Circle of Iron (1978)

Circle of Iron (AKA The Silent Flute) is an odd one. It’s best known for being based on a screenplay by Bruce Lee. Well, sort of based on a screenplay by Bruce Lee. Lee and James Coburn wanted to do a martial arts fantasy film with lots of philosophising and reflecting Lee’s interest in Zen buddhism. Lee and James Coburn worked on the script with Stirling Silliphant. Lee and Coburn later lost interest in the project. The script was later extensively reworked by Stanley Mann. This is certainly not a Bruce Lee movie in any meaningful sense at all but he did provide the original germ of the idea.

There is martial arts action here but Circle of Iron is really trying to be an art film.

As you might expect it ends up being a total mess. To be honest it’s a bad movie. But it’s a weird fascinating oddball mess of a bad movie and it’s enjoyable in its own deranged way.

This is a quest movie, but it’s a spiritual quest. A quest for enlightenment. Yes I agree, that does sound ominous.

It takes place in a fantasy world which is a mishmash of lots of other fantasy worlds.

David Carradine gets top billing and he plays four roles. He’s kind of fun. I’m not a fan of his as an actor but he’s pretty good here. There’s an incredibly bizarre cameo by Eli Wallach as a man who has spent ten years in a barrel of oil trying to dissolve the lower half of his body. There are cameos by Roddy McDowall and Christopher Lee as well.

The central character is Cord, played by Jeff Cooper. He and David Carradine were great buddies which is how Cooper got the part. He certainly didn’t get it on the basis of his acting ability.

Cord is a martial arts champion who has to undertake a quest to find Zetan and the book. Or rather, The Book.

Zetan might be a sorcerer or a holy man or a warrior. Nobody is sure. Nobody knows anything about The Book except that it’s incredibly important.

Cord meets a blind martial arts guy who is never named. He plays a silent flute. Only Cord can hear it. Cord asks him to be his teacher.

Cord naturally has to go through a series of tests. Firstly he has to fight the dreaded monkey men. Then he encounters a warrior chieftain, Changsha (one of Carradine’s four roles). Changsa lends Cord one of his wives for the night. Her name is Tara (Erica Creer). Cord has dedicated himself to this spiritual quest and has taken a vow of chastity but Tara is really hot so that’s the end of his vow of chastity. This has consequences.

Eventually Cord will of course find Zetan and the movie then becomes even more New Age-y.

There’s lots of dialogue loaded with Spiritual Wisdom and Philosophical Questioning and general Mysticalness.

It was made on a modest budget but it looks great. The very incoherence of the visual style adds to the interest and there are some lovely images. There are definite hints of psychedelia. There’s great location shooting. It certainly succeeds in creating a dreamlike look. This is a world that perhaps does not even exist.

Despite its many flaws Circle of Iron is rather entertaining in its own weird goofy way. It tries so hard and it mostly fails but it fails in a likeable way. It’s definitely not boring. And it’s endearingly weird. Recommended.

Blue Underground released this one on DVD as a two-disc set. The transfer is extremely good. The pick of the extras is the interview with Carradine. The DVD is still easy to find and not expensive. I believe the only Blu-Ray release is the Spanish one.