honestly, I think the acting is fine all around. Cooper and Carradine have the most to do and they hold their own. Neither is particularly talented at martial arts but quick cuts and other camera "tricks" take the burden off of them to be spectacular. Yeah, they're not that convincing really but it's all okay. Carradine also deserves some praise for being able to pretty successfully pull off playing four distinct roles in the movie. Each of the four characters is drastically different so it's not like he's playing the same character four times. I wouldn't hesitate to say that the interactions between the characters of Carradine and Cooper are the highlight of the watch.

There's a few minor characters scattered about so it's not like Cord is only ever talking to one of these Carradine figures. Sadly, none of these characters are well done and just come off as time wasters which isn't remotely needed in the movie to begin with. I guess Circle of Iron is a picaresque but with Cord encountering The Blind Man so frequently it doesn't really work as one. Maybe that's why these other characters are thrown in, but again it just creates this awkward pacing which hurts the overall movie.

Really, Circle of Iron never really got me engaged in any way. I again reiterate that at 102 minutes long, it was just too much of nothing to be a good movie. There were moments here and there just like any movie but there just seemed like there were too many filler scenes that weren't needed. There was one "fight" pitting Cord and The Blind Man against a bunch of knights on horseback and it seemed to drag on forever. As another complaint against this specific fight, the knights seemed to be from all over the globe (a Mongol, a typical English knight, a Spanish knight, a Native American, etc.) working together which just seemed stupid from the start and somewhat made me care less than I probably should have for what was such a long duel.

Overall, I gave this film a 3/10. Circle of Iron had decent spots but I never really cared about Cord and his quest nor his trials nor the book that he was going after the whole time. The only redeeming factor was some good acting by Carradine and the likable protagonist of Cord.